Journey it starts with a spark

Entries

an entry is a potential submission to the Virtunomicon. All users can submit entries to be reviewed. An entry can be either:

1. a game mechanic or feature (ie. battle pass monetization, double jump, etc.)

2. a game to be reviewed (ie Undertale)

3. an edit to an existing entry (ie, editing a game entry to include that it also used motion capture in it's production)

reflections

Currently I don't know anything about how academic journals work. I need to fully explore the ethics of this project, especially where ownership is concerned. This is my first foray into an education type application and I want to make sure that I authentically and humbly enter this space as I achieve my goals.

I've become aware of the predatory practices in the academic journal space. Our design tenants of automated checks and balances is a step towards addressing the litany of disinformation out there, but it is not enough (Allf, 2022). We must enable peer review and foster reputation building through rewards, and progression and develop a stratified moderation system for peer review, assisted by the automated systems. I pledge that the Virtuonomicon will be built with neutral intent on the virtues of aiding the study and production of games.

IDT 1.3

• This week I feel strong. I'm waking up early everyday, studying hard and making progress on my Master's project. I'm still on the hunt for a mentor to help guide me along my path. It does seem a little daunting being alone in this but maybe that's the point. Maybe I'm supposed to fight alone to prove my ability in this space. I'll continue asking for mentorship and pressing on in turn.
• A perspective shift is what I can do to make things better. I need to be ok being alone in this. Maybe there's a historical figure to seek out to get inspiration from.
• In order to be more successful, I need to sacrifice my intellectual comfort. I need to be ok not knowing where things will end up, and not knowing if I'm on the right path. I need to be comfortable forging this path through the darkness.

IDT 2.3

• Last week started out easy on campus and I let my guard down. There was a wave of bugs and confusion over the weekend though, and I was not able to manage all of my priorities. I was able to do a bit of studying, and have more resources on academic journals. I have started taking more notes, and will start organizing them better. I have begun a written design document, and will begin a digital version (The Mastery journal is a more forward-facing document).

• I found a lot of awesome resources about making the journal. I realized that there are a lot more questions that I need to answer as I design this further, such as: Is there going to be a print version, Who will be the first Editors, How will we solicit authors/editors, how will we monetize the journal, will we be an open-access or licensed journal, etc. I have begun to make design decisions on a lot of these questions, but there is a bit of fact-finding that needs to happen before I break ground. I have one meeting planned with a DC in my department this upcoming week and will try and line up more.

• In order to get to the next step, I need to establish a solid routine. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my days to give to my students. Wednesdays and Fridays are my days. The rest I will do hybrid between the two. This way I have two full days devoted to each of my commitments in which I can fully dedicate that time to that one thing. I fully understand that I don't understand what I'm doing, and I'm humbly reaching out to those who've been in the industry longer to help me figure out how I can be of service with this project.

• This week I learned a lot about motivations, and from Julie Dirksen's Design for How People Learn, I learned about how other gaps can contribute to motivational challenges. With my Masters project, I hope to address the environmental and communication gaps we have when trying to extend the bridge to new learners in the games industry; namely the segmentation of resources and archaic nature of those resources. Students today have to trek between sites, videos and, when available, the actual games themselves in order to dissect and study game development techniques. Environmental gaps exist in the form of the technology needed to run the differing types of software The Virtunomicon will be a highly interactive encyclopedia of game techniques.

IDT 4.2

July

I had a great talk with our previous Program Director. I was enlightened on the importance of reaching out to outside academics since my project has a focus on academia. Truth be told this was a fear of mine, as I'm not at all confident in this space. But, I do wish to be of service and do what I can, so I will get ready.

I need to develop some features in isolation, this will prove that they can work in the capacity that I envision them. In order to decide which features I will begin on I must identify the most technically risky aspects of the project. The most risky parts of the development are:

• Queues
• Technical implementation of article edits
• Moderation Powers
• Game Level Overlay

August

July ended in a blur. August began like a swift current on a brisk morning. The project may be evolving, or being redefined. I'll be breaking ground on the first prototype in this month, testing features such as the Overlay, and UI capabilities. Will be mocking up simple versions of the Queue and Edit systems in order to start experimenting with designs.

Self Development Live Session

IDT 552 Reflection

Presentation Styles

In this class I don’t think I would have changed presentation types, especially over one presentation. But I do believe that now that I’m more educated on the different aspects of presentation that my presentation style and type will evolve. I would say I am more of a personal model so far, I try to lead by example. But I also understand that I don’t appeal to everyone, so relying on my charisma or relatability doesn’t always work. In those cases having more of the audience focused techniques present in the Facilitator and Delegator is necessary.

Principles of Adult Learning

I emphatically believe in the power of the group, and will continue to encourage collaborative learning in the classroom. I have learned new technologies and presentation tools to help engage adult learners, and I realize the importance of connecting the experiences to the learners expectations and goals. Networking is important to me personally, but I never considered using it as a principle in the classroom until now. I definitely will try and incorporate more social experiences in my future trainings and classroom sessions.

Presentation Planning

This was a crash course in presentation planning that I didn’t know that I needed but came right on time. I’m actually positively surprised by the course and my own performance. I do wish that I was better able to stay on top of time during the week to attend the live sessions with my peers, but right now my life is rather chock full and transient so I’m doing what I can.

Flexibility

This month I’ve learned that I may need to allow myself to be flexible with my expectations of myself, and this program. Being highly ambitious I often design and plan works that are bigger than I can develop. And then when I don’t achieve these works, I get depressed. I am going to break this cycle one way or another, and even thought it might seem unrelated it began in this class. I’m getting rather good at certain things that I didn’t think I was good at. The skills that I’m learning in the program are translating quite nicely to my personal goals at Full Sail, especially when it comes to internal events and initiatives that I’ve designed. Maybe my final project is an internal event?

EDM533 Reflection... AGAIN

Apply visual design fundamentals to instructional design projects

This month was another month in training my visual design. I do wish I spent more time with Adobe Illustrate in order to produce my own graphics because this is a goal of mine. I will have to invest in a tablet in the future and do some online training in order to learn the program. I utilized some visual design fundamentals when creating my eLearning. I was shown a website by a student in order to find awesome PowerPoint templates and used that to create the first draft for my training. This gave me something more concrete to move from when going to create my final eLearning. When working on the eLearning I used a lot of template work, but also used Adobe Stock in order to get great images of the hardware components.

I realized this month that I need more time to spend in these areas, and that by developing an application alongside this, I’m not giving myself the ability to focus on what I wanted to during this time. I need to consolidate my efforts. I will re-align my master’s project so that it also coincides with my Navigator Project. Navigator school is a leadership school on campus in which we learn to build teams and support on-campus initiatives. I previously had the idea to create a type of camp for the game design Lab Specialists in which we would start our days coaching each other in technical and pedagogical workshops hosted by the LS, and then game jam in the afternoon for an entire week. A week of self-development that finishes up with a presentation of the works created. I called it the Foundry and began working on it as an internal event months ago, and when I was enrolled into Navigator School I decided that it would be my final Navigator Project, and I will pitch it to the Navigator class. I am also going to align my master’s project in that direction as well. I am no longer going to develop the Virtunonomicon as my master’s project. It will be developed as a private project.

Write effective instructional material for intended audiences

I definitely practiced this one this month. I began the project trying to make the assignment relevant: I decided to address an issue we’re seeing on campus with some students not having any computer experience prior to our Introduction to Programming course. I decided to try and make a training that addressed the shortcomings: the pain-point being students not understanding how to zip and unzip files, but also covering basic computer hardware, the difference between hardware and software, and basic operating system navigation. But I quickly realized that I was biting off more than I could chew. I might be able to develop this over time, now that I have created an extremely in depth powerpoint plan for the training, but I was not able to implement all of the objectives of the training, only one (defining basic hardware).

I am proud of what I was able to make in the eLearning. But further I am glad to have a more solid plan for moving forward. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulder now that I’m not fighting against the grain with the Foundry and my masters project. Having all of these goals align feels like a brain massage. The next step is meeting with my new program director to touch base on the project and get feedback/support. The Foundry is five days long, with the first four days being production and development days, and the fifth day for polishing and presentation. The goal of The Foundry is to address a few concerns, the first being the potential stagnation of Lab Specialists in their role. It is easy to get into a monthly grind at Full Sail and get through a couple dozen cycles and still be at the same level. The Foundry would allow Lab Specialists to learn about development opportunities on campus and in the community, as well as provide a structured production to contribute on for credit.

Create instructional material using current software applications

Using Adobe captivate for the third time here is nice because I’m really starting to make my own workflow. Right now, I’m heavily using templates but it’s working to my advantage and I’m learning how to use a lot of different features. I was quite proud of getting the drag and drop quiz working. Some of the click to continue functionality is a little janky in it’s implementation. I definitely didn’t adhere to any standard there. But my main goal was just getting something working together and valid considering what happened with my production. I spent too much time on the preproduction and designed a much larger training than I could develop in the time I gave myself.

I haven’t had a vehicle for months and that changed this month so I’m feeling very independent and confident moving forward. I plan to get ahead on my studies in the next course, and have a meeting planned with my program director on Monday to discuss The Foundry. The new program director has expressed desires to support the LS development and growth, and I believe we will have tremendous support in our initiative. Having Phoebe’s support will be paramount in structuring the workshops. I was informed of an initiative on campus to create a studio and LLC for the Lab Specialists, and I think maybe they don’t know I created City of Gamers for that purpose, but I could repurpose City of Gamers to be the publishing brain, and they can focus on production. We can support with marketing material, branding, narrative design, and any other auxiliary support they need for bringing their games across the line.

Assess instructional design projects and provide criticism that is constructive and meaningful

This month I saw that this was removed from being two assignments and was instead one the other being optional, and I appreciated that. I do believe that it was useful to get some insight on how designers are putting their work together, but I tend to develop my own production strategies as I work. There wasn’t much I could really gleam from the production process from the end content. But taking time to plan is important, and seeing the example planning documentation was very insightful. I would like to add however that when I was working on my own, I did not use the planning material at all. I actually mocked up the eLearning in Powerpoint, which I feel is very flexible. I did graphics and everything mocking up each slide in powerpoint. I put notes as speaker notes on the slides. And then I made my eLearning in Captivate based on that. I actually had to go back afterwards and fill out the planning docs based on the slides I had made, I do wish that I could have just sent in my powerpoints that I did my planning with.

This month I will be officially sunsetting the Virtunomicon as my masters project and begin working full time to bring The Foundry to life. I believe a spring break 2023 date is a good date to shoot for, and the timing of everything seems to line up. Provided my meeting with Phoebe goes well on Monday I will begin next week flushing out the rest of the workshops. Currently I have a Self development workshop outlined as well as a Motion Capture workshop outlined. I have a strong desire for a Virtual Production workshop as well in which we get inside the Virtual Production Lab space and create environments to project into the space. The overall goal of the Foundry is the elevate the game design Lab Specialists to be more proficient, and the most marketable they can by exposing them to the newest technologies and production techniques. Eventually The Foundry can be expanded to other departments Lab Specialists, and even the students as it fosters local independent creation. I’ve always wondered why Full Sail isn’t a beacon of independent creation, and The Foundry can be a step in that direction.