Grand Text Auto

The following is the third in a 3-part series of posts by Tiltfactor student interns. Metadata Games is a NEH-funded open source project that uses games to help crowdsource archive and library holding tags. Here, interns Andrea and Viviana briefly describe their prototyping process for designing a competitive multi-player mobile game:

Our team was assigned with the task of creating a mobile, multiplayer metadata collection game that incorporates elements of fast paced competition and “one upping” your competitor. The catch is that we had to turn what worked as a competitive synchronous game into an asynchronous game. How would we enable players to form an exciting attachment to the game and be competitive with each other as each player interacted with the game over varying time spans? What would make players come back and play another round?

Dear Tiltfactor Fans,

Thanks to all who attended our open house yesterday exploring the possibilities of Persuasive Games! You made the open house a success! The Tilt team had a great time catching up with long-time fans and new faces over buffalo, ZOMBIEPOX, Alum Tag and many more games!

Nick and Gregorio Amaro chat at the open house

A special appreciation to those who participated in Geoff’s study – we had over 20 spontaneous participants in 2 hours! Look for new updates on our continued studies in the Upper Valley and beyond, our RePlay Health Initiative, and new metadata research and game development as we move into 2013. And as always, come by and playtest with the Tiltfactor team!

In my short time as a game design intern here at Tiltfactor, I’ve found the real difficulty rests in the balance between challenge and simplicity (as it often does with the rest of life). How do you foster arenas for motivation, learning, and fun without tilting too far into states of boredom or anxiety (as described in the Three Channel Model of flow)?

Kiili’s (2009) Extended three-channel model of flow (modified from Csikszentmihalyi, 1991).

In his paper “Digital game-based learning: Towards an experiential gaming model” Kristian Kiili (2005) argues for an educational game model, integrating educational theories and game design, that facilitates “flow” of flow theory in order to design meaningful and engaging educational games.