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Learning to Make Computer Games: An Academic Approach

Harri Hakonen, Tuomas Mäkilä, Jouni Smed, Andy Best, Learning to Make Computer Games: An Academic Approach. TUCS Technical Reports 899, Turku Centre for Computer Science, 2008.

Abstract:

Anything that combines aspects of play, challenge and conflict can be seen as a game. Therefore, games provide a versatile but demarcated setting for education. From the students' perspective the concept of 'game' is familiar, approachable and diverse, which makes it motivating for them. From the teachers' point of view, a game can serve as a mixing pot for various study subjects. For example, making a game can concretise study topics as well as work practices and on-the-fly collaboration across many different disciplines. Therefore, games as an educational form seem to suit to situations where the study material cannot be partitioned into strict independent fragments. Because our areas of teaching are digital arts and software development, it is natural to instruct students using computer games projects.<p>

However, the selection of a game as an educational form does not solve problems in learning such as misconceptions due to simplification. To deepen the students' understanding we have to cope with at least the following issues: how to verify and validate acquired knowledge, how to distinguish and intermix the essentials, and how conflicting interests in the domain of computer games are resolved. From our experience, in digital arts and software development a teacher cannot--and should not--expect pre-made plans to hold when teaching more advanced knowledge: To understand the 'whys' we have to consider holistically the contexts, contents, and organizations of the study topics. To meet these prerequisites with tested practices we (i.e., the teachers and the students) create computer games in actual software development projects.<p>

There is a myriad of ways for arranging a software development project. We present three project configurations that depend on how closely the teachers participate to the actual project work. We describe and analyse our experiences from several course instances and student projects on computer game development, and discuss their implications for the teacher.


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BibTeX entry:

@TECHREPORT{tHaMaSmBe08a,
  title = {Learning to Make Computer Games: An Academic Approach},
  author = {Hakonen, Harri and Mäkilä, Tuomas and Smed, Jouni and Best, Andy},
  number = {899},
  series = {TUCS Technical Reports},
  publisher = {Turku Centre for Computer Science},
  year = {2008},
  keywords = {Computer games, education, student project},
  ISBN = {978-952-12-2105-7},
}

Belongs to TUCS Research Unit(s): Algorithmics and Computational Intelligence Group (ACI)

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