Appraisal from Ilsington Primary School

Andrew visited Ilsington Church of England Primary School on Wednesday 13^th May to demonstrate his design for a computer board game.

The game was presented to groups of Year Four and Five children, ages eight, nine and ten years old. The children had a go at playing the game in small teams. They enjoyed the nature of moving the pieces on what appeared to be like a computer screen and were enchanted by the fact that the screen recognised their moves by circling their playing piece. They were slightly concerned though when the screen when out of line with their piece because the camera inside the device had moved. They fully understood the nature of the game on-screen but at their age, it needed a further element of challenge to maintain their interest. Simply moving the playing piece around the board from start to finish was not enough. The idea to move the number of places as equal to the number of dominoes able to place on to the sequence was good, but again these children learnt nothing new by matching numbers or colours. If this was one of the aims of the game, the computer element was unnecessary as dominoes do this anyway.

When the children were asked their opinion, they said that they enjoyed it but that it was too easy. They suggested that it would be suitable for children aged five to eight years. The appearance of the game was pleasing but could have further features to maintain the interest of this aged child.

My Response.
The problem arose within the game when the webcam was knocked over at the beginning by a child, the markers were therefore not aligning with the projector, and so not being tracked correctly or not being picked up at all. With only a limited time slot, I did not have the opportunity to realign it. Therefore, two thirds of the game was spent without children having the additional educational information on sea life.

No Responses

Disappointingly I have had no responses from the 4 places I contacted in regards to demonstrating the game in a public area. It has been over a week since I sent the letters and have not heard anything, which is very surprising, - I thought it could only be a benefit - letting my tabletop edutainment game open to the public for a day. The two places which would have been ideal is the Falmouth Maritime Museum and the National Marine Aquarium, with neither replying.

Demonstration at Ilsington Primary School

Firstly, a big thank you to Ilsington Primary School who provided me with the opportunity to demonstrate the mixed reality tabletop game to years 4 and 5. Although it was only a 30 minute slot for the children to play, the response from the game was positive, with all the children enjoying the game - interacting not only with the screen but also the pattern matching of the dominoes. The game is for four players, but due to the number of children at one time they played in two’s, working together as a team to decide which combination of dominoes to lay down as well as connecting with each of there sea creatures, such as mackerel, sea horse and crab.

The response from the game was that it is an ideal format for the year 4s (aged 8 & 9) but for the year 5s (aged 9 & 10) it was to easy and not challenging or stimulating enough. The game could be improved through assigning rules to specific numbers on the dominoes or asking questions about sea life.

Teaching Children About Sea Life Within SOSC

When a player lands on a particular space and it tells them to go forwards or backwards, there has to be a reason for doing so, with the text below providing important information and awareness to players through interacting with the game. Therefore understanding how particular outcomes effect there character, in this case, there sea creature.

Sea Creatures/ Players

• Crab
• Mackerel
• Sea Horse
• Seal

Negative Results

• YOU HAVE GOT CAUGHT IN A FISHING NET.
• TOURISM HAS POLLUTED THESE WATERS WITH RUBBISH.
• WATER TRAFFIC HAS MADE THIS AREA DANGEROUS AND POLLUTED.
• OVERFISHING TAKES PLACE HERE, BEWARE!
• AN OIL SPPILL HAS DAMAGED YOUR HABITAT.
• CLIMATE CHANGE HAS INCREASED CARBON DIOXIDE, MAKING THE WATER ACIDIC.
• BEWARE OF SEAGULLS, THESE PREDATORS CIRCLE ABOVE.
• THE SEA IS ROUGH HERE, FIND SHELTER.
• YOUR HABITAT HAS BEEN DESTROYED BY OVERFISHING.
• OFFSHORE ENERGY WAVE FARM COULD TRAP YOU IN THE CABLES.
• OFFSHORE DREDGING STOPPED FOOD GROWING AND SO REDUCES OXYGEN.

Positive Results

• UNDERWATER VOLCANOES PROVIDE A RICH FOOD HABITAT.
• YOU HAVE REACHED A MARINE PROTECTED AREA, CONGRATULATIONS!
• THE WATER IS CLEAN HERE SO THERE IS MORE OXYGEN FOR YOU.
• LARGE ROCKS HERE CAN PROVIDE SHELTER.
• THE WATER IS CALM HERE, YOU CAN MOVE QUICKLY.
• THE TIDE IS HIGH AND YOU CAN REACH THE SEAWEED BEDS NOW.
• THICK KELP (BROWN SEAWEED) HERE PROVIDES SHELTER AND FOOD.
• THIS ECOSYSTEM AREA IS THRIVING.
• THIS PHYTOPLANKTON BLOOM HERE WILL GIVE YOU FOOD AND ENERGY.

Game Mechanic
The tabletop game is for four players or less and involves players choosing a sea creature, (1 of 4 to choose from) and progressing that character from one end of the board to the other. There are 5 routes to choose from during this journey, with it up to the player to decide which route. Some routes are shorter than others and some offer more hindrance than help, making players move forwards or backwards to win the game. In order to move across the board, players are required to pattern match dominoes, laying one domino enables a player to move one space, and laying 6 dominoes that patterns match enable 6 spaces to be moved.  The objective of the game is to save their sea creature, getting the sea creature to safety and away from hazards such as marine litter.

Demonstration / Play Test of Domination

The response from the tabletop game ‘Domination’ was consistent in its response. The opportunity to decide particular rules wasnt succesful because not all the players could agree upon which rule set to go for, so the most dominant person always chose the most difficult challenge. This will be scrapped from the final version as it just didnt work, and being for a pub, it was done at a much more leisurely pace, taking it slowly, talking and interacting with both games and friends. In terms of context, the game is suited much more like pool or darts rather than the itbox, because the itbox focuses the users attention on solely its game, thus not giving players the chance to talk to one another.

Domination is played on an abstract green screen, with clean minimal bold graphics to avoid confusion, especially when drinking, as things become blurry. The game was not over challenging, but in a social environment that was to provide an entertainment was drinking and talking, the game seemed to work well, with positive feedback from virtually everyone.

Meeting with Maya Plass: Learn To Sea

Thank you to Maya Plass who gave up 2 hours of her time to discuss developments and improvements of the game.

To summarise a number of points and issues raised about the game that include, marine life, curriculum, relevant content and content, teaching children, cultural issues, sea life, etc…

• British Marine Life - Starfish, Seahorse, Crab, Mackerel, Seal and Seagull
• LEARNING IS ACCIDENTAL, the game must take priority.
• Issues to touch on include -  names, environments, habitats, ecosystems, marine litter
• Focus and raise awareness on a couple topical issues like sustainability and recycling which enables teachers to follow on with discussions
• Beach cleanups, adopt a beach and International Pellet Watch are three events to follow on from the game
• Important organisation - Marine Conservation Society (MCS) Beach Watch
• Inspire schools to help and get involved with the annual beach watch - connecting with the environment
• Stick to relevant British marine life rather than the glorified media marine life, whilst giving background research like camouflage, defence, feed, protection
• 2011 curriculum changing - Themes - Art = Sculpture, English = Poem, etc…
• Eco Credentials - Schools have green monitors in charge of turning lights off, etc..
• Two ways of tackling marine litter. Reactive management = RESULT or Consciously going green = STEMMING THE CAUSE

Save Our Sea Creatures Tabletop Game

The final mixed reality edutainment tabletop game, complete and finished!

Parallax Set Up: Alignment, Calibration & Jigs

The mirror jig and calibration paper used

Before and after of how the components fit in

Tabletop Game Construction Finished

After constructing the box framework, holes needed to be routed into the top of the box to provide air and ventilation so that it does not get too hot in the box with the projector throwing out lots of hot air. The box was then painted a dark blue to reflect the sea theme of the children’s game ‘Save Our Sea Creatures’ whilst looking like the tardis mark 2.

The actual table which players play on consists of four shelves that are biscuit jointed together and the perspex and tracing paper sandwiched between. To make the tabletop child safe, black rubber corners were added to avoid accidents or injury.

Construction of Tabletop Game

Cut to Size
Mark pine and MDF, cut using circular saw.

Frame Construction
Clamp frame together, drill pilot holes, counter sink holes, glue frame, insert screws

Attaching MDF Cladding
Drill pilot holes, glue MDF cladding, nail MDF to frame

Finished Box Base