Below is my submission for module Development Practice GDD710's personal case study assignment. The video is fully subtitled, but I have also included a full transcript below for reference.
Personal Case Study Video Submission
(Vestby-Clarke, 2021)
Video Transcript
I’m Sam, and in this video, I’ll take you through how I went from some broad goals to finishing the module with a clear direction of what I want to take from my MA.
I have a background in gamification and e-learning, and I currently work as a lead game developer, making games for change.
I started the course with two goals.
To develop my serious game design ability and to improve my development skills in Unity.
On reflection, these goals were much too broad, and this module has taken me on a journey that’s helped me better define them.
This started in week 3 when reverse-engineering the game Detective Grimoire.
Researching what makes a good detective game encouraged me to ask why a player becomes invested in solving problems, and more relevant to my field - how they learn.
I had this in mind when approaching rapid ideation one.
Using two methods new to me - Crazy Eights and SCAMPER - I set myself a brief of developing a force-based game in Unity that could be learned without words.
But workflow and schedule were two areas I found challenging. The game’s scope was larger than my time allowed, and my workflow in Unity wasn’t optimal.
In encountering these challenges, I learnt about the minimal viable game, in which you strip back your game features to test your concept.
This approach allowed me to develop the game in just two days.
By developing a game based on senses and not language, I explored Game Feel, described by Swink as “the tactile, kinesthetic sense of manipulating a virtual object”. This, coupled with my interest in learning journeys, led me to my first major point of interest.
Can Game Feel directly affect the way a player learns?
Week five was a turning point in my academic approach as I reviewed my reflective practice.
I was over descriptive and missing the deeper reflective style needed to come up with creative ideas.
Peer feedback also suggested I needed more focus on goals.
I wasn’t pushing beyond my comfort zone or setting intentions.
So I amended my blog posts with analysis and goal setting as the core focus, ensuring my studies had a clear path.
From this, I was able to identify areas of weakness in my current practice, including interpersonal reflection and the use of communities of practice.
And this led to my next major point of interest...
Making better use of communities of practice.
This reflective structure continued to help me find gaps in my practice.
Research week covered UX testing, an area I have lots of experience in.
It was tempting to revert to what I knew. But, analysing gaps in my knowledge against my goals has been a valuable learning curve in this module overall, helping me uncover wider topics I may otherwise have missed - In this case, playtesting.
Fullerton, Swain and Hoffman suggest that playtesting must be done at the physical prototyping stage to avoid derivative games. Applying this to my practice means considering playtesting learning outcomes right at the start, leading me to my third major point of interest.
What role does playtesting have in learning outcomes in serious games?
In rapid ideation two, we were asked to produce a prototype that fixes a problem in our daily lives.
I began by researching serious games, learning that the definition of a serious game has no broad consensus. This taught me that there are many areas of serious game design yet to be fully understood.
But taking into consideration the time and workflow issues from the previous session, and the goals I’d set up to this point, I took a different direction.
Improving Unity workflow was a priority because it’s a bottleneck in my production process, and playtesting kept coming up in my research - so I brainstormed whether there was a way to connect the two.
My final prototype was a pipeline that enables the quick deployment of games to a playtesting server. Through developing this, I learnt a huge amount about continuous integration and methods to optimise Unity builds. It further highlighted how improving my skill set in Unity will benefit my practice.
This led me to my final major point of interest.
Improving my overall workflow and skillset in Unity.
So now I have four clear points of interest that I’ve set as SMART Goals.
To complete one Unity development course, in full, in each year of my MA.
GameDevHQ is a resource I’d to explore as a starting point.
Be active in communities of practice by taking part in one game jam each year of my MA.
This will allow me to learn from others, better understand the gaming community, and to explore further how communities of practice may help with the learning process in serious games.
To develop a working playtesting framework before the end of year one.
The value of playtesting at an early stage to validate the pedagogical impact of the learning is clear. This is a critical part of my practice, and this goal will help me facilitate playtesting in a structured manner.
Identify if game feel affects learning outcomes in games by producing one prototype designed to test this theory before the end of my MA.
Research has shown limited conclusions about which elements of games contribute most to a player's learning journey.
While suggested that fun does not directly improve learning outcomes, nor does visual appeal, both elements appear to have a secondary impact by increasing players’ enjoyment and motivation.
These studies form the basis of my interest in Game Feel’s effect on learning, which does not appear to have been directly tested despite being such an intrinsic part of gaming.
With my SMART goals set, I’m looking forward to making progress in the modules to come.
Thanks for watching.
References in video
Fullerton, T., Swain, C. and Hoffman, S., 2004. Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, & Playtesting Games. 1st ed. Elsevier, pp.17-21.
Game Maker's Toolkit, 2017. What Makes a Good Detective Game?. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwV_mA2cv_0 [Accessed 19 June 2021].
Gamedevhq.com. 2021. GameDevHQ – Professional Unity Developer Program. [online] Available at: <https://gamedevhq.com/> [Accessed 22 August 2021].
Iten, N. and Petko, D., 2014. Learning with serious games: Is fun playing the game a predictor of learning success?. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(1), pp.151-163.
Javora, O., Hannemann, T., Stárková, T., Volná, K. and Brom, C., 2018. Children like it more but don’t learn more: Effects of esthetic visual design in educational games. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(4), pp.1942-1960.
Kowert, R. and Quandt, T., 2020. The Video Game Debate 2: Revisiting the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Video Games. 1st ed. Routledge, p.21.
Oliver, M. and Carr, D., 2009. Learning in virtual worlds: Using communities of practice to explain how people learn from play. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(3), pp.444-457.
Rose, E., 2013. On reflection. Toronto: Canadian Scholar's Press, p.107.
SFB Games, 2014, Detective Grimoire. [Digital] iOS, PlayStore, Steam. London SFB Games
Strzalkowski, T. and Symborski, C., 2016. Lessons Learned About Serious Game Design and Development. Games and Culture, 12(3), pp.292-298.
Strzalkowski, T. and Symborski, C., 2016. Lessons Learned About Serious Game Design and Development. Games and Culture, 12(3), pp.292-298.
Swink, S., 2009. Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation. 1st ed. Elsevier.
n.d. Unity Engine. San Francisco: Unity Technologies.
Vestby-Clarke, S., 2021. Week 3 Challenge Activity - Reverse Engineer Prototype | Sam Vestby-Clarke. [online] A critical reflective journal. Available at: <https://indie.samvestbyclarke.com/week-3-challenge-activity-reverse-engineer-prototype> [Accessed 22 August 2021].
Vestby-Clarke, S., 2021. Week 4 - Rapid Ideation Part 01 | Sam Vestby-Clarke. [online] A critical reflective journal. Available at: <https://indie.samvestbyclarke.com/rapid-ideation-01> [Accessed 22 August 2021].
Vestby-Clarke, S., 2021. Week 5 - Rapid Ideation Part 02 - The Artefact [online] A critical reflective journal. Available at: <https://indie.samvestbyclarke.com/week-5-rapid-ideation-part-02-the-artefact> [Accessed 22 August 2021].Vestby-Clarke, S., 2021. Week 5 - Reflection [online] A critical reflective journal. Available at: <https://indie.samvestbyclarke.com/week-5-reflection> [Accessed 22 August 2021].
Vestby-Clarke, S., 2021. Weeks 8-9: Rapid Ideation Session 2 [online] A critical reflective journal. Available at: <https://indie.samvestbyclarke.com/weeks-8-9-rapid-ideation-session-2> [Accessed 22 August 2021].
York, T., 2012. Making Lean Startup Tactics Work for Games. [online] Gamasutra. Available at: <https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/168647/making_lean_startup_tactics_work_.php> [Accessed 1 July 2021].
References in blog
Vestby-Clarke, S., 2021. Personal Case Study Video / Development Practice GDD710. [video] Available at: <https://vimeo.com/590669490/d2cdf44505> [Accessed 22 August 2021].