Developing Serious Games: What Tools Do You Use?
This is a guest post from Charles Palmer. He is the Director of the Center for Advanced Entertainment and Learning Technologies (CAELT) and Associate Professor of Multimedia at Harrisburg University. Charles leads the Center as well as spearheads new developments in digital storytelling and forms of entertainment technology for projects at HU and in the community. He is a creative educator, administrator, and producer. He is co-coordinator of the LEEF program.
I’ve got a question, what are you using to build your serious games or simulations?
This post is less of a “state of where we are” and more of a question on “how you’re doing it.” By “it,” I’m referring to the tools being used to craft your game and simulation projects. If Serious Gaming focuses on intentional learning outcomes to accomplish measurable and sustained changes in student performance and behavior, what tools are developers using to deliver, assess and manage the learning process?
Two of the biggest players are Adobe Flash, a multimedia platform primarily used for web deployment, and SecondLife, the premiere virtual world service. Both of these platforms owe their success to low-barriers of entry for end-users (free viewer/player applications), robust scripting language, and a thriving user community of shared resources, training, and assets.
But there are many more solutions to the development task. Game developers like Epic Games and Crytek have released their previously proprietary development kits into the gaming community. These engines manage things like basic interactions, navigation and environmental collisions, allowing the novice developer to freely focus on game logic, asset creation, and learning objectives. Originally intended to let game players create, modify and share level designs, these tools, like Epic’s Unreal Engine, serve as powerful and affordable simulation platforms. Many of the titles we know (Virtual Heroes, America’s Army…) would not exist without these tools.
Other game development tools such as Blender3D, Wildpockets, and Unity offer sophisticated tools and functions to the open-source (free) development community, but there are many more success stories out there.
Choosing the right tools is a critical and demanding decision that requires thoughtful consideration. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions for the serious games industry or the submarkets of military, corporate enterprise, healthcare/first responders, and K-18 education. The engine needed to teach emergency first-aid or armored transport vehicle repair probably wouldn’t be the same one used for teaching history, algebra or time management. Everything from context, team skills, project specifications, budget, audience, and production time must be weighed to identify a solution for your particular goals.
So, what are you using? What goes into your decision process to selecting tools? Are we in need for a dedicated “serious games development engine?” If so, why hasn’t anyone created one yet?
You can learn more about serious game development at LEEF 2010. You will be able to learn about innovative new technologies before they are mainstream and explore ways to integrate experimental tools. Jerry Heneghan, our keynote speaker will talk about a Development Approach for Successful Serious Games. Visit www.leef2010.net for more information and to register.
[Disclaimer: I use Flash primarily, but also have experience with a few 3D engines]
Regarding why there isn’t a dedicated tool yet, I think because the elements of whatever we call a ‘serious game’ can vary so widely, in spite of a catchy, succinct name. If we can define a specific type of serious game, we can adapt the tools to streamline that application, but we’re nowhere near that point. Until then, we have to identify the presentation elements we feel our ‘serious game’ requires and use tools to produce those elements, whether they be from game development platforms or training development platforms. It may sound sarcastic, but I would include PowerPoint on your list of platforms — why do serious games have to involve heavy use of technology?
I’m sure software platform vendors would love to create a dedicated “serious games development engine” if there really were enough of a consensus about which specific problems any type of serious game addresses, and if there was a dedicated pool of money to go after. However, I don’t think we have reached anywhere near a consensus on such a categorization, and of course the size of the market (available money) is always the overriding concern. In my experience, money people give lip service to training but it’s really marketing where dollars/euros/yen are invested.
Thanks Jonathan.
I’m glad you mentioned PowerPoint as a platform. Andy Petroski’s LTMS program has been doing some great things with PowerPoint. I was blown away with the programming and functionality the students have been able to achieve. Visit
http://www.harrisburgu.net/educators-technology-clinics/clinic-topics/learning-games-simulations.php for the project descriptions. I believe they will be including the work some time soon.