4th Grade Lesson 8-
"Game On"
Hello 4th Graders! Today's Learning Target is...
I can use design thinking to innovate a video game based on an ecosystem or habitat and the living and nonliving organisms that inhabit it.
- or -
I can use design thinking to innovate a video game based on the planets in our solar system.
Today's app / program is: BLOXELS edu
Video Game Designers Wanted
An independent video game company has hired our video game studio to create a new and exciting game. This game will be designed strictly for mobile devices and will be a (visually) linear game, such as the original hits: Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Your team will be creating the story, characters, visuals, and levels that make video games fun and exciting. The areas your team will be focusing on are the same ones that make developers and companies spend millions of dollars creating and designing.
The rules are:
1) You can not design a game that has already been made.
2) No video game or movie characters can be used.
3) Your heroes, enemies, plot, story blocks, and setting must be based on a major ecosystems or the solar system.
This project will introduce you to the process of 'design thinking'. Design thinking is a problem solving process used to develop new products, or, used to solve everyday problems. There are 5 steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
Your team will be creating the story, characters, visuals, and levels that make video games fun and exciting. The areas your team will be focusing on are the same ones that make developers and companies spend millions of dollars creating and designing.
The rules are:
1) You can not design a game that has already been made.
2) No video game or movie characters can be used.
3) Your heroes, enemies, plot, story blocks, and setting must be based on a major ecosystems or the solar system.
This project will introduce you to the process of 'design thinking'. Design thinking is a problem solving process used to develop new products, or, used to solve everyday problems. There are 5 steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
Design Thinking
Step 1: Empathize
Your team will use design thinking to create your video game. Design thinking starts by gaining empathy for potential product users. To design an effective product, we must put ourselves in the shoes of the users. Gather information about what others have done.
1.Get an iPad, open the Bloxels app, and navigate to the Bloxels Infinity Wall.
2. Play at least 2 different games on the Bloxels Infinity wall. Keep in mind what you like and don’t like about each one. Spend a few minutes on this.
1.Get an iPad, open the Bloxels app, and navigate to the Bloxels Infinity Wall.
2. Play at least 2 different games on the Bloxels Infinity wall. Keep in mind what you like and don’t like about each one. Spend a few minutes on this.
Steps 2 & 3: Define and Ideate
3. Work with your team to complete a game concept plan with heroes, enemies, setting, and plot (game conflict) based on what you learned about ecosystems or the solar system. You may also use the Pebble Go research site and the information sheets in your Google Classroom.
- OR -
Step 4: Prototype
Requirements:
- Need to add 1 custom made hero with multiple areas of animation.
- Need to add 1 custom made enemy with multiple areas of animation.
- Need at least 4 rooms.
- Decorate your background and blocks based on your environment card.
- Create brains for your enemies. Click here for the directions.
- Need at least 3 story blocks that propel the story forward. They should give information that is relevant to your game and help the player learn more about the world they are traveling through.
- Game should end with an "end flag" white block.
Video Design Team Roles
Each Video Design Team will have 4 members with 4 roles. Although there are 4 role, the team will support each other in their roles in order to create a new video game. The roles are:
Hero Designer:
Will your hero represent a person, thing, or idea? If there are two sides to a story, which perspective will you take.
Enemy Designer:
In your game, what causes trouble for your hero? When your hero travels to different levels (rooms) will the enemies change?
Layout Designer:
Hazards can block the way or make paths more dangerous and interesting. What is your hero afraid of and why? What will your hazards look like in the game? How do the hazards connect to the story, hero, or enemies?
Story Designer:
Hero Designer:
Will your hero represent a person, thing, or idea? If there are two sides to a story, which perspective will you take.
Enemy Designer:
In your game, what causes trouble for your hero? When your hero travels to different levels (rooms) will the enemies change?
Layout Designer:
Hazards can block the way or make paths more dangerous and interesting. What is your hero afraid of and why? What will your hazards look like in the game? How do the hazards connect to the story, hero, or enemies?
Story Designer:
Have fun with this, and I can’t wait to see what you have created!