GDP Blog#1

                    The first lecture of Game Design & Product was great. It was great to see everyone, our TA, and Dr. Lennart again after the summer. This year, GDP has a whole new system regarding to the assignment, aka missions, that is waiting ahead of us, and I am looking forward to it after understanding how this system works.

                    The level system is introduced where students have to earn XP by completing different kind of tasks, for example, questing, crafting, and fighting monsters. Some tasks can be done only once and some other ones can be done multiple times before reaches its limit. However, every attempt counts. Students will not receive XP by completing the tasks if they already exceed the limit regardless of how well or bad they do. There are rules and different types of quests in the system but I will save it for later on. After all, students receive grades equal to the XP they earn over the semester.

                    Last year, we had a course Computer Animation featuring a similar XP system, however, I find this one is more interesting. First of all, it has a level system which allows student to level up. Leveling up brings in 2 benefits - to unlock higher quest and skill on avatar. For the former one, I, as a gamer, like challenges and achieve goals in game. It gives me motivation to work on those assignments. For the latter one, it helps me get into the system better by having an avatar to deal with everything in it, and as I make progress I gain more privilege (in this case, I can unlock 2 more skills that God knows what I can do with them).

                    I am looking forward to this course because I noticed the system is very similar to a level in game. Here is the list of 10 principles for good level design by GDC 2013 (http://www.edge-online.com/news/gdc-2013-10-principles-for-good-level-design/), and I find quite a few of them match the education system.

"3. Good level design always tells the player what to do, but never how to do it"
In GDP, tasks are given and it is always up to us and our knowledge, imagination, and creativity lead us to the final result. Fun stuff.

"4. Good level design constantly teaches the player"
Definitely or hopefully, we are all going to learn something at the end of the semester to be a qualified game designer.

                    Since this GDP XP system is so interesting, I also did a little research on how game and education relate to each other and teach us things. Here is the link to the document I found, Video Games and Education: Designing learning systems for an interactive age - http://website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/tenure-files/02-squire-ed-tech-refchecV3.pdf, it has 27 pages. I only read the first 2 pages and I found it very informative.


                    As for now, my avatar name is Hadva and I am current level 1 with 0 XP.