Embedded Files
Overview
Overview
Client Brief
Client Brief
Individual Research
Individual Research
Alpha prototype/interactive concept.
Link to Itch.io (restricted):
https://lxmln.itch.io/gds213-serious-game-alpha-prototype
Notes
Notes
(Wingate, 2006)
study skills cannot be divorced entirely from subject matter
academic writing is the most important skill to learn at university
lecturers/facilitators need to help students understand what 'important information' is, as opposed to general information - leads to better note-taking
independent learning skills
typically about time management, essay writing, revision and presentation
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(Hassanbeigi et al., 2011)
teaching study skills like time management, distraction management, note-taking, test strategies, anxiety management, organization of information, and motivation can help students do better
note-taking and being able to distinguish the most important info from the rest is highly beneficial to students
even just taking notes helps encode info
reading comprehension is necessary for sorting through info while reading - also requires some prior understanding of the subject for guidance
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(Solomon & Rothblum, 1984)
almost 50% of uni students procrastinate when writing academic papers, and almost 30% procrastinate on studying for exams
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(Grabe, 2005)
students who made use of notes - whether written or provided - did better on exams than those who didn't use notes
there is a concern that students may use provided notes as an alternative to attendance, but it was found that these students had lower performance scores than others.
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(Mayer, 2019)
students who learned basic math from a computer game understood the concepts faster and scored better on tests than those who received a computer-based traditional lesson.
they also enjoyed it a lot more, and are therefore more likely to engage with the content
works best for academic subjects - science, math and languages
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(Anastasiadis et al., 2018)
video games in an educational setting can help students' wellbeing by giving them a break from the monotony of traditional learning
allows students to have a work-fun balance without sacrificing learning
improves soft skills like communication and interpersonal cooperation
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(Game Stats, n.d.)
single player and action are 2nd and 3rd most popular game tags on Steam
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(Cai, 2013)
learner motivation increases when the learning is fun and enjoyable (Lunckner & Bisson, 1996, as cited in Cai, 2013)
can keep students engaged in the topic by making it fun - arcade games are a good way to do this
References:
Anastasiadis, T., Lampropoulos, G. and Siakas, K. (2018). Digital Game-based Learning and Serious Games in Education. International Journal of Advances in Scientific Research and Engineering, 4(12), pp.139–144. doi:https://doi.org/10.31695/ijasre.2018.33016.
Cai, C.J. (2013). Adapting Arcade Games for Learning. In: Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. [online] Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, United States: Association for Computing Machinery, pp.2665–2670. doi:https://doi.org/10.1145/2468356.2479490.
Game Stats (n.d.). Top Steam Tags by Sales and Revenue as of 2023. [online] games-stats.com. Available at: https://games-stats.com/steam/tags/ [Accessed 8 Jun. 2023].
Grabe, M. (2005). Voluntary use of online lecture notes: Correlates of note use and note use as an alternative to class attendance. Computers & Education, 44(4), 409–421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2004.04.005
Hassanbeigi, A., Askari, J., Nakhjavani, M., Shirkhoda, S., Barzegar, K., Mozayyan, M. R., & Fallahzadeh, H. (2011). The relationship between study skills and academic performance of university students. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 1416–1424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.276
Mayer, R.E. (2019). Computer Games in Education. Annual Review of Psychology, 70(1), pp.531–549. doi:https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102744.
Solomon, L. J., & Rothblum, E. D. (1984). Academic procrastination: Frequency and cognitive-behavioral correlates. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31(4), 503–509. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.31.4.503
Wingate, U. (2016). Doing away with “study skills.” Teaching in Higher Education, 11(4), 457–469. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510600874268
Group Progress
Group Progress
Documents
Documents
This is the slide deck for our group pitch presentation. Kelecia designed it with Canva, and the rest of us contributed to our designated sections.
Short link:
t.ly/QbccF
Audio
Audio
1. This is a clip of the background music playing in the start menu, as well as the button click sound effect. Both of these sounds are just placeholders for the moment.
UPDATE: I've decided to keep them in.
2. This script controls how and when the next scene is loaded. I learnt what coroutines are in order to set a small delay when the start button is pressed. This was to allow time for the sound to play.
3. Thanks to this video (CatoDevs, 2020), I was able to make the background music play across scenes.
4. These are the sound effects that I sourced for this game. I managed to find all of them (except the two UI dings, which I believe Kelecia found) from Pixabay.
References:
CatoDevs. (2020, September 2). Unity Tutorial : How to Seamlessly playing music between multiple scenes [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtfe5S9n4SI&ab_channel=CatoDevs
Pixabay. (2021, August 10). Birds chirping 04. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/birds-chirping-04-6771/
Pixabay. (2022a, January 20). Flipping through a book.mp3. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/flipping-through-a-bookmp3-14415/
Pixabay. (2022b, June 19). door-open-close. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/door-open-close-45475/
Pixabay. (2022c, May 20). cash register. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/cash-register-26935/
Stevebrodie. (2022, May 2). Coins 2. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/coins-2-110372/
UI Design
UI Design
1. (Left) These are the sketches I made to conceptualize my ideas for the UI. We've agreed to have a notebook motif throughout the game, as it's about a university student who needs to balance their nutrition against study for an upcoming exam.
2. (Below) I quickly threw this together in Photoshop to illustrate how the starting menu could look. It's meant to be the front page of a planner/notebook. The game takes place over a period of seven days, hence the calendar.
3. This is another mock-up of how a menu could look. I suggested that the main text panel (where the player will read the interactions) and the pause menu be on the same piece of paper. When the game is paused, it will slide up the screen to show the menu. The black line is just for illustrative purposes.
4. Here is an illustration to show the UI for when the player is grocery shopping. It has the meal name and short description, as well as ingredients and how it affects the player' stats. We may add some approximate nutrition information into the description. I forgot to add it to this sketch, but there will also be a meter to show the player how much money they have remaining.
5. (Left) These are some fonts I am considering for the title. It needs to be fun and fit the aesthetic we're going for, but still legible. I'm drawn to the second or fourth options.
6. (Right) These are the candidates for any body text. They are all easily readable and have just enough personality to not be boring. I like the first and second ones the most, as they are similar to graphic novel fonts.
UPDATE: the highlighted options are the ones we've decided on.
7. This is the script that I used to load the next scene when the start button is pressed.
UPDATE: I changed this to a coroutine in order to play audio.
8. Here is that script in action. Most of the assets are still placeholders, with the exception of the second scene background.
9. Screenshot of the Inspector, showing how the script and the button work together.
10. I also created a script to exit the game when the corresponding button is pressed, but I won't be able to fully test it until we are ready to run a build for the first time.
UPDATE: having made the pause menu, it now resets the time scale back to 1.
11. The pause menu works more-or-less as hoped. A short animation plays when the player presses the escape button, to make the paper slide up the screen.
12. This is the script that handles the pause menu. George helped me with making sure the time scale resets when the game is unpaused.
13. I watched this tutorial by GameDevTraum (2022) to learn how to load a new scene by its name, rather than by its build number as I'd been doing before.
14. I made the assets for the pause menu/dialogue box myself, using Procreate and Photopea. I wanted the buttons to look like highlighter on paper, to match the notebook theme. Currently, the Settings button doesn't work because the page hasn't been created yet.
15. This is the start screen that I drew. Like the Pause menu, I made it with Procreate and Photopea.
References:
GameDevTraum. (2022, November 17). How to CHANGE SCENE BY NAME when pressing BUTTON in Unity [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05OfmBIf5os&ab_channel=GameDevTraum
Reflections
Reflections
Mid-Project
Mid-Project
Proficiency: How did you develop your technical skills and knowledge? Give examples of the skills and knowledge, techniques, and self-directed research that inform your project (min. 50 words).
As with the Meaningful game, I did my research report before getting started on designing my Serious game. I chose the medium-difficulty option (study skills for university students) because I didn’t want to overreach by choosing the hardest, but choosing the easiest also felt like a bit of a cop out. Ultimately, I’ve ended up working on a nutrition game anyway. Considering my current workload, it’s probably a blessing. It was a bit awkward researching such a dry topic as study skills and then trying to figure out how to make a fun game about it.
Process: How did you improve your workflows and processes, including changes and setbacks? Give specific examples of your research and how it influenced your creative process (min. 50 words).
Originally, my idea was a Street Fighter-esque game that teaches students how to extract important information from an unfamiliar text. This was because note-taking is quite possibly the most important skill a university student can have, and those who make use of notes tend to perform better on academic tests than those who don’t (Hassanbeigi et al., 2011). However, we’re now focusing on teaching students to eat properly and manage their money in order to succeed academically.
We’re using Unity for our nutrition game, as we don’t need the visual capabilities of Unreal Engine 5, and can instead incorporate more mechanics. I volunteered to do audio and later agreed to also do UI. The reason I didn’t opt for art was because I really doubt I’ll have the bandwidth for it this trimester. Luckily, UI is another area that I’m interested in.
Person: What communication and collaboration skills did this project require, and how did you develop these skills? How did you manage collaboration, receiving and giving feedback to others? (min. 50 words)
My teammates and I get along pretty well, and we all work hard, so I’m not expecting any dramas from this project. We’ve got a Discord server for our group because none of us are particularly comfortable using Slack. I was a bit worried about communication for the first week or so, but now that we’ve all gotten into our stride that issue seems to have ironed itself out. So far, we’ve received a little bit of feedback and it seems mostly positive. We’re planning to have a Minimum Viable Product demo ready for user testing by the beginning of Week 7.
Post-Mortem
Post-Mortem
Appraisal: Overall, how successful was your project? What worked or didn't work, and why? How did it match with your expectations? Give specific examples, screenshots or links (min. 50 words).
This project was extremely successful. We managed to put together a decent game in about nine weeks flat, which surprised everyone. Eventually we agreed that we could wrap up what we had and still be able to turn in something worth playing, which gave me the time I needed to work on my other game. Instead of taking on art, like I usually do, I opted to volunteer for audio and the UI. Half the reason was because I’m not so comfortable with 2D art, and the other half was because I wanted to take on a less intensive role for this game since I was working on my Meaningful project alone.
George was the best project manager I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. He was very well organized and did a fantastic job at keeping everyone updated and on track. Everyone did really well and I’m proud of how our serious game turned out.
Challenges: What obstacles did you overcome and how? What lessons did you learn? (min. 50 words)
It was sometimes a bit tricky to keep track of what I was supposed to be doing, as the project moved so quickly and so efficiently. I occasionally felt like I was at a loose end, again partly because we were finished so soon, but also because I took a more relaxed, back-seat role than I normally do. I let my communication skills slide this trimester, and I do feel guilty that I wasn’t as responsive as I should have been, but I struggled to balance all of my work this trimester. Trying to remember to communicate outside of class was a challenge.
Future Goals: How will you improve your skills for future projects? What will you do differently in your next project? What will you repeat? (min. 50 words)
I would definitely like to replicate how well we worked, especially the management side of things, for other projects. This trimester really taught me a lot about how to effectively and efficiently produce a well-polished game even in a short space of time. It was really nice to have more time to focus on other work, and I enjoyed drawing the UI elements. Had we been doing a 3D-based game, I think I would’ve missed being an artist, but for this project I was happy to let someone else take on that role.
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