A SERIOUS GAME TESTED THE REGION’S HIGH TECH SKILLS
IN 2009, PIEDMONT Triad Partnership (PTP), funded by a WIRED Department of Labor grant to promote regional workforce and economic development, contacted me about leading a team to create a serious game. We agreed goals would center on creating working relationships among educators and the few game professionals in the Triad region, enlarge the circle of expertise, and produce a demo game to test our abilities. As our results became more impressive, PTP became less interested in the collaborative community we built up or educators’ training and more interested in the game's commercial viability.
• I wanted to send the signal this would not be a typical academic exercise. (more).
• We created a solid, respectable game, an excellent “first try” for a raw team. (more, screenshots)
• I visited campuses and talking to students about collaboration. (more)
• I convinced PTP it needed to hold a project review if we were truly interested in building a game or interactive industry in the Piedmont. (more)
• Lessons Learned, my notes for the lunchtime panel discussion at PTP's lavish Capstone Event. (Summary of successes, failures, and lessons learned).
From the start, I designed the project to have an afterlife through continuing collaborative relationships and connections among educators who play a key role to the region's technology and innovation future. This focus was important because the Triad lacks the kinds of industry-education resources found in the Triangle and Charlotte. Above all, I wanted to avoid a scenario of an expensive ramp-up followed by a lack of projects to follow, because the Triad had already experienced the building of a big ticket serious game (more).
Only when I explained that each face-to-face team meeting cost $700 could I convince the PTP director that online collaboration was essential.• A visual history of the game's development. (slide show)
• I wanted to send the signal this would not be a typical academic exercise. (more).
• We created a solid, respectable game, an excellent “first try” for a raw team. (more, screenshots)
• I visited campuses and talking to students about collaboration. (more)
• I convinced PTP it needed to hold a project review if we were truly interested in building a game or interactive industry in the Piedmont. (more)
• Lessons Learned, my notes for the lunchtime panel discussion at PTP's lavish Capstone Event. (Summary of successes, failures, and lessons learned).
From the start, I designed the project to have an afterlife through continuing collaborative relationships and connections among educators who play a key role to the region's technology and innovation future. This focus was important because the Triad lacks the kinds of industry-education resources found in the Triangle and Charlotte. Above all, I wanted to avoid a scenario of an expensive ramp-up followed by a lack of projects to follow, because the Triad had already experienced the building of a big ticket serious game (more).
