War On Terrorism!
The
Making of:
Battle for the Body
BATTLE FOR THE BODY
….An
Overview
The Making of
….Part I
….Part II
….Part III
….Part IV
Picture
Gallery
Game Design Document
Early October, 2004
The process of designing a videogame has certainly been a learning experience. I would have to say that our group began this mission in a state of darkness, with no concept of how to begin designing a game, what would constitute a game concept, what elements needed to be considered to make the game realistic, or even more generally what makes a good game. Enriched with the knowledge that our game was in some way to be educational, we began our creative process by considering “What concept could we teach through our game?” In hindsight, there are a number of reasons I feel this was the wrong approach to game design.
To begin with the question “What can we teach through our game” makes the assumption that we do not inherently learn from videogames just through the experience of gaming (no matter what the game). In fact, many theorists believe that play is by nature educational as it is interactive, leads to critical thinking, and promotes healthy socialization. In addition, gaming itself can be considered a semiotic domain in which a set of practices (including elements such as language, images, and sounds) are used to communicate a specific type of meaning. For example, in playing a sports’ game that may appear to lack educational value, players are actually acquiring a ‘technical register’ of terms specifically related to this area of expertise. In fact, Rollings & Adams argues that this is the most difficult type of literacy skill to acquire as it goes beyond the realm of decoding to understanding. I believe that by looking at play in these more wholisitc terms we can certainly see the inherent educational value of gaming, whether the game concept would be considered educational or not.
Secondly, if we look at videogames
in the context of Gee’s classifications of the sub-domain and full-domain
we gain even more appreciation of videogames and their educational value.
Gee discusses how students often have not been given the ‘training
ground’ opportunity to make their learning more concrete, and therefore
cannot transfer or be innovative with the knowledge they receive. He argues
that the sub-domain, in this case the game world, acts as that training
ground where one can learn the basics and then apply that knowledge and
use it in a new experience - perhaps in a new, innovative way. If students
do not learn the basics they will then be unable to transfer that information
to more complex situations; thus, this is the educational importance of
experiences that can be offered through videogames.
Key Concept I Learned: All games, by nature, have some educational value and therefore when designing a game it is not necessary to begin with ‘education’ in mind.
Application to
Battle for the Body: Our group switched
our focus from worrying about the educational value of the game to focusing
on what would allow players to experience something new and creative –
what would be fun. The concept of ‘Battle for the Body’, an
exploration of the human body and a fight against disease was created.
