Medical Simulation

http://simbionix.com/play-video/?url=http://simbionix.com/wp-content/themes/simbionix/flv/jacques_theDoctors_handbreak_062011.flv

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_simulation


http://simbionix.com/simulators/lap-mentor/

http://simbionix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/state-of-the-art-Big566-.jpg

http://www.medicaljoyworks.com/

Medical Joyworks has the tagline; 'Making Medicine Fun' - and that is exactly what they try to achieve with their easy-to-use mobile applications.

Above are some details on their app Prognosis. This type of easy-to-use application for mobiles is making health advice and medical information far more accessible to the average consumer. I find that in the development of applications such as these, the initial high concept of the internet - worldwide accessible information - is being expanded and improved upon by the mobile outreach.

Above: another example of Medical Joyworks work; a pregnancy information app.

YouTube Research

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Goz-s9NvKp4

I agree that this game might be a little rudimentary and clunky in game-play  the essentials are there, with an interactive display, informative feedback from key actions and a cumulative hint system to guide a player when lost. This cannot necessarily be labelled as a game in all its elements, but it is certainly an interactive simulation which can be used a learning tool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv4f_xfDKxQ

http://www.edheads.org

This website features cross-overs from the medical and educational systems in their games - this is due to their scientific accuracy of their games, but with a key game-play style and visual aesthetic aimed at children. As testament to their credibility of their content, here are their main sponsors;

Finding projects like these are really exciting as it is clear that there is still much room for development in games for education - and in particular science.

Here is another excellent scientific game; Axon - from the Wellcome Collection

http://axon.wellcomeapps.com/

Here's a short video of Gameplay;

Axon is a game which simulates in abstract the formation and connection of neural-nerves in the brain as it is developing. The player is given the option to continue their quest of knowledge at the end of each level to further learn about different types of nerves and their roles within the brain via a an in-app link to Wikipedia.

The above videos

Games Development for/by/in the Military

Games, Simulation and the Military Education Dilemma 2013.  [ONLINE] Available at: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffpiu018.pdf. [Accessed 10 February 2013].

Here are some handy skills which the military have assessed as being because of video game engagement; in particular I find the shift of learning from passive to active experiential learning the most interesting as this shows that when it comes to educational methods - those used in the past are no-longer applicable to be used today for the same purpose.

 

Another interesting point made here is the use of games to promote and teach team building within the military schools; the adaption of the game Doom to teach the core principles of military action is particularly worth interest, as Doom is seen as being one of the first majorly successful First Person Shooter games. FPS games often find themselves a target (excuse the pun) of negative media coverage due to their violent game-content, though this opinion can only be formed by looking at these games at face-value. Upon further investigation, FPS games contribute to players a lot more that the a-typical 'violent nature' the media would have the public believe.

Here is a TED Talk on the positive effects of FPS Games by neuro-scientist Daphne Bavelier;

I find her demonstration with the dots on the screen really interesting as it clearly proves that one of the effects of playing video games is that your peripheral vision and perception are greater increased, and that your brain is able to concentrate on a far greater number of things at any one time. The reasons for these developments could be due to the objectives of game play within FPS games; you are constantly having to keep alert for enemy movement on the screen in front of you, you have to be able to react quickly to stimuli on the screen and you have to be able to navigate a 3D environment, keep aware of your surroundings for enemies, be able to aim and shoot all at the same time.

Kinect

 

 LIVE: Xbox Kinect©s Virtual Realities to Learning Games 2013. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://etec.hawaii.edu/proceedings/2011/DePriest.pdf. [Accessed 9 February 2013].

"The technological marvel of natural user interfaces (NUI) like Xbox LIVE and Kinect are
only secondary to the developer’s emphasis on its usage in human-to-human
communication. The motion tracking abilities of Xbox Kinect have valuable applications
for physical therapy and home rehabilitation exercises. Doctors and patients connect
through Xbox Live with rehab courses prescribed, graded, and assessed (Niehaus, 2010).
The speech recognition filters out background noises from the user’s voice using an
engineered audio cone around the user’s body even if they are moving. Kinect also has
facial recognition through biometrics offering information security of copyrighted
materials, curriculum and training, business and government.
The largest research area where NUI is being explored currently is the military. The
COMET project is focused on rehabilitation, telemedicine, training and education,
neurocognitive and psychological treatment (Niehaus, 2010)."

Xbox Kinect Applications To Health And Medicine | Publicyte.com. 2013. Xbox Kinect Applications To Health And Medicine | Publicyte.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://publicyte.com/xbox-kinect-applications-to-health-and-medicine/. [Accessed 10 February 2013].

Video Games in Education - Theory of 'Edutainment'

Video Games in Education - Theory of 'Edutainment'

Squire, K, 2003. Video Games in Education. Comparative Media Studies Department. Cambridge, MA. 02139, USA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

. 2013. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.skatekidsonline.com/parents_teachers/Video_games_in_education_Updated.pdf. [Accessed 9 February 2013].

Here are some quotes of note from the above paper (Squire, 2003) which I thought illustrated my point well;

"Malone (1981) argues that educational programs should have:

• clear goals that students find meaningful,
• multiple goal structures and scoring to give students feedback on their progress, 
• multiple difficulty levels to adjust the game difficulty to learner skill,
• random elements of surprise,
• an emotionally appealing fantasy and metaphor that is related to game skills.

"Csikszentmihalyi (1990) describes flow as a state of optimal experience, whereby a person is so engaged in activity that self-consciousness disappears, time becomes distorted, and people engage in complex, goal directed activity not for external rewards, but for simply the exhilaration of doing."

By applying the concept of a persons total and excited engagement with a game (flow) to learning objectives, surely this sub-conscience absorption of information is an excellent educational tool.

------------------------------

ScienceDirect.com - Computers & Education - Beyond Nintendo: design and assessment of educational video games for first and second grade students. 2013. ScienceDirect.com - Computers & Education - Beyond Nintendo: design and assessment of educational video games for first and second grade students. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131502000994. [Accessed 9 February 2013].

The following quote is from the above article;

"Teacher reports and classroom observations confirm an improvement in motivation to learn, and a positive technological transfer of the experimental tool. Although further studies regarding the effects of learning through video game use are imperative, positive effects on motivation and classroom dynamics, indicate that the introduction of educational video games can be a useful tool in promoting learning within the classroom."

--------------------------------

Simulation Games in Learning.. 2013. Simulation Games in Learning.. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED026857&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED026857. [Accessed 9 February 2013].

 "Simulation games serve many functions, but the important one to educators is that they present the student player with a real-life situation allowing him to use his knowledge and abilities while discovering decision-making skills for himself."

Games to Teach

I'd like to kick off my research on educational games with a look into the Wellcome Trust - an organisation funded by the scientific successes of Sir Henry Wellcome - and their collection of thought provoking games featured on their website. I have already looked into their game Axon (see Medical Simulation post). Now to look at their other games;

High Tea (Wellcome Trust);

http://neurobonkers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/hightea.jpg

By placing the player in a position of control (with the games own set of restraints and demands) it gives the player a new perspective of the historical content of the game which history books alone cannot fully provide. This game brings to life the struggles of import and export at the time of the expanding British Empire - it makes no prior judgements of the actions of either side - it instead lays out all the facts for the player in an easy to read UI (see above). The actions of the player however are brought to conclusion at the end of the game with a dark statement of how many lives you have corrupted through your import/export business;

"I appreciate that at the end of the game, it tells you how many opium users you have caused to be addicted. - posted by honest knave at 12:11 AM on February 14, 2012" . 2013. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metafilter.com/100524/Opium-Silver-Tea. [Accessed 6 February 2013].



Here are some findings in the Analytical report written to collate the response to High Tea found here;  . 2013. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://museumgames.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/44614076/HighTeaEvaluationReport.pdf. [Accessed 6 February 2013].

"• Players were stimulated to find out more about the 19th-century opium trade and
wars.
• The game created genuine discussion about its subject matter in gaming and other
forums.
• Through developing High Tea we have discovered new ways of creatively
collaborating, marrying our content knowledge to games development expertise.
• Some players' feelings about British history were changed as a result of playing
the game.
• The reaction and discussion around the game carried on beyond game portals, on
blogs and forums, often in unexpected ways."

"Though many comments focused on the game play, a substantial number discussed the history and economics or expressed satisfaction that they were playing a game with a factual basis, and learning something whilst having fun."

The fact that a "player's feelings" were changed as a result of playing the game is the most interesting to me, in the way that it shows that the potential for games to influence and educate in a non-confrontational way is far from reached! If games enable their players to "learn whilst having fun" - shouldn't this be further exploited and explored by educators?



Case Study - High Tea - Preloaded - Games with purpose. 2013. Case Study - High Tea - Preloaded - Games with purpose. [ONLINE] Available at: http://preloaded.com/games/high-tea/. [Accessed 6 February 2013].

Here is an abridged quote from the above website explaining the core gamplay;

"You are invited to take control of your own Independent Trading company off the shores of the Pearl River Delta, leading up to the beginning of the first Opium war in 1838. Broker the best opium deals possible for sale in China, then buy as much tea as possible to send home and keep Britain happy!

Aims of the game are to make money and increase your fleet through trading opium in return for silver, and maintain Britain's happiness levels by feeding its relentless demand for tea. Various opium deals appear and disappear on the game map, and players must evaluate whether or not to accept them. Some deals have risks attached which can result in being busted by the authorities, so be careful!"

"Results

The project set out to demonstrate the power of games to engage a broad audience on a difficult historical subject. The success criteria will mix game metrics with qualitative research including user-surveys, anecdotal evidence and outreach studies.

The results have been very encouraging, with gameplays reaching over a million in the first week of release and topical debate springing up as the game begins to proliferate."

The bold statement above wonderfully demonstrates the ability of games to be able to subtly put across a viewpoint which might not be so engaging to an audience if revealed from the start.

David Smith Guest Lecture

David Smith

GameCareers.BIZ

• Head of and founder of Interactive Selection and Women in Games Jobs

• 12% of Grads get a job in the Games Industry straight out of uni (2010 figures).
• Not easy for agencies to help Graduates.
• 5 people in the company - work with over 23 countries. Gaming is GLOBAL.
• Montreal is now too over-saturated with games companies - there are no first rung jobs are available.
• Indie companies will probably not use agencies - dont be afraid to knock on doors.
• Each time you get a job, its easier to get your next one because of you gained experience.
• Extra Curricular Work is KEY TO YOUR JOB APPLICATION
• GET INTO MODDING NOW
• David's top advice; team work, hard graft, compromise.
• David's twitters; @gamesjobs @davidsmithuk
• Digital Shoreditch - use twitter through the event to meet people.
• Events to lookup!
• UKINteractive Entertainment -
• XPLAY Festival in Bristol is a good event to attend if possible
• IGDA UKIE TIGA MeetUps
• Eurogamer Expo 3 Meetups Ambassadors going into schools
• Digital Shoreditch is an event Gina Jackson is speaking at.
• Go to individual developers
• Think of how you can promote your game on a budget?
• Keziah McDonald Writing Prize.
• ESkills on twitter
  InteractiveSelection.com
  Jobsdbate.com
  
  
• 9000 people working within the industry
• 30% of salaries paid by Canadian government
• Tax breaks for media industry especially games and SFX to come into UK in the next few years.
• Mixture of creativity, leadership/project management, Presentation skills, personal skills, project your personailty and your ideas across. Self Motivation.
• You can use a redundancy to apply for a slightly better paid job - so a redundancy could be a promotion in disguise!
• Research Linda Carlson at Sony Online Entertainment.
• BoysClub Culture Is it a game developers responisbility to try and influence and improve on gamers' behaviour?

Carsten Kisslat Guest Lecture

Carsten Kisslat Guest Lecture.

Background of Kisslat

• Worked on all platforms bar consoles. Worked on DVD interactive Games. Free to play games - RobotRiot. Was a designer on erepublic.com very community driven game - almost no content - 70% of the game happens outside of the actual game - very social elements and very organic in the game's development. Left erepublic 2010.

• Founded RobotRiot. 2011. www.kisslat.com

• elecware - bought by infospace in 2005 - where Kisslat worked prior to RobotRiot. Produced a lot of Java Games - 128 x 128 pixel resolution game. It meant that as a designer you could work on all types of games. Acquired Siemens partnership. 

How RobotRiot Work

• Distributed virtual Studio - 4 founders. Coder in Hamburg, one near Hamburg and one in Berlin (as well as London) They work in coding, art direction, producing, business development.

• 3D is outsourced to Bulgaria as they are cheap and efficient.

• Skype Group Chat - main communication tool. (You can see what everyone has said, and you can catch up on what has happened over night eg: with time differences)

• Screen Sharing (join.me)

• Weekly Conference Calls

• Documentation always happens on GoogleDocs. which allows for sharing and group adjustment etc of documents.

• Dropbox, Google Drive and Fiel Exchange -

• JIRA/Greenhopper for agile project management documentation and art feedback.

Remote working works in RoboTrio's case because;

• They are a very experienced core team. 
• No divas, just straight forward problem solving.
• And it is a very small team size. There are no sub-teams to have to worry about.

Free to Play Design and Dev Process;

1. Briefing
   - what who when where and why
2. Research
   - New or existing IP? Tech constraints? Competitior Analysis?
3. Initial Concept
   - core gameplay, key features regarding acquisition (sending gifts, rewards for players selling on the game to friends)
   - retention (once you get your players, how to keep them playing the game
   - energy allowance for example, and energy recoup (long time replenish or short replenish for real life money),
   - monetisation (essential for browser, f2p and mobile gaming) (how do you convert players into paying players - if it is well monetised 4-5% of your audience will be paying money for ingame items or credits etc. this is key to knowing your audience and target market)
4. Feedback (from your team or client, marketing, sales, financiers etc)
5. Flowcharts, Wireframes,Prototyping
   - (needs to be quick as long-timescale GDD etc means that everything takes longer)
   - They work agile - like in interactive flowchart - layout the core mechanisms of your games and you can put all the logic and the mechanics of the game. This is essential to Game Designers. (Meshynations - theres a tutorial on Kisslat.com)
   - Flowcharts can contain all your logic in the game. Wireframes help you with several screens and programmers love it. Publishers love it. It is easier to change a flowchart - visio for windows - online tools (balsamic - google this) that a massive GDD and it helps you ascertain how fun the game is. You can see where it is not working and easily work into that area to make it more fun.
6. Feedback (on previous stage)
7. Concept Iteration
   - At this stage everyone should know what to do and what they need to do. - You can make a level's design in Lego - this tangible form allows you to see it at all angles physically in front of you.
8. MVP - Minimum Viable Product - whats the least you can make of the game to release it so if it sinks in the water (what do you really need in the launch version) it will sink quick and you can count your losses and move on.
9. Filling the Backlog
   - Breaking up your game into all the actions involved and stories - and the devs break it down into tasks. This can get complicated because so much of game programming is new for each game made - there is a high level of entropy.
10. First Playable Version 
11. Feedback from 'friends and family'
    - This can be hard as the game is not polished - it needs to be fun simply from gamepay and this allows for you to check that the game works before you spend money on high-end graphics. At this stage you need to kill your ego and cut out many of your 'darlings' which is never easy for a designer.
12. Feature Complete Version 
13. Closed Beta
    - Feedback from closed beta - making it polished, but not taking too much time on it as this will make it more expensive, the polishing is the money-pit. At this stage you still don't know how your game will work in the market so no unnecessary costs.
14. Polishing/bug fixing 
15. Open Beta 
16. Commercial Launch - your game is released onto the open game market.
17. Feedback and Analytics
    - free software
    - survey monkey
    - googledocs/analytics
    - (however they all know your data) eg: the buy button should be orange
    - adjustments to the UI so that it is a more effective display to the player.
18. Improvement, Content Update, Gameplay Update.
    - KPIs - Key Performance Indicators (monthly active users, retention rates, monetisation, in-game KPI - how many fishes caught per daily active user)

Development Advice

Every morning you can get Google spreadsheet - SPL queries on a database - this will give you all the statistics and math of your released game and here is where you really start the game development and re-design. With f2p you have so much feedback. You know exactly how many people play your game, and what specific players /how they play.
Gameplay updates - you need to know what people will want added to your game.

Working with existing IP; What is the theme, find a teacher (someone who knows everything about the IP) then find someone who knows about the constraints due to the exsisting IP. Basically knowledge of the IP is key because if you dont the game wont be able to ship or will not sell well as it is not cohesive enough with the exsisting IP.

The whole process (first playable version) 4 weeks (specific to the game being made) This is very different to a AAA Project. And then 8-9months for design, graphics, beta testing, feedback and adjustment, polishing. On AAA project, you dont know how long the game will take to make.

It is hard not having in-house graphic artists as your idea generation can not be fluid process as you have no sparring partner and someone to quickly illustrate ideas for you in the development process (without incurring more costs) Artwork being outsourced - upfront cost rather than post-release revenue.

With a f2p you provide a service not a game - you dont necessarily ever finish it! The only caution for online games is hackers. there is no piracy.

Browser gaming and free to play are some of the most influential changes to the indipendant developer market in Kisslat's career. The new levels of distribution avenues have opened up a viable niche market. Niche gaming is OK and you can earn money but do not make the mistake of trying to change your marketd into mainstream. You can however cross-market your new game across your existing games (get players of one of your games to play your other game too).

As soon as you go to a publisher, the revenue share for your game gets smaller and smaller. Take the risks whilst your young and dont have a family to look after etc.




Why did we make a fishing game?

Niche market - not many fishing games out there - It is actually pretty interesting!!
They didnt want to go into too much detail, as then you get berated if any details are not true-to-life. Their art style allows for a greater audience.

It is actually real-life fishers which enjoy playing their game even though a lot of the features are not true to life.

Simple gameplay - it is inherent - not a great need for tutorials because everyone understands how to fish. Average Revenue Per Paying User - 30+ age of gamers, user generated content is great, but sometimes dependng on your audience then you have to do a lot of moderation. An older player average means they are more civilised gamers - less moderation - greater spendable income.

Short core game loop - perfect for casual mobile gaming.

Many possible virtual items to sell and is great for f2p.

Easy to add content (just another fish)

Putting chat into the game, can allow for happy gamers to encourage more gamers!

Easy to expand core gameplay (eg boats, underwater cam, PvP, crafting)

Easy to implement a player progression curve (levelling up, xp)

Great potential for community building!

They use unity web player. - Daily challenges - open gameplay loops to increase retention

Soft currency (earned in game) and hard currency (bought for real money)

You have to careful about how much dominance paying players will have over free players.

---------------------Q and A- -----------------------

How do you advertise your game/company?
Initially they havent done anything - they will hijack the Big Catch forums to try and get players onto their new game. Spend a little money on Facebook. Using browser websites means competition is high and aquisition costs are high.

Would you ever consider expanding your company? Yes.

Before Facebook Advertising came about - how did you acquire large player numbers?
It was actually much easier and cheaper before - Facebook has dominated the market, and has monopolised it for indie companies.

How does your relationship between yourself as art director work with outsourcing?
- He makes a lot of wireframes and basic layout of the UI screen - mood boards, in unity theres a lot of shader metics etc. You have to be very aware of the browser's technical restraints and understand this when directing.

AAA or Indie? I was never a corporate game designer - worked for TV - prefers the indie company business model. You have more freedom as a designer/games proff. in indie but in AAA you're far more likely to just be one cog in the machine.

How do you get players to test your beta? Go to the forums and ask who would like to have a go.

When working on a new title how to you consider monetisation? - I usually do the game design first and then monetise later - do both at the same time to make a creative but effective game.

CS Presentation 1 - Information on Nintendo and their Demographic

My presentation today discussed the topic of Nintendo's recent Hardware releases and their respective marketing campaigns. I wanted to highlight two messages Nintendo clearly wished to put accross; You are not alone when you are gaming, and there are no generation gaps when it comes to their products the Wii and the DS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ocean_Strategy
http://www.palermo.edu/economicas/cbrs/pdf/wii.pdf
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/14776/gadgets/nintendo_wii_is_changing_history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/378029/features/revolution-the-story-of-wii/#

I discussed the marketing strategy of Nintendo, their intended audience and the way in which they promote togetherness and involvement in their hardware/gaming. Overall I want to write my essay on the affect of Motion control in all forms; the Wii, the Kinect and touch gaming such as portable games, the DS. I will be focussing on the hardware themselves rather than games in particular however I will focus on certain game case studies to further illustrate my work.



Focus on Nintendo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii#Demographic

http://www.statisticbrain.com/nintendo-company-statistics/

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/nintendo-wants-to-widen-the-consumer-demographic-with-3ds/

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/nicole_kidman_0.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01204/nintendo-ds-brain-_1204271c.jpg

http://www.mobile-pedia.com/images/thumbnails/best-gaming-console-family-playing-wii.jpg

http://www.2d-x.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/old-people-.jpg

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/dt-debate-wii-casual-gaming-hurt-nintendo/

http://0.tqn.com/d/nintendo/1/0/q/1/-/-/balanceboard.jpg