Prototyping games in a workshop format..just published a short paper on a “Game Design Prototyping Workshop” with Simon McCallum in Wellington NZ @ACM_ISS 2022 (also trying out Kudos, in partnership with ACM) https://www.growkudos.com/publications/10.1145%25252F3532104.3571472/reader
Game Design Prototyping Workshop, November 2022, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), DOI: 10.1145/3532104.3571472.
https://whc.unesco.org/en/events/1734/
TIME 18:40-20:15 GMT+8. So 8 hours earlier in UK-GMT.
CONNECT Live via WeChat or Bilibili etc: http://guojiang.org/zhibo/2022-11-15-16/
Live translation into Chinese and English.
Google told me I can buy my chapter today in this book out soon “Difficult Heritage and Immersive Experiences” my chapter is “Chapter 2. Reflective Experiences with Immersive Heritage” #chapter #difficultheritage #darkheritage
In this chapter I will examine difficult and dark heritage. Others have articulated the overlap and potential different connotations and spheres of influence of dark heritage and difficult heritage (Thomas et al. 2019). For the sake of expediency, I will not attempt to distinguish between difficult heritage and dark heritage (a term imported from dark tourism) as I am particularly interested in the difficult interaction aspects of communicating dark heritage due to the technical challenges of virtual heritage, gaps or immaturity in virtual heritage as a distinct scholarly field, and the still to be fully explored role and impact of virtual heritage as an immersive and interactive medium capable of coaxing, encouraging and affording reflectivity.
I’m seeing if I can move my @nzerik twitter feed and friends to Mastodon (there my handle is @ErikC@ausglam.space). Mastodon is interesting as people can choose a themed server but still follow others on different servers (note: their email address reflects the server they choose).
It is a little confusing and doesn’t have the immediate impact and convenience of Twitter but it is an interesting project. I joined years ago but didn’t see anything happening. Recent Twitter developments and announcements encouraged me to vacate Twitter and there are tools that can cross-post tweets and (Mastodon) toots.
A quick Mastodon explanation: https://mashable.com/article/mastodon-twitter-alternative-elon-musk
Update: Intro guides to Mastodon:
PHD project in Adelaide, no scholarship but no fees, with cool museum partner (https://mod.org.au):
The successful candidate will investigate and design learning kits for museums, communities and small classes to create escape rooms either physical or hybrid, or via a game engine. The kit will provide resources and interaction strategies to help budding escape room designers plan escape rooms for their compatriots, and in doing so learn for themselves how to create tricky interactive puzzles, quizzes and physical riddles based on principles in science, mathematics or history. The instructions will be either via virtual examples through a game engine or game engine exporting to VR, or via online instruction videos using the latest instructional video expertise.
Successful completion of the project will provide you with experience in boardgame, physical escape room, digital game or VR escape room design including scripting, prototyping, digital modelling, and potentially animation experience. As well as a background in human-computer interaction and education. Thus, you will be provided with the skills for a successful and exciting research or industry career in a diverse range of areas.
What you’ll do
In this project-based research degree, you will review, design and evaluate design resources (physical and digital) for the creation of escape rooms by design students.
You will engage and partner with MOD. staff and deploy IVE, VR and AR equipment, as well as run and evaluate escape room design workshops.
Where you’ll be based
You will be based at UniSA Creative, incorporating the South Australian School of Art, which brings together the disciplines of architecture, planning, art and design, journalism, communication and media, film and television and the creative industries to produce flexible graduates with multidisciplinary capabilities. Our research explores the complexities of the world around us. We engage in future-focused, cross-disciplinary research and consultancy to produce inspired solutions that are human-centred and sustainable.
https://www.unisa.edu.au/research/degrees/designing-an-escape-room-toolkit
I have been invited to speak at NTNU Trondheim in April 2023 (tentatively, Tuesday and Wednesday 18 and 19 April) and run a related workshop in Greece a week or so later (to be confirmed). The project, for which I have been an external advisor, is Echoing “recovery of cultural heritage through higher education-driven open innovation” (EU/ERASMUS).
I may be able to visit a virtual heritage colleague and his students in Munich during that time, and, hopefully, Iceland.
I may aim for one of these conferences but ah, scheduling may be tricky (and Easter Friday is 7 April, at least in Australia, next teaching day is, maybe, Wednesday 26 April due to Anzac Day).
I have been involved in UniSA joining MEGACRC CRC for Mega-Event Innovations and the University has agreed, in principle, to joining the bid. I will be busy over the next few weeks helping with potential Australian and South Australian industry partners but also planning some events and at least one trip in 2023. More on that in the next post.
I am hosting the Workshop on Game Design Prototyping at ACM ISS (Interactive Surfaces and Spaces) conference, 20 November 2022, with Simon McCallum, Wellington, NZ.
This workshop will take place over half a day and focus on tools and example projects that break down necessary and sufficient elements of effective game design, tips to create and encourage small group design ideas, and potential environmental challenges that can be overcome or at least approached with low-cost and accessible tools and platforms. We will focus on physical prototypes but can also examine games using game engines or specific XR formats but we don’t expect to have HMDs available.
This workshop will take place over half a day and focus on tools and example projects that break down necessary and sufficient elements of effective game design, tips to create and encourage small group design ideas, and potential environmental challenges that can be overcome or at least approached with low-cost and accessible tools and platforms. We will focus on physical prototypes but can also examine games using game engines or specific XR formats but we don’t expect to have HMDs available.
We will work in groups of 3 and 4 on provided game challenges, ideas developed by individual groups or we can (with enough notice) work on improving and game-testing ideas and prototypes provided by attendees.
The proposed schedule will be:
| Section | Minutes |
|---|---|
| 1. Introductions for all | 20 |
| 2. Overview: games, gamification | 20 |
| 3. Discussion of technologies, methods + prototyping | 10 |
| 4. Group suggests ideas. | 10 |
| 5. Short break/questions. | 20 |
| 6. Selection of teams | 10 |
| 7. Work on game ideas as prototypes, and playtest solutions. | 90 |
| 8. Present prototypes/suggestions in class. | 30 |
TOTAL HOURS: 3.5
Ideally, by the end of the workshop, the participants will:
Enterprise Fellow Erik Champion, has organized game design workshops in Australia, Italy, Poland, Qatar, Finland, and USA. He specializes in virtual heritage and serious games for history and heritage.
Simon McCallum is a games expert and has over 25 years experience having taught games in New Zealand and Norway. Simon has also spent some time working for games companies in Norway. Simon helped setup the NZ Games Development Conference in the early – mid 2000s.
This workshop will be physical but the first 45 minutes (introductions and background to tools and techniques) could be accessible online if required. Ideally, the workshop will be 12 to 20 people.
Please contact Erik.Champion@unisa.edu.au for further information about submissions.
To register to attend the workshop please see the ACM ISS Registration Information.
Sorry I have been distracted by a Cooperative Research Centre application (plus two books in press and one book proposal under review) but normal service will resume shortly.
Speaking of which, these should be out relatively shortly:
Books:
Champion, E. (2022: in press). Playing with The Past: Into the Future. 2nd edition. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer-Nature. ISBN: 978-3-031-10931-7. Due 30.10.2022. Edit: may be 19 Nov 2022 according to the HCI book series website.
Champion, E., Stadler, J., Lee, C., and Peaslee, R. (Ed). (2023: in press). Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes: The Real, The Virtual, and the Cinematic. Routledge Cultural Heritage and Tourism Series. Contracted. ISBN 9781032355962. Due 30.12.2022.
Book chapter:
Champion, E., Nurmikko-Fuller, T., & Grant, K. (2022: invited). Chapter 12 Alchemy and Archives, Swords, Spells, and Castles: Medieval-modding Skyrim. In R. Houghton (Ed.), Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games, UK: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. https://doi.org/doi:10.1515/9783110712032. To be published 24 October 2022. (Some content seems available online already or via academic institutions).
| *START* | DUE | CONF | THEME | LOCATION |
| 16/02/22 | 20/10/22 | AMPS | Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures | Virtual |
| 16/12/22 | 15/10/22 | Emerge | Forum on the Future of AI Driven Humanity & International Conference Digital Society Now | Kiev Ukraine |
| 19/12/22 | 10/10/22 | CITEd | Cloud and Immersive Technologies in Education | Kiev Ukraine |
| 16/01/23 | 16/10/22 | DM2023 | The Art Museum in the Digital Age – 2023 | Online, Germany |
| 15/03/23 | 15/10/22 | ICVARS2023 | Virtual and Augmented Reality Simulations | Sydney Australia |
| 3/04/23 | ? | CAA023 | CAA 50 Years of Synergy | Amsterdam Netherlands |
| 11/04/23 | 4/10/22 | FDG | Foundations of Digital Games (workshops 21/10) New Beginnings | Lisbon Portugal |
| 23/04/23 | 19/01/23 | CHI2023 | CHI2023 late breaking work | Hamburg Germany |
| 7/06/23 | 18/11/22 | Mmedia23 | ACM Multimedia Systems | Vancouver BC, Canada |
| 19/06/23 | 15/01/2023 | DiGRA2023 | DiGRA: Limits and Margins of Video Games | Seville Spain |
| 28/06/23 | 25/11/22 | Heritages | Prague – Heritages Past and Present – Built and Social | Prague Czechia |
| 4/07/23 | 10/02/23 | herdsa2023 | Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia | Brisbane Australia |
| 11/07/23 | 25/10/22 | DH2023 | Digital Humanities: Collaboration as Opportunity | Graz Austria |
| 28/08/23 | ? | interact 2023 | Design for Equity and Justice | York UK |
| 31/08/23 | 30/09/22 | ICOMOS GA | Sydney Australia | |
| 20/09/23 | 15/01/23 | eCAADe | Digital Design Reconsidered | Graz Austria |
| 8/04/24 | ? | CAA2024 | Auckland New Zealand | |
| ? | ? | Web3D | 3D for a Connected World | Online |
| ? | ? | MW2023 | Museums on the Web | Washington DC |
| CHIPLAY2023 | ||||
| START | *DUE* | CONFERENCE | THEME | LOCATION |
| 31/08/23 | 30/09/22 | ICOMOS GA | Sydney Australia | |
| 11/04/23 | 4/10/22 | FDG | Foundations of Digital Games (workshops 21/10) | Lisbon Portugal |
| 19/12/22 | 10/10/22 | CITEd | Cloud and Immersive Technologies in Education | Kiev Ukraine |
| 16/12/22 | 15/10/22 | Emerge | Forum on the Future of AI Driven Humanity & International Conference Digital Society Now | Kiev Ukraine |
| 15/03/23 | 15/10/22 | ICVARS2023 | Virtual and Augmented Reality Simulations | Sydney Australia |
| 16/01/23 | 16/10/22 | DM2023 | The Art Museum in the Digital Age – 2023 | Online, Germany |
| 16/02/22 | 20/10/22 | AMPS | Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures | Virtual |
| 11/07/23 | 25/10/22 | DH2023 | Digital Humanities: Collaboration as Opportunity | Graz Austria |
| 7/06/23 | 18/11/22 | Mmedia23 | ACM Multimedia Systems | Vancouver BC, Canada |
| 28/06/23 | 25/11/22 | Heritages | Prague – Heritages Past and Present – Built and Social | Prague Czechia |
| 20/09/23 | 15/01/23 | eCAADe | Digital Design Reconsidered | Graz Austria |
| 23/04/23 | 19/01/23 | CHI2023 | CHI2023 late breaking work | Hamburg Germany |
| 4/07/23 | 10/02/23 | herdsa2023 | Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia | Brisbane Australia |
| 18/03/23 | 4/09/23 | CAADRIA2023 | Human-centric | Ahmedabad India |
ICOMOS GA 2023 Scientific Symposium abstracts are due 23 September [update: now 30 September].
I’m looking for reviewers in the digital heritage theme to help with abstracts-English and / or French and / or Spanish readers.
Those interested in reviewing Digital Heritage abstracts can email me for more information.
I was asked this on Friday
Today I attended an event on how industry see and use the Metaverse. The chief scientist’s talk on the Metaverse as an interconnected virtual environment where social and economic elements mirror reality (is that the WEF definition?) ..across devices isn’t quite my definition.
So many questionable issues here, so many lost opportunities, where do I start?!
Time to write something!
For example, if everything just mirrors reality, where is the innovation? Is the reality the realistic simulation or the simulation as an illusion convincing people, that they are “in” reality? And does the mirror affect or impact on reality?
To the pixelated trenches! #metaverse #definitionbattle #XR
But above all, where is culture?
Here is a better definition by the South Australia Microsoft CTO but what exactly does “collective” mean?
“…metaverse is a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality. It is persistent, providing enhanced immersive experiences, as well as device independent” from Gartner..
Gartner defines a metaverse as a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality. It is persistent, providing enhanced immersive experiences, as well as device independent and accessible through any type of device, from tablets to head-mounted displays.
Gartner, February 7, 2022.
Update: At the lunch break I sat down with him and we agreed the definition of collective should be people, content, and technology.
My UniSA Colleague Professor Mark Billinghurst quoted from the Metaverse Roadmap and focused on the less common quadrants.
If anyone would like a review/inspection copy of the edited book “Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes: The Real, the Virtual, and the Cinematic” (out 30.12.2022, cover to come) there is a link on the webpage.
Next project: edited collected chapters (free online): DIY archaeology (history, architectural/art history and heritage) escape rooms children/students can create at home or in class (written and illustrated like cookbook recipes). Now, just how to write up the proposal & find the right designers, writers, & experts!
| Playing with the Past: Into the Future (Human–Computer Interaction Series), 2nd ed. |
| from Springer-Nature: “Dear Prof. Erik Champion, Your book “Playing with the Past: Into the Future (Human–Computer Interaction Series), 2nd ed.” is currently planned to be published by 30.10.2022.” |
I am very close to submitting to a publisher the edited book (with Dr Juan Hiriart, University of Salford, UK) “Assassin’s Creed in the Classroom: History’s Playground or a Stab in the Dark?” with 18 writers from history, archaeology, architecture, art history, classics, game design, and education. Thanks to Maxime Durand and Ubisoft for helping getting the party started.
International conference on “World Heritage and Urban-Rural Sustainable Development: Resilience and Innovation” from 15 to 16 November 2022, organised by the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (WHITRAP) and the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP, Tongji University, Shanghai China).
Invited to present virtually on Nov 16, in the session Topic 4: New Visions/New Technologies in Heritage Conservation..
Related activities are:
I submitted the second edition of Playing With The Past: Into The Future to Springer, now working on submitting two edited books in next week or so, then far too many book chapters, then hopefully a long break. I promise, most of it I was asked to do. And then I want to take a long break from academic writing, maybe some design projects!
Ear Zow Digital