Playful Learning : how to turn any IP into a successful educational app or game
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Slides from the Playful Learning workshop on creating good educational games from existing IP at the Children's Media Conference 2014. By Martha Henson and Kirsten Campbell-Howes of #LEGup and edugameshub.com. More details http://www.thechildrensmediaconference.com/sessions/wednesday-workshop-playful-learning. Write up http://www.thechildrensmediaconference.com/blog/2014/07/03/wednesday-workshop-playful-learning-report/.
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Playful Learning : how to turn any IP into a successful educational app or game
- 1. Playful Learning How to turn any IP into a successful educational app or game
- 2. Workshop structure 1-5pm ● Part 1: Choosing the right IP ● Part 2: Making it educational ● Part 3: Designing your game ● 3pm Coffee break ● Part 4: Your strategy for success ● Pitch your game idea
- 3. Your hosts for the afternoon… Mahesh Josh Phil Chris Martha Kirsten
- 7. Chris O’Shea, Cowly Owl
- 8. Part 1: Choosing the right IP Can anything be made into a game? Should everything be made into a game?
- 9. Choosing the right IP: considerations Things to look for: • Reach • Cost vs likely return • Ease of partnership/acquisition • Spin off possibilities • Creative possibilities (e.g. Disney will demand a lot from partners)
- 10. The audience • Who is your target audience? • What do they like? • What games do they play? • What sites do they/parents visit? • What do they need to know (literacy, maths, GCSE psychology?) • Who makes the purchasing decision (kid, parent, teacher, school, local authority?)
- 11. Who’s playing what – tablet apps Stats compiled by Dubit Ltd
- 12. Activity 1: Choose your own IP In your groups… • Pick an audience segment • Pick some IP you’d like to work with You have 5 minutes! Octonauts Young Sherlock Holmes Romeo and Juliet
- 13. Education, Education, Education • Designing with the end in mind – setting objectives • Objectives and game design – a natural fit • Should you design to fit a pre-existing curriculum? • Working with educational specialists/partners
- 14. From syllabus to screen
- 15. Activity 2: Set your learning objectives • Decide what subject area/s your game will focus on • Pick a small aspect of the subject to create a demo around (e.g. the 3 times table, the life-cycle of the honeybee) • Write out 3-5 learning objectives from the learner’s perspective. E.g.: • By the end of this game I’ll be able to draw an elephant • By the end of this level I’ll be able to spell 3 words
- 16. Part 3: Game design - considerations • Balancing fun and learning • Phil’s framework – jeopardy, scoring, narrative, cause and effect, measuring achievement, second to second • Prototyping and iterative development • Examples: High Tea/Little Digits
- 17. Game design: visuals and UX • How and when to use a graphic designer/games artist • Making sure your game is challenging to win, not to understand (or the importance of good UX)
- 18. • Game design: test, test & test again • Why? • How?
- 19. Activity 3: Design a part of your game Create the narrative for part of a level (what will happen as the student plays) ● Decide which game mechanics you will use (strategy game, tower defence, racing game, platform game, end of level boss? collecting points? avoiding bad guys?) ● Use the flipchart to illustrate your level
- 20. Part 4: Your strategy for success Designing your game is just the start… Now we move on to consider how you make it a bestseller…
- 21. Distribution • Which platform? • How to market to schools - • How to market to families - app store, other? • Price - freemium/paid for/free • Partnerships
- 22. Schedules and budgets • How long does it take? • How much does it cost? • What are you paying for?
- 23. Measuring success • Building in evaluation - qual and quant • Using analytics • Setting goals - what are the benchmarks?
- 24. Post launch • It doesn’t end when you launch - legacy and maintenance • Iteration • Promotion
- 25. Activity 4: Pitch your game ● In your group decide on a distribution strategy (who will you sell to and how) ● Agree your benchmarks and how you will measure the success of your game ● Set your budget (Hollywood or Holly Oaks?) ● Present your game to the judges - you have 3 minutes to present and 3 minutes for Q&A ● Win great* prizes! * not necessarily that great
- 26. Thanks and happy games making! @marthasadie @campbellhowes @philstuart @chrisoshea @hopsterTV @nightzookeeper
Editor's Notes
- Each person briefly introduces themselves and their main relevant experience Stress that this workshop is interactive - participants should feel free to interrupt and ask questions throughout - we won’t run a Q&A session at the end unless there is time left over.
- mahesh to talk about the Hopster story Kirsten to talk briefly about experience converting Poptropica into Our Discovery Island - advantages of working for big co like Pearson who can afford to buy up appealing IP or partner with IP providers like Disney. M to talk about other ways to utilise IP - works in the public domain like Shakespeare; using existing games/game mechanics as partners or inspiration (ask Eiman about using Top Trumps with Elemons); choosing popular current IP (e.g. Moshi Monsters, Peppa Pig) and going for partnership deals (can Phil or Mahesh talk a little about this)?
- Phil - what are the reasons you might use pre-existing IP - taps into a pre-existing audience. Put this out to the panel. Consider not using pre-existing IP.
- Knowing/choosing your audience should go hand in hand with choosing your IP. Understanding your audience and appealing to the purchaser is key to creating the right content.
- Look at the pre-primary, primary and young teen markets for some inspiration (a couple of minutes on this). Stress importance of conducting market research.
- 5-min brainstorm followed by quick feedback. Facilitators to help out and try to nudge groups into choosing a variety of different IP types. Thought starters: Octonauts, Young Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare, Sean the Sheep
- Kirsten to talk about objective-driven design/working with a syllabus. Why starting from objectives is useful: gives your product educational robustness; makes it easier to structure your game; a good syllabus lends itself to good gameplay (levels, challenges, scaffolded content etc) Ben/Phil to talk about challenges of designing a game to fit with curriculum - UK and common core
- 5-10 minute discussion, facilitators assisting; followed by short feedback Marrying your IP with your learning objectives. Brainstorm learning that arises from IP. Encourage them to choose something very specific.
- Phil to talk about this/Panel approach Framework for games design: jeopardy, scoring, narrative, cause and effect, measuring achievement, second to second (mechanic) Show some examples:
- Chris to talk about this? Dinosaur app - did illustration too early
- Martha to talk about this Chris anecdotes on this. Has videos to show.
- 15-20 minutes to plan and design; facilitators helping. No feedback at this stage - groups will present their game at the end of the session martha - inspiration cards with different game types We use Phil’s framework to describe pre-existing games like Angry Birds Phil’s suggestion for framing response: - The setting (the theme, the world, the narrative) - The imperative (jeapody) - The doing bit (the mechanics) - measure of achievement (the score)
- mahesh can talk about marketing to families. Constructing a story for the app store. Share handout on marketing to schools Chris o’Shea - marketing as a one-man band. Can’t rely on the App Store. Trad media tends to have more impact. Phil - monetization tricky Bundling, e.g. with textbooks
- What is the money going on? ie how much does development cost?
- mahesh: analytics What is success? downloads/finance
- When to stop?
- Round up the event with 10 minutes to prepare final pitches - facilitators helping Then each team presents. We may bring in outside judges to add a little more pressure Every team gets a dumb prize.