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When Your Homework is to Make Good Games

Posted by Zonk on from the learning-is-fun dept.

Over on Wired's site, Chris Kohler has up a great pair of features on the growing role that game design is having in education. He had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Henry Jenkins, one of the foremost authorities in the US on games and learning, to discuss the future of game-creation education. Schools all over the country are adding game design, art, and programming courses to their curriculum, and the article also mentions several high profile foreign programs opening in the near future. While the article is primarily about education programs, Kohler also had the chance to do a one-on-one interview with Mr. Jenkins. The piece has several interesting insights into how games and learning fit together as well as they do, as well as more details on the proposed Singapore/MIT game lab. Says Jenkins, "Some have said that the games industry has become so risk adverse that only a Miyamoto or a Wright can break through the formulas and generate truly original approaches to game design. Many observers have said we need to step outside of that system and provide some place where interesting new game prototypes can be incubated."

3 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Goes both ways by Fried-Psitalon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fair enough, but it's awful hard for people to make games that step outside of the typical when people are very, very shy of BUYING games outside the typical. Seriously - look at the top ten best selling games in the last few years; most of them are part of a series.People don't like taking risks on new games that could rule or stink at the prices involved in that kind of gamble.

    People will mindlessly spend money on a game they are pretty sure is good, rather than take a risk on something that might not be. We all play it safe with our cash. Want proof that anything with a sequel on it will be bought, regardless of how much crap it is?

    Mario Party.

    'nuff said.

    --
    The ability to communicate well does not directly correspond to the ability to communicate intelligently.
  2. Might need to change the attitudes, not process by BShive · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm taking some game design classes at my local college (totally unrelated to my 'real' job). This semester we're actually developing prototypes, and everyone submitted proposals for ideas (over 20 in all) that ranged from the 'been done' to unique to zany.

    The overwhelming favorite idea?

    A destroy everything FPS with "BIG EXPLOSIONS". Oh, and hell is involved too.

    To me the whole process just highlighted everything wrong with the industry. If the folks IN the industry (or at least want to be) aren't even interested in other ideas, what hope is there? You couldn't get any more cliche, yet they're willing to devote large quantities of time to adding this to their portfolios.

  3. Games for homework by totallyscrewed · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I do skasoftware.com, and I'm also a student at SUNY IT doing an MS in CS, and I always try to make up creative ways of turning projects into games. It makes the semester go by a lot faster. On my site, Supreme Earth Champion, Dead Pako, and Zomberman were all homework assignments (that I got A's on, mind you!)