Tales from the Aloran insurance Salesman: Bridging the Gap Between Learning Games and indie Hits

Tales From the Aloran Insurance Salesman:

Bridging The Gap Between Learning Games and Indie

Hits

Jordan Pailthorpe Project Manager Emerson Engagement Labwww.engagementgamelab.org @jpailthorpe

http://www.engagementgamelab.org/

A real time strategy game that teaches how and why risk management is

important for healthy development.

www.RiskHorizon.org

LEARNING FOR WITH GAMES!

Learningful Play!

Games to Learn with!

Tools for games with learning maybe?

Learning as Games!

Educational gamelike experiences!

Games?

https://www.coursera.org/course/managerisk

The game verb became balancing.

Risk Horizon is a real time strategy game requiring players to balance

resources

- Actual real life playtester

Can we get one of these too?

Hard Questions• How can we effectively push players to

discover the game verb and experiment with the game’s functions?

• How do we entice players to talk with each other on the forums in order to share gameplay strategies or insight into the correlation between the game and the content?

• How do we make playing out a scene from the World Development Report, a 394 page pdf, fun and accessible?

CandyBox

Minimalist ASCII based browser game

The only information displayed when the game begins

Candybox | http://candies.aniwey.net/


more actions open up as the game goes on

The game builds and builds out, eventually taking you on quests and into dungeons


“Candy Box is built on continually surprising players

by rewarding patience and curiosity. After a few

minutes of throwing candy or interacting with the

merchant, more things appear: A farm where you

can plant the lollipops you've bought, with the

promise they'll produce more lollipops. More items

appear in the Candy Merchant's menu, including a

sword. And then you earn buttons to view your

inventory and to undertake a quest, and then you're

off.” - Leigh Alexander

Source: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/191740/Why_Candy_Box_became_more_social_than_social_games.php

“[Candy Box is] so minimalistic

that it recalls a beloved earlier

age of games, when all of them

were opaque and mysterious, and

the only real way to progress was

to share playground lore.”- Leigh Alexander

Play to discover, rather than play to master.

Firelink Shrine

You could try to get those items, but you might get eaten by a Dragon.

“Dark Souls has many daunting labels attached to its name; difficult, cruel, torturous, brutal and intimidating. And while these are accurate, it's the sense of discovery in its strange, oppressive world and the relief of surviving its trials that make Dark Souls rewarding like few other games are.”

- Matthew Reynolds

Source: http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/levelup/a529058/why-dark-souls-is-our-game-of-the-generation.html

Design Influences

• Very little onboarding/handholding• Light and obscure narrative lore• Difficult system with mechanical

simplicity • Generating a discourse community

#NOTALLPLAYERS

“I don’t understand why playing computer games should count as a result. Give me a case studies and ask me questions afterwards but please, I don’t want to spend hours and hours playing computer games.”

“I do not agree that the Game teaches Strategic Thinking for Better Community Development. It is simply a Computer Game. Like any other Computer Game, the more skilled at Computer Games you are, the higher the levels at which you can be successful.”

“If you want serious solutions, it's better user statistical data or Matrix probabilities. not the game. this game looks like Kids game.”

“You don't need gimmicks to communicate. Just tell us what you want to tell us in an organized fashion.”

“I finally finished level 6 after many, many trys. Tips:

develop the community and then strategize. When I

began playing it, I was such a conservative player,

starting at only 2 or 3 Aloran pods. I realized I was so

scared of the shocks that I was almost paralyzed and

anxious as a community developer. After many try outs, I

then got the point: As an illuminator, the key is

community effort along with research, insurance and

protection.”

“I was impressed with the content and found it

contributed very constructively to my getting real sense

on those issues presented to the second week's

lectures; I really enjoyed the game and I was receptive to the

experience; I confronted the stressful situation of risks and

challenged decisions under constraints. I realized the

importance of being fully aware about the community's future

incidents; keeping simultaneously paces of its developing/ and

or upgrading; I also experienced the necessity of keeping

balance among research, protection and insurance.

“One strategy I've found really helpful:

once I hit my development goal for a level, I

pour all my resources into protection and don't

start building again until I'm bumped into the

next level. This makes good sense in real

life, as well: no point pouring money into

development without protecting the

communities in which you've invested time

and resources! “

“After about ten attempts I have completed

the game. The dynamics are very interesting

and, i believe, resonate well with real life.

Those of you who are not keen on the game, it

is a great real time scenario, and equates

experiential learning.”

“It is not that difficult to get through to levels 5 or

6. You just need to think what you would do in a

real-life situation, well if you consider that you can't

move away from Alora. The point is not to have a

lot of money in the bank, or having 75% insurance,

or having highest protection levels. Everything is

about balance. Sometimes you need to risk lower

insurance and keep some money for a severe

meteor/comet strike. Sometimes you need a lot of

insurance, because you have to build a lot”

“Overall very interesting game and learning experience, mimicking the reality very well - you feel so real when you succeeded or failed: I still remember the first time I successfully handled a 10-degree hit without any damage.”

in order to succeed you must learn, you must pay attention, you must discover and explore.

we can create spaces where students make connections through experimentation and discovery.

Thanks!

Jordan Pailthorpe@[email protected]