IU students and faculty ‘gamify’ technical training in partnership with Navy engineers
IU students and faculty ‘gamify’ technical training in partnership with Navy engineers
IU students and faculty ‘gamify’ technical training in partnership with Navy engineers
By Kevin Fryling
February 28, 2024
Summary
"Games have a unique power to stick with people," said Mathew Powers, a media arts and science lecturer at the Luddy School in Indianapolis whose research areas include educational games, or "Edutainment." "If you're dealing with very difficult, intense subject matter, you need a good vehicle. You need to hold people's attention because that's how they're going to remember things." Powers and fellow lecturer Todd Shelton co-teach NEWM-N 436, a highly independent, project-based game production course that matches students with "Clients" to create unique games that address a wide range of experiences.
Past projects include video games to promote special events in downtown Indianapolis, such as GenCon; a game inspired by the experiences of a young cancer survivor; and an app to educate consumers in electrical and gas safety.
The design of the game's characters, as well as the game's eponymous, V-shaped island, were led by Imani Peters.
A Luddy School Indianapolis junior in media arts and science with a specialization in game design and development, Peters began as a game designer and 2D artist on the project before advancing to her current role as 2D art leader.
" The general design of the game, including the pirate theme and art style, was also partly inspired by "The Secret of Monkey Island," a classic computer game familiar to engineers on the project at Crane, Powers said.
One major challenge of the project was security at NSWC Crane, which meant the game had to be built using coding languages such as JavaScript, CSS and HTML, as opposed to modern game engines that are relatively "plug-and-play," Choi said.
"Since the writing and design team handled the game design, I had a lot of opportunity to practice working with others throughout the project, and learning to communicate between divisions of labor," Choi said.
Reference
Fryling, K. (2024, February 28). IU students and faculty “gamify” technical training in partnership with Navy engineers. News.iu.edu. https://news.iu.edu/live/news/34149-iu-students-and-faculty-gamify-technical-training-in-p