1. Students will understand and draft a basic layout (wireframe) for a mobile game
2. Students will understand and draft a basic rule set for a mobile game, including victory conditions
Students will first draft a basic layout for their game. This will allow them to exercise their creativity, before they start to delve into formalizing the system of rules for their game. From a project-management perspective for the teacher, it is important that students adhere to a few standards when laying out their game, but they should be encouraged to be creative about how they operate within those standards. Where they place objects and what sprites and colors they choose for buttons, displays, etc. should be up to them (within school standards). Likewise, their rules should be limited in number and complexity, but they should be allowed wide creative freedom in the rules they choose. The teacher will need to gently guide students with rule development to ensure that rules are short, simple and within the scope of the game development platform. Students should be encouraged to organize rules so that they can create a basic game that works first (a minimum viable product), with more sophisticated rules to be implemented later in the Unit. Victory conditions should also be kept simple (pick up all the children, achieve a certain score, etc.).
Risk: it is easy to get distracted by everything going on in the games we will show. Keep in mind the purpose of this section is to focus students GAME LAYOUT and on HOW USERS INTERACT with the game, and focus conversation on just those aspects.
Activity 4.11b.1 (Budget 30 minutes)
Teacher facilitates a discussion on mobile game layout.
1. Teacher walks through Game Layout Powerpoint, and discusses salient features and techniques for good game layout. The slides have a lot of notes attached to help the teacher facilitate and guide the discussion. Students should instinctively know most of these things from their experience with games, we are just making the knowledge explicit. The examples provided are for three very popular and successful games, plus the School Bus example. There are many game examples, and students may find exceptions, but generally they will follow the layout strategies we outline. Students are encouraged to experiment with their own layout designs (during play), as a creative outlet. Teacher reminds students of the role of "User interaction design" or "User Experience" a.k.a. "UX" as one of the roles in a game design team, and that a good layout is an integral part of having a good experience with the game.
Since students will be looking at "AAA" games in this presentation, this is a good time to start the conversation about the difference in AAA games, and App Inventor games, discussed in the intro section and how they are different. The school bus example should help students see the contrast. Students should realize that these games take months to design and produce, by large professional teams. Our goal is to provide a lens into that world and to encourage participation. As a reminder, a good point to bring up here is that while students will not be able to craft a game like Clash of Clans in App Inventor, if they get into a Games and App Development class, they will acquire the skills to make a game like Angry Birds or Candy Crush Saga. Also bring up the fact that many different roles go into game creation, including art, music, and design.
2. Students should complete the left half of the Game Design Worksheet by sketching what they think the layout of their game should be. This should include the positions of the canvas, buttons, sprites, and information displays. It will come as little surprise when these layouts look similar to the game layouts they have just seen. This can be done individually or in pairs.
Activity 4.11b.2 (Budget 30 minutes)
Student pairs design game rules and victory conditions for their game.
1. Students must figure out and document their game rules and victory conditions on the right half of the Game Design Worksheet. They should be encouraged to design at least five simple rules that govern how their game works. The teacher can provide the general rules and victory condition for the bus driver game as a guide, using this Bus Example Worksheet and SneakerCollective example. This can be done individually or in pairs. Teacher reminds students of the role of "game designer" and that crafting game rules is at the heart of game design.
The rules should be in WHEN-THEN format; for example, when a bus picks up a student, then the score increases
The rules should be short and simple, and need not be worked out in detail;
Rules should reward players for achieving goals, or add challenges that drive players away from their goal
The game should have clear victory or end conditions that will end the game with some way to measure overall achievement (e.g. a total score).
Note: Rules will drive data requirements later. It is important that students complete this before moving on.
Activity 4.11b.3 (Budget 30 minutes)
Structured Play: students add background and play with layout elements.
1. Students are given 30 minutes to play in App Inventor, with the following requirements that the teacher should be able to model for the students.
(1) add a background image to the canvas, -- SneakerCollective - "abstract...round.jpg"
(2) add horizontal and vertical layout elements -- SneakerCollective - horizontalArrangement
(3) add buttons or text displays to the layout elements -- SneakerCollective - "Restart" and "Information" buttons, timeDisplay label.
The background that the students use should connect to the setting in their game narrative document.
As before, this will be pair programming. Students should be slightly more engaged than they were previously. Engaging with visual elements should allow for more input and interaction from observers. Students switch roles again after 15 minutes.
The teacher needs to encourage the observers to participate in the process and not "zone-out". It is important to establish the cooperative culture now. The teacher should encourage the "play" element here; this is an opportunity for students to express themselves creatively especially in terms of background. It is OK if students finish early and spend time refining their game design concept on paper. Some students will enjoy thinking about and writing game rules more than playing in AppInventor. Other students will get wrapped up in finding just the right background image. All of this activity is OK and should be encouraged, as long as the students get the basics completed.
4.11b.1 Game Layout PowerPoint (Teacher PowerPoint)
4.11b.1 Game Design Worksheet (Student Worksheet)
4.11b.2 Bus Example Worksheet (Student Example)
4.11b.2 SneakerCollective Example (Student Example)