Easy-to-use game-building tools for Educators (and what that means)

[email protected] www.greendoorlabs.com | @[email protected] www.greendoorlabs.com | @greendoorlabs

On Building Games with Platforms

[email protected] www.greendoorlabs.com | @greendoorlabs

Green Door Labs is a game design and

development group

The Edventure Builder is an online game building platform


GAMES AND GREAT ADVENTURES!


1. Game Curious 2. Game Ambitious 3. Game Building (maybe) 4. game reality check 5. game building for real

Stages of Game Building


Part 1: Platform vs Custom Code


Location Location Location…

Add the Gary Larsen Cartoon here


CODE!!! it looks like this:

C, C#, Javascript, html5, php, asp, ruby, python, swift


• You have an existing team of developers

• You know how to code

• You have a budget to hire a team

• You have volunteers and some time

• You have a very specific, detailed design

• A platform doesn’t exist for your needs

• You won’t need to change content

• Your game doesn’t need to scale

Country Dog Gentleman: HTML5

Icivics: Flash

TocaBoca: Unity

Best When:


Build exactly what you want

Completely unique product

Can be more design-heavy

Full creative control

Expensive

Long build cycle

forward compatibility issues

Only dev team can edit

Content is usually static

BENEFITS DRAWBACKS

Custom coded projects are often “set in stone” you have to re-hire the dev team to make changes or

updates.


platforms!!! they look like this:

construct 2, gamestar mechanic, scratch, gamesalad


• You have limited funds

• You have a short timeframe for release

• You have a LOT of content

• Your content needs to change with time

• Your team is creative + flexible (mostly)

• Your project will need to last a while

rev quest: guide by cell

Best When:

Play the Past: Aris

The Baltimore Science Museum built their own

platform for PlanetMania


Much lower initial budget*

much faster timeline

no dev team necessary

Make your own edits

change content easily

platforms update automatically

Add new content/morph project

often multi-device programs

finding a project/platform fit

Ongoing cost

platforms close sometimes

!

BENEFITS DRAWBACKS

* Platforms usually have an ongoing cost so you spread your budget out over the lifecycle of the project

If your team really REALLY knows exactly what design they want and they’re not willing to be flexible, working with platforms can be fitting

a square peg into a round hole


Part 2: What can you build with

platforms?


League of Extraordinary Bloggers AppBoston Children’s Museum

Date: 06/24/14

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers

STYLE GUIDE


Part 3: What can I use NOW?


CONTENT/IMAGE-HEAVY PROJECTS

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: APP/SITE BUILDERS


THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE: TEXT-BASED PLATFORMS


SPRITE GAME/ VIDEO GAME GENERATORS


THE DO-IT-YOURSELFERS ORGANIZATIONS BUILDING THEIR OWN CMS


Don’t forget: PAPER!


www.scratch.mit.edu !

www.textadventures.co.uk/quest !

www.edventurebuilder.com (SeriousPlay, platformer)

Time to play??

http://scratch.mit.edu

http://textadventures.co.uk/quest

http://www.edventurebuilder.com

www.edventurebuilder.com [email protected] | @greendoorlabs

617.314.5047

Onwards to Great Edventures!

Easy-to-use game-building tools for Educators (and what that means)

Education

Transcript of Easy-to-use game-building tools for Educators (and what that means)