Social issues class

So the whole, "Take a picture with my phone and upload it to the blog immediately, which will make me head to the blog and write a post actually talking about what is in the picture" idea hasn't been working lately (as evidenced by the previous two posts which sport pictures but no real text. Unless, of course, I retcon and go edit them.)

This is my Social Issues class plus a couple of auditors. It's a rambunctious group that not only likes to discuss stuff, but likes to challenge how I grade things and why I do things the way I do them. I welcome the challenges. I find the hardest thing is not to let them (or me) go off on tangents, and not to let the whole class degrade into a bunch of smaller conversations.

Overall they're a good group. Even the guy who talks all the time knows he's talking all the time and doesn't begrudge it when I ignore his raised hand to call on some other people who haven't spoken yet.

Actually, the hardest part is guiding the discussion so it actually reveals something about the text or subject being discussed. I think we all enjoy the discussion, but I'm not always convinced that any real learning happens until we all walk away and think about some of the things that've come up.

WPI GameJam

The WPI GameJam came a week after IGDA's Global GameJam. That meant we had all WPI students participating, and no outside schools. Ah well.

Over the weekend, groups started and worked on games for the Mass Game Challenge. 38 Studios sent designers, artists, and programmers over to talk to the teams, review their ideas, see what advice they could give, and provide pizza. We webcast the whole thing almost live (about a minute delay for technical reasons, not about censoring anything) which led to a strange call from Chuck Rich where he was talking to me on the phone and watching my answer about a minute in the past. He was giddy with excitement, which is always fun to be a part of.

During a lull in the excitement (aka, when everyone was actually working), I sat playing my DS and overheard Rich Gallup talking to one of the kids and suddenly it clicked (because I was just listening to him instead of talking to him directly)-- he's the Rich Gallup from Gamespot who's podcast I used to listen to! So I told him so, and we had a weird moment of not quite fan meeting, because I hadn't said I liked the podcast, only that I listened to it. And, of course, the one thing I remembered about him was that he recorded the whole thing standing up while everyone else sat down and made fun of him for standing up. Again, it wasn't exactly, "Hey, I liked your podcast," but it certainly proved that I actually listened to it. I mentioned that he left before the whole Gerstmann-gate thing blew up, and he said he was still in touch with all those guys, and then we kind of paused...

And then one of the other 38 Studio guys called him away and we never mentioned it again.

Awkward.

For the record, when Gallup left the Hotspot, it was pretty much the beginning of the end. I eventually stopped listening to it because the guys were so demoralized after Gerstmann-gate that it was a little sad to listen to, as they each got jobs elsewhere and said their goodbyes.

And Rich and all the guys were great to show up, and I know the kids thought it was great to have them there whether they were helping or distracting them.

Frontiers '08

Today was the last day of Frontiers, a summer program where high school juniors and seniors come for two weeks to see (kind of) what college is like. I've been doing this for 14 years now in some capacity. The last three years I've been teaching the Art component of the IMGD "major."


That means we have a week and a half of two hours per day classes. I speak for the first hour and then turn them loose on the computers for the second. They design and build Unreal Tournament 2004 levels. I have a TA (hi Eric!) who actually remembers much more about UT2004 editing than I do.

The gang did much better this year than last year. Basically everyone had a playable level. They could all probably use a bit more polish, all the level properties set correctly, a screenshot from the level displayed in the menu, more stuff on the walls, and some set dressing, BUT they were all fun to play. At the end of the day, that's all you can ask.

And really most of them did it in about three days. You see, first they have to work through a video tutorial making their first level. That's most of the first week. The UnrealEd software is really user friendly and easy to pick up. So what did I do differently this year? I stressed a process for level design. It's pretty simple.

Dean's Guide for UT2004 Level Design (applicable to other games too):

1. Have a theme. What is this place? What is it used for when guys with big guns aren't running around gunning each other down there?
2. Draw it out on paper first. It's much easier to erase and redraw a line than it is to replace a hallway or resize a room.
3. Lay out all your gross architecture first with a default texture. It doesn't have to look good at this point, but it should be almost playable.
4. Position all your gameplay elements. Those are spawn points, weapons, health, armor, adrenaline, liquids, and movers (elevators, conveyor belts, pits).
5. Light it. Quick and dirty. Don't fuss over shadows.
   
6. Playtest, playtest, playtest.
7. Repeat #4.
8. Apply textures to everything.
9. Place static meshes to make the level look like a real place.
10. Relight, adding colors and effects.
    
11. Polish: add music, original sounds, level info, etc.

And that's pretty much it. Most of them ran out of time around step 8 or 9, and probably still need more playtesting.

Now I wanted to post a screenshot from each level with a brief description, and maybe a link to all of them. Eric made a pile of CD's so the kids could all take home the work they did, and included one for me. I got it home to load it up and start taking screenshots and found my CD was blank. I'm hoping that it's an anomaly and that the rest of them actually have something on their CDs.

I'll post them as soon as I get them.