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Monday, September 8, 2008

Assignment

Video game development is the combination fo storytelling, art, music, sound effects, animation and programming techniques, which creates a dynamic interactive form of electronic entertainment and education. Many skills are developed as the result of playing video games, and it is time that you proved this - to your parents and to educators. I believe it! Now you have to make other people believe it too.
What you will do:
1. Create a blog to log your video game play - give the teacher the url to your blog. Blogs can be created at the following location:
www.blogger.comhttp://www.livejournal.com/
Important Note: Do not use MSN MySpace. It is not accessible at school due to NetSweeper.
www.shadownightwolf.blogger.com
2. After you set up your blog make sure you understand safe web practices. These can be reviewed at http://www.scholastic.com/toolkit/classport/play.htm Do the quiz, print your certificate, and hand it in to the teacher. I will expect that you follow the rules of safe blogging.
3. Create an introductory entry on your blog site. In this entry you should explain your current level of game play. Are you a power-gamer or are you a newbie? How long have you been playing games? What games do you play already? What do you think of video games? Do you think that anything educational can be learned from the games you play already? Explain your answer.
4. Now start to play! Choose at least one game to play a lot. Choose other games to play from time to time. I expect that you will play more than one game, and more than one type of game (different genres). You can play game console games, handheld games, cell phone games, computer games or internet games. All forms are acceptable. The games you play MUST be suitable in a school setting (so no Grand Theft Auto, etc). If you are unsure please check with the teacher.
5. Play at least one game from the GameOn site http://www.abc.net.au/gameon/ (During class, if all of your work is done, you can work on this part of the assignment. Isn’t that great!) Make sure you look at the "Behind the Screens" sections on this site (http://www.abc.net.au/gameon/kafkamesto/bts.htm).
6. Log your play. In your blog comment on the following:
A) Identify what you like and/or dislike about the game.
B) Discuss the construction of the game - the set, the characters, the storyline, the animation, the strategies, the sound and music, the level of difficulty, other things you think are important.
C) Find out what others have to say about the game you are playing - link to the main game site, find links to reviews, find cheat links, find game overviews, find anything else that helps us to understand everything there is to understand about the games you have chosen to play.
D) Let us know how you are doing in the game. How far have you gotten? What is your score? What new skills and levels have you achieved? What new tricks have you learned? What else can you tell us about how you are doing?
Note: You should have many entries for each game and every entry does not have to answer all of the above questions, but when you are done, all of the questions should be answered in detail. Make sure you clearly title each entry so we know what game you are writing about.
7. Include screen shots and other images in your blog. Make sure you post the url of any images that you get from the internet and links to any online games (see example above).
8. Conclusions. As your final blog entry, write some concluding thoughts - do this on the last day of the assignment, in class. Tell me, what did you learn from indepth game play? Was the time well spent or was it time wasted? What I really want you to think about is what makes a good game. Could you design a game that is as good, if not better? Be prepared to support your statements with evidence. This means that after this assignment you will take what you have learned and you will design your own game using the tools and skills you have available.
Deadline:
You can keep playing the games forever, but the blog entries must be finished by Due November 28.That gives you 10+ weeks of solid gaming homework.
Be prepared to share your blog highlights with the class on the due date.
Note: Blog entries are automatically dated, and I expect to see at least 1entry every week (that is at minimum 10 entries over the 10+ week period - this will get you a level 2+ by the way.)

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