Gaming

I am very interested in using gaming principles both in instruction and in marketing. I think a lot of really interesting programs can be developed using these ideas. This does not, of course, mean that we need to make a full on video game for everything we do. There are a lot of freely available platforms that can make high quality games very quickly.

One of my favorites is called ARIS and was developed at the University of Wisconsin. Here’s an explanation from one of the project leaders.

Here’s a quick example of how this can be used elsewhere. This is an example of a game that I developed as an example for Johnson County in Kansas.  It shows the history of an influential musical neighborhood in Kansas City that developed a very unique style of jazz. I want to emphasize that this is not a super difficult or involved game and that, I think, is the beauty of it. It shows the history of an area using pictures and music while attaching slight narrative that gives the participant some interesting perks.

I also participated in a global game jam where I, some other librarians, and a large number of students (from elementary to graduate school), instructors, and early-adopters designed, developed, tested, and published a game in three days. Here are some photos: