Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
When you have answered all these questions and collected information in your journal, it is time to start
designing, sketching out your plans visually, and coordinating the team with an overall view of the project.
4.6
EDUCATION, SERIOUS GAMES, VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS
With the growing acceptance of virtual worlds as viable environments for teaching, there is an increasing
need to design virtual spaces that facilitate learning. New uses for virtual worlds are continually developed
by teachers and learning technologists. These technology-savvy individuals are always seeking better ways
to communicate with their students and utilize all sorts of digital systems to design new learning tools. Often,
they create what are known as “serious games” or games that are primarily created to support the enhance-
ment of learning or training. Even though the technology of virtual worlds is fairly new to the academic
world, the use of games to teach serious lessons, strategies, and concepts is not. Historic evidence points to
games being played as far back as 3000 BC. Games like chess, dominos, and Go have been played for more
than a thousand years [5]. It is clear that games like these, while providing entertainment, also teach strategy,
3D conceptualization, and probability theory.
Ever since people have been building games for virtual worlds and online sites, these classics have been
replicated and incorporated into expansive game-like environments. The next section provides a project that
lets you (and your class) design an environment for learning. If you can, work with your students, helping them
to create their own virtual learning space, and let them take “ownership” of their virtual learning environment.
4.7
PROJECT: ASSEMBLING A MODULAR VIRTUAL CLASSROOM
Some of the latest research shows that classroom learning can be enhanced by good lighting, lexible fur-
niture arrangements, serious consideration of the visual background, and a color scheme that is age appro-
priate [6]. If you are a teacher, you know how much the students want to personalize their environment.
Generations of names scratched into desktops attest to that. Now you can provide them with the ultimate
in customization, a modular virtual classroom that they can conigure as desired. You can easily provide a
virtual location for this project with a SoaS (http://simonastick.com), a virtual environment that runs on a
USB stick, or set up a private grid with one of the many sim hosting services listed on Hypergrid Business
(http://www.hypergridbusiness.com) in the OpenSim Vendors section.
4.7.1 C
reaTing
a
p
lan
To get organized, try using Dio (https://www.dio.com/), some other kind of visual journal, or use a bulletin
board to display pictures that inspire you and your class about their virtual classroom design. Where will
class be today? Perhaps the spring season is just around the corner, and you would like to have some nature
studies. Letting the outdoors into your classroom, real or virtual, is good for learning, provided it does not
become too distracting. Since this is a virtual classroom, you can have class on the moon or inside a human
brain. Developing classrooms that access those kinds of imaginary spaces may be a good homework assign-
ment to give your students. Since the components for this project are modular, the design possibilities are
almost ininite. Recent research has shown that students can focus more when they are within a rectangular
room, as opposed to a square one, so perhaps this is a good plan with which to start [6].
For the purposes of this sample project, the modular classroom is placed on the surface of Mars. Mars
photos from NASA were examined, and a terrain was developed to support the look and feel of this planet.
