Official Session Name: (2:30pm)
“How to Create an Effective Sim/Game Strategy”

Summary:
Christopher Hardy, a repected dude from Defense Acquisition University (DAU), talks about what they’ve learned. How they are much like corporate training (for many US Government agencies). Key difference is: Their students HAVE to take and pass their classes. … much more…

Ecampus Takeaway:
“Have a use case. Don’t build a game where all they learn is the game.” (and much more… this talk was gold)

Raw Notes: Continue reading →

Official Session Name: (1:30)
B-HIVE: A Human Behavioral Definition Simulation Environment

Summary:
The guy who created DigiPen basically tells his life story (which is damned cool, honestly), rambled slightly about cool work he’s done for various government agencies, then talked about machine learning project he’s pioneered.

Ecampus Takeaway:
“Have the student make the game – that is the way to teach them”

Raw Notes: Continue reading →

Official Session Name: (11:30am)
Strategicplay® with LEGO® Serious Play®

Summary / Ecampus Takeaway:
We were given bags of LEGOs, and went through some exercises to show us how using your hands can help anyone with thinking and communication. (mostly bizarrely worthless to me. but led to a good quick chat with a neighbor, who suggested many cool projects/links)

Session was basically being a big advertisement for their wacky consultant service(ugh), but got good leads accidentally from neighbor.

Raw Notes: Continue reading →

Official Session Name: (10:30am)
Panel: “From Slate to Chalk to Tablets and Apps”

Summary / Ecampus Takeaway:
The conference really gets started, with some great discussion of the real world state of educational gaming (with some specific examples/links).

Raw Notes: Continue reading →

Official Session Name: (9am)
The Serious Games Market : Segment Size (and Where Opportunity Lies)

Summary:
Marketing folks rambled about marketing crap, and I worried I was at the wrong conference (until a following session, where I confirmed I was in the right place).

Ecampus Takeaway:
The interesting thing about this conference was how it threw such a diverse group into the same room (from corporate training tool marketers to educational researchers to military contractors).

Raw Notes: Continue reading →

Warning: I’ll be posting all my notes from the excellent 2011 Serious Play Conference (a three day event hosted at DigiPen, which I attended in August).

I’ve tried to do this for several other conferences I’ve attended over the past 2 years, and each time I end up getting distracted before I finish covering the event (usually due formatting photos, or worrying over the text summaries).

So this time, I’m going to… Continue reading →

Jeppe Carlson (Playdead): 4:30pm
(official GDC brief) (note: I was 5 minutes late)

SUMMARY:

puzzle designer discusses his process for designing much-lauded physics puzzles in recent indie game hit, Limbo.

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

Mostly interesting to hear about the tools they used. One of their programmers created an AI element which automatically playtests the level every time you compile it (run the level, and instantly see what most players would do in it). I think this was a huge insight into why the game turned out so well. Ingenius idea (to simulate the average player). Continue reading →

Chris Hecker (definition six, inc.), Kyle Gabler (2D Boy), Matthew Wegner (Flashbang Studios), Kyle Gray (Tomorrow Corporation), George Fan (PopCap Games) and Brad Wardell (Stardock) : 3pm -4pm
(official GDC brief) (note: I was 5 minutes late)

SUMMARY:

Each speaker described a game they’d made (or prototyped) which they considered a complete failure. They went into detail about why they exactly they thought it failed.

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

Some very interesting stories about their quick prototypes (much like the exercise I’d quickly whip up for various instructors at OSU’s Ecampus), and a strong theme around “get to prototype asap, and start testing it.” Continue reading →

Jason Booth (Harmonix Music Systems) and Sylvain Dubrofsky (Harmonix Music Systems): 1:30am – 2:30am
(official GDC brief)

SUMMARY:

I went to this because I’m a big Rock Band fan. Was hoping they’d expose their development process, but they didn’t really go into useful detail.

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

Hard to say really. They have a lot of cooks. They made a lot of prototypes. They didn’t have time for a lot of careful testing. There are lessons to be learned, but this talk wasn’t as directly useful as others.
Continue reading →

(many speakers) 12am – 1:00pm
(official GDC brief)

SUMMARY:
A series of respected speakers gave “5 minute/20 slides” mini-speeches, to explain “how they play.” They mostly offered personal philosophy and arty thoughts.

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:
It is interesting to note that many of these game developers mentioned that they think the modern U.S. educational system is broken…
Continue reading →

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Warren EBB's Web: What Doth Design

educational game development (projects explained, event reports, and general & observations)

Category Archives: conference / event

(SPC:Day1)- Government Online On-The-Job-Training Insights

(SPC:Day1)- Claude Comair is Cool

(SPC:Day1)- Lego & Team Building Exercises

(SPC:Day1)- Chalk to Tablets

(SPC:Day1)- The Serious Games “Market Size”

Serious Play Conference 2011 : notes coming soon

GDC 2011:Wed.06 – Designing LIMBO’s Puzzles

SUMMARY:

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

GDC 2011:Wed.05 – The Failure Workshop

SUMMARY:

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

GDC 2011:Wed.04 – Prototype Through Production: Pro Guitar in ROCK BAND 3

SUMMARY:

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

GDC 2011:Wed.03 – microtalks : Say how you play

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