Slides from the Playful Learning workshop on creating good educational games from existing IP at the Children's Media Conference 2014. By Martha Henson and Kirsten Campbell-Howes of #LEGup and edugameshub.com.
More details http://www.thechildrensmediaconference.com/sessions/wednesday-workshop-playful-learning. Write up http://www.thechildrensmediaconference.com/blog/2014/07/03/wednesday-workshop-playful-learning-report/.
2. Workshop structure 1-5pm
● Part 1: Choosing the right IP
● Part 2: Making it educational
● Part 3: Designing your game
● 3pm Coffee break
● Part 4: Your strategy for success
● Pitch your game idea
3. Your hosts for the afternoon…
Mahesh Josh Phil Chris
Martha Kirsten
8. Part 1: Choosing the right IP
Can anything be made into a game?
Should everything be made into a game?
9. Choosing the right IP: considerations
Things to look for:
• Reach
• Cost vs likely return
• Ease of partnership/acquisition
• Spin off possibilities
• Creative possibilities (e.g. Disney will
demand a lot from partners)
10. The audience
• Who is your target audience?
• What do they like?
• What games do they play?
• What sites do they/parents visit?
• What do they need to know (literacy, maths, GCSE
psychology?)
• Who makes the purchasing decision (kid, parent,
teacher, school, local authority?)
12. Activity 1: Choose your own IP
In your groups…
• Pick an audience segment
• Pick some IP you’d like to work with
You have 5 minutes!
Octonauts Young Sherlock Holmes Romeo and Juliet
13. Education, Education, Education
• Designing with the end in
mind – setting objectives
• Objectives and game
design – a natural fit
• Should you design to fit a
pre-existing curriculum?
• Working with educational
specialists/partners
15. Activity 2: Set your learning objectives
• Decide what subject area/s your game will focus on
• Pick a small aspect of the subject to create a demo
around (e.g. the 3 times table, the life-cycle of the
honeybee)
• Write out 3-5 learning objectives from the learner’s
perspective. E.g.:
• By the end of this game I’ll be able to draw an
elephant
• By the end of this level I’ll be able to spell 3 words
16. Part 3: Game design -
considerations
• Balancing fun and learning
• Phil’s framework – jeopardy, scoring,
narrative, cause and effect, measuring
achievement, second to second
• Prototyping and iterative development
• Examples: High Tea/Little Digits
17. Game design: visuals and UX
• How and when to use a graphic
designer/games artist
• Making sure your game is
challenging to win, not to understand
(or the importance of good UX)
19. Activity 3: Design a part of your game
Create the narrative for part of a level (what will happen as
the student plays)
● Decide which game mechanics you will use (strategy
game, tower defence, racing game, platform game, end
of level boss? collecting points? avoiding bad guys?)
● Use the flipchart to illustrate your level
20. Part 4: Your strategy for success
Designing your game is just the start…
Now we move on to consider how you
make it a bestseller…
21. Distribution
• Which platform?
• How to market to schools -
• How to market to families - app store, other?
• Price - freemium/paid for/free
• Partnerships
22. Schedules and budgets
• How long does it
take?
• How much does it
cost?
• What are you
paying for?
23. Measuring success
• Building in
evaluation - qual
and quant
• Using analytics
• Setting goals - what
are the
benchmarks?
24. Post launch
• It doesn’t end
when you launch -
legacy and
maintenance
• Iteration
• Promotion
25. Activity 4: Pitch your game
● In your group decide on a distribution strategy (who will
you sell to and how)
● Agree your benchmarks and how you will measure the
success of your game
● Set your budget (Hollywood or Holly Oaks?)
● Present your game to the judges - you have 3 minutes
to present and 3 minutes for Q&A
● Win great* prizes!
* not necessarily that great
26. Thanks and happy games making!
@marthasadie
@campbellhowes
@philstuart
@chrisoshea
@hopsterTV
@nightzookeeper
Editor's Notes
Each person briefly introduces themselves and their main relevant experience
Stress that this workshop is interactive - participants should feel free to interrupt and ask questions throughout - we won’t run a Q&A session at the end unless there is time left over.
mahesh to talk about the Hopster story
Kirsten to talk briefly about experience converting Poptropica into Our Discovery Island - advantages of working for big co like Pearson who can afford to buy up appealing IP or partner with IP providers like Disney.
M to talk about other ways to utilise IP - works in the public domain like Shakespeare; using existing games/game mechanics as partners or inspiration (ask Eiman about using Top Trumps with Elemons); choosing popular current IP (e.g. Moshi Monsters, Peppa Pig) and going for partnership deals (can Phil or Mahesh talk a little about this)?
Phil - what are the reasons you might use pre-existing IP - taps into a pre-existing audience. Put this out to the panel.
Consider not using pre-existing IP.
Knowing/choosing your audience should go hand in hand with choosing your IP. Understanding your audience and appealing to the purchaser is key to creating the right content.
Look at the pre-primary, primary and young teen markets for some inspiration (a couple of minutes on this). Stress importance of conducting market research.
5-min brainstorm followed by quick feedback. Facilitators to help out and try to nudge groups into choosing a variety of different IP types.
Thought starters: Octonauts, Young Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare, Sean the Sheep
Kirsten to talk about objective-driven design/working with a syllabus. Why starting from objectives is useful: gives your product educational robustness; makes it easier to structure your game; a good syllabus lends itself to good gameplay (levels, challenges, scaffolded content etc)
Ben/Phil to talk about challenges of designing a game to fit with curriculum - UK and common core
5-10 minute discussion, facilitators assisting; followed by short feedback
Marrying your IP with your learning objectives. Brainstorm learning that arises from IP.
Encourage them to choose something very specific.
Phil to talk about this/Panel approach
Framework for games design: jeopardy, scoring, narrative, cause and effect, measuring achievement, second to second (mechanic)
Show some examples:
Chris to talk about this? Dinosaur app - did illustration too early
Martha to talk about this
Chris anecdotes on this. Has videos to show.
15-20 minutes to plan and design; facilitators helping. No feedback at this stage - groups will present their game at the end of the session
martha - inspiration cards with different game types
We use Phil’s framework to describe pre-existing games like Angry Birds
Phil’s suggestion for framing response:
- The setting (the theme, the world, the narrative)
- The imperative (jeapody)
- The doing bit (the mechanics)
- measure of achievement (the score)
mahesh can talk about marketing to families. Constructing a story for the app store.
Share handout on marketing to schools
Chris o’Shea - marketing as a one-man band. Can’t rely on the App Store. Trad media tends to have more impact.
Phil - monetization tricky
Bundling, e.g. with textbooks
What is the money going on? ie how much does development cost?
mahesh: analytics
What is success? downloads/finance
When to stop?
Round up the event with 10 minutes to prepare final pitches - facilitators helping
Then each team presents. We may bring in outside judges to add a little more pressure
Every team gets a dumb prize.