The Game Prototype is Good to go

After many hours of creative toil by a very talented team, work was recently completed on the LG2G game prototype. This is a key benchmark for the project, as the game (via the prototype) can now be played and tested on actual computers by real live students and teachers in the classroom. The forthcoming playing and testing of the prototype will generate feedback that will ultimately be incorporated into the final version of the LG2G game.

To learn more about the game prototype and the process of building it, we spoke with MIT's Scot Osterweil, the lead game designer for LG2G.

LG2G Update: You've been working closely with FableVision, the game developer on the project. How does that process work?

Scot: They've been building bits of the game and then sharing it with us. We look at their stuff and share our comments. We have a really good relationship with the FableVision team. There’s a necessary push and pull between design and development. And we all feel like that conversation yields something better than what either group could create on its own.

Update: So now that the prototype is built, does that mean your work is done on the project?

Scot: No, actually we're still designing puzzles for the game. Ten of the twelve game puzzles are very far along, one is pretty far along, and one is still at the beginning stages. No one thinks the prototype we have now is the perfect representation of the game. We’ll continue to make refinements to the puzzles based on the feedback we get.

Update: What kind of feedback are you hoping for with the prototype testing?

Scot: Well, we're hoping that kids will be engaged in the story. The game is definitely designed to be mastered slowly with repeated game play. We hope that kids will see the puzzles as challenges that they can rise to.

Update: What goes into interpreting the feedback you'll get from the testing?

Scot: A key piece in the art of game design is knowing how to understand the feedback you get. For instance, if one kid says "this is too hard," it doesn't necessarily mean we should jump up and completely change the game. Also, a kid might say that he doesn't like a particular character. Now that could mean that the character is uninteresting. But it could also mean that the character is one of the "bad guys," and that’s why the kid doesn't like him. We have to try and read the feedback as best as we can.

Update: As the lead designer of the game, are you also involved in deciding how the game will be used in the classroom?

Scot: Our team at the Education Arcade has proposed a general direction for how the game should be played in schools. MPT and its educational advisors are going to take it from here.

The next steps for the game prototype do indeed involve testing with students and teachers. This work will be done by the firm ORC-Macro whose team will be headed up by Shani Reid. We plan to talk with Shani about the details of how that process will work in our next Update.

News and Notes from Project Partners.

Most of the major LG2G project partners will gather on May 3 and 4 at the MPT studios for the next project Advisory Meeting. We'll include a detailed report on the meeting in a future Update.

The CTE team, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Lab, recently completed a concept overview of the 3-D simulation they’re building as part of LG2G. We’ll share more about this very exciting aspect of the project as it develops.

Several of the teachers on MPT's Advance Team of educators have begun to implement gaming lessons in their classrooms. We'll report on what they're learning from their experiences in the next Update.

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