3D Game Lab – Unity Introduction Quest

A new month and more exciting options for professional development through 3D Game Lab.  This month the focus is surrounding game design for teachers.  After last months hour of code event in my classes I find myself inspired to expand my horizons and learn more.

This first quest assignments was to explore what is out there for tutorials, curriculum, and media relating to using Unity3d in the classroom.

After searching Unity in the classroom, what I discovered was that from what I found it was mostly being used at the college level. I did find one link where the University of New Hampshire is running a STEM project using the platform for grades 9-12 ([url=http://manchester.unh.edu/outreach/stem-discovery-lab/upcoming]). On a wiki site I found several [url=http://gamesined.wikispaces.com/Game+Creation+Tools]tutorial sites[/url] (scroll about halfway down the page) that could provide useful to using Unity3d in the classroom as well. In addition, I found an interesting article about how high school students are using Unity3d to create projects. [url=http://www.3dteachers.com/2010/04/unity-3d-gaming-and-education.html]

I would love to see any information pertaining to younger grades using this platform, however, I didn’t find anything specific for that in my search.

ED TECH 532 – Sploderfest

After playing several different games designed by my classmates it reaffirms for me that not every game is designed for everyone.  Personally, I don’t like the Algorithm Adventure games.  It just isn’t a game I get into very easily.  At least not those created by the Sploder design platform.  I did enjoy Combat Miners of Rhea which surprised me.  I was surprised because this game is classified as a first person shooter game but its reminiscent qualities to simple arcade games of the 1980s that I recall playing.  The Physics Games category seemed to hold my attention more then others because it feels more as though there is a puzzle to be solved.   I find the platform games that you can construct using Sploder are similar to the design of a Zelda quest game.  The old style arcade games are typical of Mario Brothers games.

My take aways from this quest assignment are as follows: just as there are all kinds of learners, there are all kind of gamers as well.  Given this designers of games in order to be successful need to design games that have components that may attract several types of users.  Minecraft comes to mind as a great example of this.  Players have the option to play in either survival mode or creative mode.  Those that enjoy the trill of fear of the creepers will be attracted to survival mode.  As where those players that enjoy building and constructing collaboratively will be more attracted to the creative mode of the game.  Regardless of the gaming platform, personally I find those with a story line much more engaging than those that lack a story line.