Literacy and other

curricular areas in games design

Matthew ReidCatriona Smith

Pupils of Garnock Academy

IntroductionsGarnock Academy, Kilbirnie, North AyrshireMatthew Reid – Teacher of English, Lead Teacher of Games DesignCatriona Smith – Teacher of English, Teacher of Games DesignCallum Burns – Head Editor of Islands of Elemental EvilAndrew Ferguson – Head Script Writer of Islands of Elemental EvilDavid MacKnight – Head Mapmaker of Islands of Elemental EvilJohn Buckley – Games Designer, Curse of the Hydra

Thank you for coming

Lesson aims

Enthuse and convince you about the merits of Games Design in promoting literacy (and other curricular areas).

Hopefully, give you some meaningful advice about how to set up and teach the course.

Ask questions at any time

For ‘The Walkthrough’

A volunteer who thinks they are great at playing

computer games

What we don’t represent

Good, Honest Story-tellingNon-violent challenge and enjoymentCharacterisationSettingBuilding Blocks of a QuestResolving conflict using ‘brains not brawn’.

Achievement Comes Through Improving Literacy

Literacy is where we started

Games design club SLF 2010

The Very First N.Com Class

Pupils Teaching Teachers at ‘Games to Learn’ in Dundee

Look How It’s Grown!•NCom

•NCom 2•Senior Games

Design

How is the course structured?

John can explain it better than I can...

Design Assets Development

RPG MAKER VX

http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/download or just ‘google’: RPGMAKER VX

‘Programming Light’ means ‘Literacy heavy’

Curricular areas

Literacy

English

Art

Music

Languages

ICT

Literacy and English skills

The lengths we go to for literacy

Callum and Andrew

Improving literacy and problem solving skills.

Specific ‘LIT’ and ‘ENG’ areas

Solo talksGroup workCreative writing Informative writingReport writingCritical essay writingVocabulary buildingTarget settingSpelling, punctuation and grammarReading for pleasure and enjoyment

Curriculum for excellence

Hundreds of cross-curricular opportunities.

You can take it as far as your imagination allows you.

Here are some suggestions...

ICT

TCH 4-09aBy learning the basic principles of a programming language or control technology, I can design a solution to a scenario, implement it and evaluate its success.

TCH 3-09aUsing appropriate software, I can work

individually or collaboratively to design and implement a game, animation or other application.

MUSICEXA 3.17a/4.17a/b: ‘I can compose music with music technology’.“At the opening you want the piece to be light, easy listening and short. A short piece repeated draws the player into the game and sets the mood. Starting with a solo piccolo draws in the listener. Building part by part, adding each bar at a time builds in character and makes the player interested to hear. With the same piece repeating it gets them in the mood to play.”“The best way to write a piece is to hear it in your mind and write the melody down first. Build around your melody and involve all the parts. The hardest part is choosing the instruments. Think about the music and where it’s going to be used. For instance, you don’t want to use a flute in a battle scene or crash symbol in a slow dance with the prince.”

Musescore

Free to download-

Google ‘musescor

e’

ARTEXA 3.02a: I

can use technology to create images

EXA 3.06a: I can communicate

design solutions in response to a

brief.

French

MLAN 4.13a: I can write over a range of topics using a variety of structures, tenses and linking words.

Any Questions?