Burque
This city can be difficult to get to know well. If you grew up here, you are likely full of its cliches, the stories about Albuquerque we tell tourists. But you also grew up in one or more neighborhoods and have a lived experience to share and deepen. There are parts of this city you don’t yet know about, and if you’re anything like me, you might not have looked enough into the cliches to see the vibrant living stories behind them.
I have a parable from the world of cooking. I grew up with chicken pot pies as a easy-to-make, always-ready dinner. They were in the freezer and you just pop them in the oven. As I grew up and started to appreciate food, I realized these were not that good. It was hard to imagine a non-cynical reason why they existed. And likewise I wrote of chicken pot pie. Many years later, I made a chicken pot pie from scratch and my mind was opened. It was fantastic. This is a food you could get homesick for. Even a poor imitation might remind you of how truly triumphant chicken pot pie could be.
This class gives you license and responsibility to investigate your own prejudices and to take a new look at this city. But just knowing that may not be enough help to get started. Here are some links that may help you start to dig in (and also to realize that part of a modern city is online):
- The Official City Website
- New Mexico Mercury – Indie news for the state. Mostly environmental coverage. V.B. Price helped start this site and is a frequent contributor. He is a retired Honors professor and still teaches here. He has two books we will be looking at. Also, I took my first Honors class from him.
- Only in New Mexico – This is Jim Baca’s blog. He used to be our Mayor among other things.
- Duke City Fix – A metablog and community site. There are discussion forums, regular bloggers, etc. This one would be a good one to dig around for a while.
- Walk Albuquerque
- Duke City Wheelmen
- reDiscover Nob Hill
Game Design Resources
ARIS
We have of course seen ARIS. Here are some relevant links to aid you in its use:
- ARIS Project Homepage
- ARIS Editor
- ARIS Manual – I can always use a ton of help writing this.
- ARIS Tutorials
- My Tutorials at the Local Games Lab ABQ Blog – Many of these are ARIS tips.
Most importantly, ARIS is more than a piece of software. It’s a collection of people around the world interested in combining mobile, augmented reality, storytelling, and games. Read and use the ARIS author forums at:
Other Tools
I also want to make an effort to look at and possibly use other kits that make game creation a possibility for non-programmers. I have heard of many, and been actively looking into a few over the last several moths, but never done any serious work with these kits. Please feel free to help make this list and fill in details. If you can produce tutorials etc. for these tools, it may be easier for others (in this class and in the world) in the future. We will especially want to know about what software the authoring tool runs on, what platforms you can develop for (and at what prices), how easy it is to find and play games made with the software, and what kinds of games it is easiest to author with that tool.
Twine 2. Like ARIS but without the places. This is a web-format choose-your-own adventure engine. The editor makes it easy to do branching stories, and you can start with plain text. HTML and Javascript make infinite customization possible (images, variables, mini games, etc.) and deployment simple.
GameSalad – Make desktop and iOS games with the free version which runs in OS X and Windows, Windows and Android for $$. Looks mostly geared to platformers, but fairly generic. Good documentation but look at modding an existing template to get up and running.
Game Maker – Another one that comes up a lot. Looks a little similar to GameSalad.
RPG Maker VX Ace – Primarily geared towards classic RPGs: menu based combat, isometric view of a map with buildings and characters on it. Costs money but sometimes is cheap on Steam.
App Inventor – Blocks-based, visual app development environment for Android. Free.
Scratch – Not really a game maker, more of a “learn to program visually” tool, but used to make games.
FreshAir – Kinda like ARIS. Quizzes and item interactions are easy to author. Web-based authoring tool. Cross platform. Costs money to have others play your game.
Taleblazer – also kinda like ARIS. Probably easier to make simulation type content. Uses the block-style programming language like Scratch. Cross platform: Android and iOS. I would be especially interested for someone to learn this tool and make tutorials for others.
MS Excel, or google spreadsheets – on the back end, many games are little more than spreadsheets where math happens. You can create interactive systems with cells and equations using Excel, leaving the visual design out for the moment. There are even people who use Excel as an actual game engine, putting in graphics and everything (just google it). You can even use interactive google gadgets to create game elements easily from spreadsheet cells.
Google sites – Using hyperlinks, you can turn a website like this one into a rudimentary game engine somewhat like choose your own adventure stories.
Modding tools in commercial games – Many games come with their own modding tools. These can sometimes be used to create games very far from the one you begin with. My first educational game was a mod of Civ. 3.
What else?
