Project 2 Final

Final Presentations

Video Game Portfolio: Cultural Games (Stephan Puff)

This semester I had the honor of speaking at a conference here at Seton Hill for Holocaust education. I spoke about video games as a tool and a cultural device for the coming generations. The speech was mostly to help scholars come into communication with Video game makers and the cultural impact of video games. No, not the violence that is blamed on video games, but the metaphor and story skills that video games teach the younger generations. Yes, metaphor is not just a literary device, but moves to all form of language, propositional and non propostional experiences.

Video Game Portfolio: Cultural Games

News: Patchwork Canvas: The Stitches of a Liberal Arts Education (Karissa Kilgore)

Here is the final product for my second project in EL405. My Flash portfolio, which is organized by both the University objectives and the English major objectives, links to pdf files of a number of my papers and other work that I did during my years at Seton Hill.

Patchwork Canvas: The Stitches of a Liberal Arts Education

News: Dodge Intrepid: Overdue (Mike Rubino)

Get ready for adventure! You play as Dodge Intrepid, the world's most famous librarian and adventurer, as he searches through time for rare books and manuscripts. It's the best librarian-time-traveling-platforming-action-game you'll play this year. Created by Mike Rubino and based off of the popular podcast serial "Dodge Intrepid and the Pages of Time."

News: CST Project 1 (Lori Rupert)

The whole point of this game is to experience life in another person's shoes. Hopefully, by doing this, the player can generate a sense of what it is like to be a completely different person and will hopefully be less judgeful to those they meet after playing a game where they can experience something like this.

News: Seton Hill and Catholicism (Amanda Cochran )

Having faith and living it are two different things. In "Catholicism and Seton Hill," a Flash presentation by Amanda Cochran, view the journey of Seton Hill University through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching. The articles and photos tell the story of Seton Hill's journey toward living out the Catholic faith, and a seek-and-find game offers the official teachings of the Vatican.

Evan's Folk Podcast (Evan Reynolds)

An original folk podcast played through a flash interface. Songs are written and performed by (but not copyright (: ) Evan Reynolds. Recorded in a half an hour, edited with audacity, and displayed with flash. You can find a transcript of the lyrics here.

The Playground (Leslie Rodriguez)

Recess is a time for children to grow socially and learn ethics first hand. It presents a learning opportunity for lessons that will carry with them throughout their lives. It's time for recess at Stoney Ridge Elementary School, and you're one curious 3rd grader! You are Earl, and just like any youngster at school your favorite time of the day is recess. Get ready to encounter a whole new world!

The Escape (Chris Ulicne)

Take on the role of a prisoner in the depths of a dungeon and explore your environment for clues and useful tools in this interactive fiction game.

News: Final Presentation Gallery

"New Media Projects" introduces students to Inform 7, The Games Factory 2, Flash, Blender 3D, and Hammer. All students completed short projects in each medium, and selected a tool to use for a midterm and a final project.

Students kept a development journal on their weblogs, and often helped each other get past rough spots. Since few of my students had any programming experience, there were some rough spots and tense times, but there were also grand "aha!" events that accumulated as the semester progressed. I'm pleased with what my students accomplished.

See the list of final project postings.

Class Topic: Final Exam (actual date TBA)

There is no final exam as such. Instead, students will present their final version of Project 2 during the final exam time slot.

Class Topic: Project 2 Workshop

Class Topic: Project 2 Workshop

Class Topic: Project 2 Workshop

Class Topic: Hammer Workshop 1

If we can get through two or three of these today, I'll be delighted.

Hammer 1
Hammer 2
Hammer 3
Hammer 4
Hammer 5

Class Topic: 3D Graphics Workshop

Download this Blender file: Ludwig2

If all goes well, we will use it with this mystery file... (oooh!)

Class Topic: 3D Graphics Workshop

Class Topic: 3D Graphics Workshop

Assigned Text: TBA

Class Topic: 3D Graphics Workshop

News: No class

I'll be attending a conference here at SHU.

Class Topic: Blender lessons 1-5

Blender Basics (large PDF)

Class Topic: 3D Graphics Workshop

I'm leaving the outline of this unit rather sketchy, as I'd like to wait until I've seen how the class goes, before I can get a realistic sense of what we'll be able to accomplish here.

Class Topic: Project 1 Beta

Class Topic: Project 1 Workshop

Aim to have a working project by now.

Class Topic: Project 1 Workshop

Class Topic: Project 1 Workshop

Class Topic: The Games Factory 2 Workshop

Continue working on Ex 3.

Class Topic: The Games Factory 2 Workshop

Continue working on Ex 3.

Assigned Text: McAdams, Flash Journalism

Read one case study from Part III.

Assigned Text: McAdams, Flash Journalism

Read the introduction and all of Part I.

Class Topic: Flash Workshop

Class Topic: The Games Factory 2 Workshop

The sample games on the CD include examples of an opening game screen and a high-scores table. Use those examples to create a mock-up of your game's opening screen, high-score table, and the screen for the first level of your game.

Thus, your game should begin with the opening screen. There should be a "start" button of some kind, which loads frame 2 (the first level of the game). If your game has multiple levels, then trigger events should load the next level. When the game ends (in defeat or vidtory), the player should see the high-scores table, and have the chance to play over again.

Assigned Text: Darby

Chapter 11

Class Topic: The Games Factory 2 Workshop

Assigned Text: Darby

Chapters 5 and 6.

Class Topic: The Games Factory 2 Workshop

News: Serious Games -- Context for Project 1

New generation of video games takes on serious subjects

No longer just entertainment, advanced technology is being used in games that do everything from teach children about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to help war veterans cope with post-traumatic stress syndrome. For lack of a better descriptor, they've been dubbed "serious games." Like "Re-Mission," they're designed to entertain players, but they're also meant to teach, train and inform them.

"(Video games) are a little bit like documentary films were in say the '60s or '70s," says Suzanne Seggerman, co-founder of Games for Change, a support organization in New York for makers of video games dealing with social issues. "Film had been a popular medium for a long, long time, (but) it took quite a while for it to mature enough to sustain real-world content. Games are at the same place now. They're being used for more serious purposes."

Assigned Text: Darby, Make Amazing Games in Minutes

The actual game-making part of this book doesn't start until Chapter 12… but the introductory material is still useful. Read the introduction through chapter 4.

Class Topic: Inform 7 Workshop

Class Topic: Inform 7 Workshop

Class Topic: Inform 7 Workshop

News: Hidden Agenda Contest

The timing for this couldn't be more perfect.

If your Project 2 is designed to be fun for middle schoolers, and it tries to teach something, then you could win $25,000 in the Hidden Agenda contest.

If you enter your game concept by Dec 15, I'd be happy to support you (or a group) in an independent study geared towards producing the full game by next May.

(I'd enter this contest myself, but it's only open to undergrads. Drat.)

Assigned Text: Interactive Fiction (TBA)

You and your partner will choose a game to play. The game you choose should have a tone or setting that is similar to the one you are working on. You might choose a gothic mystery, a light-hearted romance, a sword-and-sorcery spoof, or a puzzlefest.

News: Are Games Art?

I thought this was timely, given what we talked about in this class last week.

gamepolitics: Are Video Games Art?

Beyond the shrill, politicized rhetoric heard in some state capitols, where, in 2006, we've been treated to such gems as "This video game is not even speech. It is a device" and "yes, games are speech, but worthless, disgusting speech", a quiet debate has been emerging on a related front.

Can video games be considered art?

Assigned Text: Jerz, ''Ask the Adventure Dwarf''

Check the handouts section on J-Web. We'll go over it in class Tuesday.

Assigned Text: Jerz, ''Exposition in Interactive Fiction''

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/gallery/exposition.html

Assigned Text: Interactive Fiction (TBA)

You don't need to create a separate blog entry for each game on this list, but if you'd like to break up your observations into separate entries, by all means go ahead.

On your own, play Pick up the Phone Booth and Die and 9:05. The first game should only take a few minutes. (There is a way to win it.) The second game has two main endings... one involves fading away without any sort of big climax, and the other involves a major revelation that is the reason I like using this game in class. You're welcome to work in groups. If you get help from a friend when you get stuck, you should be able to get through both of these in 15 or 20 minutes.

Then, sample each of the following works of interactive fiction for about 5 minutes, and choose two to play for about 15 minutes each. Your blog entry for these readings should include quotations from the games, with an explanation for why you chose the games you chose.

These are classic works from the 80s:

• Zork I (the most famous and the geekiest; created by and mostly for MIT engineers);
• Leather Goddesses of Phobos (campy sci-fi farce);
• Deadline (detective story);
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (absurdist comic sci-fi)

For general tips on playing IF, see Emily Short's Introduction to IF.

Class Topic: Interactive Fiction

Re-introduction to the genre.

Assigned Text: Strongbad Email #94

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail94.html

Assigned Text: Koster

Finish book.

Class Topic: Serious Fun

Assigned Text: Koster

Up to page 127

Class Topic: Fun and Flow

Class Topic: Course Overview

Welcome to EL 450, "New Media Projects."

The course website is located at http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DennisJerz/EL405. I will update the online syllabus periodically, so the printout I give you is only for your convenience on the first day of classs. The offical version of the syllabus is the online version (though I will notify you in advance of any significant changes).

Topics for today:

• Review syllabus.
  
• Writing for the internet is first and foremost writing (not coding or design).
  
• Computer-mediated writing depends on computers (and computers can be frustrating and demanding).
  
• What is print culture?
  
• Histrorical context exercise.