learning through game development

hey guys,

I’m new to the Unity community and game development in general. I am embarking on an exciting new venture and would like to guage reactions of this game development community as to my plans. My venture isn’t purely game development related but it does involve developing a game. Like I said I am new to game development though I have conducted a lot of research into the level of skills and expertise which the process demands. Its certainly a daunting prospect, which is why I do not wish to embark on the endeavour alone.

I say the venture isn’t purely game development related and what I mean by that is, I do wish to be involved in developing a game, but the end goal isn’t to make a game. Sure a game will be the end product, but its not the specific objective of the process.

My natural inclination is in education and the game I hope to be involved in developing is more directed at the digital learning market rather than consumer gaming. I think the success of Minecraft and its many derivatives, demonstrates that the appeal of computer games have broadened well beyond the original nerdy socially awkward adolescent weaned on adrenaline fueled action games. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I am one of them after all. The brilliance of Minecraft is that it harnesses the natural creative impulse and unleashes that latent potential in a digital format.

One of the game ideas does draw inspiration from Minecraft, but does have marked differences. I would describe it as a block based, city builder/god game with Sim elements. The lessons I would like for the game to teach are history, driving forces behind social change, geography, engineering, applied mathematics, architecture, the history of science and technological advancement and how they all interrelate with one another. I’m aware that its a tall ask, but I believe its a sufficiently worthy goal to make it worth pursuing. Take a look at the link below to get an idea of direction that I’m heading for.

http://www.software-kids.com/html/time_engineers.html

I am seeking to put together a team of developers to become not a conventional game studio, but team that will put together a set of development tools that will allow a group of students to develop a game which they’ve collaboratively drawn up the design and blueprints of. The developers would be intimately involved in the learning process as facilitators and would be responsible for imparting every aspect of the game development process that they feel the group is ready to absorb. The process could take anywhere up to two years. The positions will be paid, fully with requisite to the skills and experience of the developers. I will begin seeking funding very soon. My pitch will have greater credibility if I were to have agreement in principle from interested developers who would like to collaborate in the project. Here’s my pitch

These are just broad goals of the game. I will go more into the specifics below.

The game will be a block based city-builder/god game with Sim elements

It will be 3d and represented in the isometric perspective. It will allow the player to pan and rotate the camera view Think Age of Empires or Stronghold 3.

Not sure if a voxel or polygon based world be more appropriate for the game or a combination of the two. Perhaps Voxelform would be useful in this regard? I understand it allows real time deformation of the terrain, which will be an core feature of the game. I realize the developer has removed it from the Asset Store, but was hoping to either contact him or attract a current owner of Voxelform to become involved in configuring a tool set capable of enabling the game to be made.

The player will be able to influence the world through the intermediation of their Sim populace each with their own distinct natures and drivers, which will influence their current disposition and how they behave. Their actions will be controlled in several ways; directly by the player, independently by the A.I. who respond to dynamic events around them or shaped by scripted events.

Buildings will be constructed out of stone blocks and timber beams for the frameworks, measuring 1X2 unit allowing them to be overlapped all of which will be acted upon by physical forces provided by the rigid body physics system. The Sim workers will directly interact with the blocks with the assistance of historically correct mechanical devices which they’ll use to transport and maneuver the blocks in place, including wagons, cranes, and windlasses.

The building facet of the game will unfold in real-time though periodically interrupted by dynamic or static scripted events. Players will be confronted with the dilemmas and problems faced by the stone mason guilds in the construction of the beautiful medieval buildings many still admire today. They will learn the theoretical underpinnings of many of the skills used in the construction whilst at the same time managing their sim workers and trying to avoid them causing havoc or bringing construction to a halt.

The player will be able to modify the terrain in real-time in order to allow him to provide foundations for his structures, drain or flood landscapes to allow for land use changes, or to dig canals for water transport. I understand that the mathematical calculations required by water simulation are heavily demanding on the CPU, but supposing the scope of a map to be limited will it be feasible to incorporate one without bogging down a player’s PC? There are several implementations of water physics that I’ve come across, a) based on Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics, b) an array of algorithms, as authored by Florian Boesch, c) particle-spring simulation or d) real time Eulerian simulations. I believe some folks are working on integrating SPH into the Shuriken particle editor.

http://codeflow.org/entries/2011/nov/10/webgl-gpu-landscaping-and-erosion/
http://www.emilyweihrich.com/new_website/code.html
http://physxinfo.com/news/5759/physx-research-eulerian-water-simulation-and-solids-through-oriented-particles/

Assist your Sims in supplying enough food for the growing population of your town by clearing wastes, draining swamps, allocating strips of cropland in open field system, plowing fields, planting crops, determining number of each Sims’ livestock by stents, adjudicating disputes in the court-leet

Manage economic aspects of construction project. Raise funding. Pursue political or religious office. Become involved in political intrigue. Balance budget. Coin money without causing hyperinflation, seek loans, attempt to generate an income through town economic activities, raise taxes without distressing the populace.

I’m strongly convinced that society must respond to the doleful state of education in the Western democracies, including New Zealand (where I’m from). In order to do so educators must make an effort to overcome student disaffection and disengagement. Many people in our societies’ feel confined by the traditional classroom environment. Or alienated by how its traditionally delivered when they’re treated by teachers as tabula rasa. To be filled like empty vessels to be filled at the teacher’s discretion. Many can’t relate to the content of their curricula, because it doesn’t have anything to do with day to day lived experience. I’m guessing the vast majority of the members of this community would be pretty well educated on the whole, so I’m not sure how many people around here could identify with the problem or how the scenario describes their own educational experience. Some may judge and condemn those with poor educational outcomes as lazy or stupid and deservedly ground under the heels of those more deserving as they ascend the ladder of social advancement. Or there may be the classic gifted underachiever who can relate to them, because they lacked the challenge needed to engage them in learning or weren’t offered a form of teaching that catered to their natural learning style.

What we need are passionate people who are willing to develop innovative approaches which reengage people in the learning process by making it appealing and even fun. This will be a guiding principle behind my project. I am planning on initiating what I’ve termed a collaborative learning environment, which diverges from the traditional educational approach that is premeditated on individual accomplishment and accreditation to one based on collective and inclusive learning which draws upon each student’s unique talents and abilities. I hope to allow the “class” as a whole to construct, pursue, and accomplish a shared goal together as a learning exercise. It has become a trend amongst progressive educations to seize upon the video gaming as a medium to engage the interest in classroom learning. I do think are actually a powerful adjunct for class room learning, but I wish to go beyond that by allowing the participating students to learn how to develop a game that incorporates core elements of what they’re learning. I’m a great believer in integrative learning where learning facilitators structure learning programmes which integrate knowledge from a whole spectrum of disciples into one interconnected package. I think games and particularly game development have a powerful role to play in enabling this.

I’ll appreciate the community’s feedback on the above. Anyone who just think its an airy-fairy pipedream and intent on dismissing it out of hand need not apply. Constructive criticism on specific aspects of the proposal only please. Thanks.

Sounds good idea i have quite similar idea based in ancient times, before going with Voxelform have in mind that it is quite heavy on performance as soon as you start using it and triplanar shader, you might lose bunch of players due to that. Not saying that Voxelform isnt great, just its quite harsh loosing so much performance while Unity in base allows very old computers to be used on. Also i am not sure how will you able to combine regular 3d models with blocks - or cubes in Minecraft style, something you should think about, it might not work out best, or would it?

If you’re offering money and want people to agree with you then you’ve definitely come to the right place, many people here will suck up to and tell you its a fantastic idea.

The other point that springs to mind is that you should make a decent game design document and coherent proposal, because your block of text above came across to me as a little bit cranky.

hey janpec,

thanks for taking the time to read my post and for the constructive reply. I’d be keen to check out your project and hear about the progress or particular challenges you’ve faced.

On Voxelform performance. I won’t initially be targeting the consumer gaming market, but rather it will be aimed at museum interactive kiosks, so a wide player base won’t be an issue. The game may be a way to partially self-fund the educational programme, but the development process will be the primary objective. The game will be divided up into discrete set pieces focused on particular elements of the game and the world maps which will be rendered will be limited in scope, so performance won’t be so much of an issue.

I don’t know if the blocks would necessarily have to be composed of voxels. Rather I think it best they be just be static polygonal meshes. They don’t have to be destroyed or deformed in any way. Voxels will only be necessary for the terrain deformation to allow for digging ditches or canals. Does anyone know how finely the brush for modifying the terrain can be tuned?

Obviously you didn’t get the memo CrazySi.

I don’t see any constructive criticism in what you wrote. Its not for me to write a “decent game design” document. Thats not the point of this exercise. Obviously the point of my post went straight past your head. I disclosed the intention of my project well before I delved into the details of the prospective game design. It was just a general outline of a potential game. If you didn’t approve of the intention of my broad proposal, there was no reason you should have read the whole post, let alone make a comment.