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Diary of a video game in the making
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About this Blog
This blog chronicles the development of an educational game called Emeralda. The game was the brainchild of Bill Ritchie, a local artist and ex-art professor. The game concept has evolved quite a bit, due to our regular brainstorming sessions, but thankfully the original spirit is still there.
I'm writing this blog because I think the experience might be useful to other people. It doesn't really matter what the game is... if you're making a game and your team consists of two people like us... well, you might be able to learn from our mistakes. :)
I'm writing this blog because I think the experience might be useful to other people. It doesn't really matter what the game is... if you're making a game and your team consists of two people like us... well, you might be able to learn from our mistakes. :)
The player discovers their crate
About the game
Emeralda has five main goals:
1. First and foremost, entertain while teaching the skills and theory of print-making and fostering a passion and appreciation for the art.
2. Create an environment where the student can safely make mistakes and experiment with dangerous aspects of print-making, such as mixing acids to etch different kinds of metals.
3. Show how the concepts behind etching and print-making are everywhere, and can be mixed with other disciplines.
4. Encourage ingenuity to break down functional fixedness by MacGyvering materials when necessary. For example, if no acid is available, provide other subtle sources of acid.
5. Add to the player's experience by providing clues to a mystery that they solve as they make their way through the game. The professor is missing, presumed dead, but he seems to be leaving the player messages and clues to the contrary.
Emeralda is designed to work in conjunction with an online, accredited course (though it can be played as a stand-alone). Each "level" in the game supplements an assignment in the course. If the students are rushed, they can ignore the mystery and opt out of the MacGyvering. We also hope that if non-students stumble upon the game, they will enjoy it.
1. First and foremost, entertain while teaching the skills and theory of print-making and fostering a passion and appreciation for the art.
2. Create an environment where the student can safely make mistakes and experiment with dangerous aspects of print-making, such as mixing acids to etch different kinds of metals.
3. Show how the concepts behind etching and print-making are everywhere, and can be mixed with other disciplines.
4. Encourage ingenuity to break down functional fixedness by MacGyvering materials when necessary. For example, if no acid is available, provide other subtle sources of acid.
5. Add to the player's experience by providing clues to a mystery that they solve as they make their way through the game. The professor is missing, presumed dead, but he seems to be leaving the player messages and clues to the contrary.
Emeralda is designed to work in conjunction with an online, accredited course (though it can be played as a stand-alone). Each "level" in the game supplements an assignment in the course. If the students are rushed, they can ignore the mystery and opt out of the MacGyvering. We also hope that if non-students stumble upon the game, they will enjoy it.
The player tries out the virtual press
About Bill and me
See the first blog post, The story thus far....
Blog Archive
Blogs related to the game
- Making Emeralda 2 - Bill's perspective
- From the Island of Perfect Studios, Emeralda Region
- From the Island of RIISMA, Emeralda Region
- From the Island of Perfect Press, Emeralda Region
- From the Island of O'Studios, Emeralda Region
- From the Island of MacRitchie's, Emeralda Region
- From the Island of E'Studios in Emeralda Region
- From the Island of ArtsPort, Emeralda Region
Links used in this blog
- Adobe products
- Autodesk Maya
- BBC website
- Bill Ritchie's website
- Book: Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume 1: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3
- C#
- C/C++
- DarkLife game in SecondLife
- Emeralda game trailer v1
- Emeralda information
- Expression Blend
- Fawlty Towers website
- Frootcake game in SecondLife
- Halfwood Press company
- John Cleese's website
- Project NATAL
- Sci fi author, story doctor, and game designer, Melissa Shaw
- SecondLife website
- Silverlight
- SpotOn3D - private implementation of SecondLife
- Torque game engine
- TorqueX game engine
- Unreal licensing fees
- Unreal Tournament
- VB.NET
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
- XNA game development library
Hang on for a LONG ride--these blogs started five years ago (although the original was in blogger.com, now inaccessible) and it was an experiment to develop a database of the missing professor's essays, musings, articles, etc. Hardly any pix, and all were the 255-character SUBJECT lines for yet longer (up to 4 pages) essays "available by email request."
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