So I tried to make a video game...

It's been a roller coaster of a year - I say this almost every year - so I guess it has been a roller coaster of almost a decade. But this year was probably the toughest and yet at the same time the most enlightening out of all of them. 

Long story short, I took some extra time off from full time teaching duties. Step away, rethink my life and how I want to spend the second half of it now that I've crossed the 40 year threshold.

I always wanted to finish making a game. I learned a bit of Unity back during COVID, but when home learning started ramping up and we started looking into some really exciting ideas at school - introducing an idea called 'Quest' (something I would really like to reflect back on one day here) - I ended up putting the game stuff to the side. 

Fast forward 4 years and as some of you may or may not know, Unity went through some weird payment stuff and so I decided to give the Godot engine (an open source free engine) a go. 

The Learning Process

I found some free and discounted online tutorials for Beginner Godot courses and also for pixel art. I wasn't too worried about the audio part since I did a lot of that stuff in uni so I just needed a refresher (and some new gear since I sold off most of mine when going into teaching)

Learning Godot was quite a challenge. I always felt that I was missing something and wasn't sure how the tutor went from A to B and more importantly, WHY they did it that way. Eventually I came to accept this feeling and move on, hoping that later things will start to connect itself in my brain.

Pixel Art was really interesting. I don't consider myself an illustrator at all. I doodle occasionally, but never really worked on it to improve. But the thing that opened my eyes with the pixel art learning was it taught me what NOT to do when teaching a skill. 

In theory their approach made sense. "I do and then you do". But the problem was that too much of this resulted in feeling like I was following a Art 4 Kids Hub tutorial, where I didn't really learn how to draw or create my own pixel art - all I learned was how to copy the tutor's work.

Music wise, I needed to learn how to use a different DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) since I only had a really old version of Cubase that ran on a really old macbook that I don't own anymore. Also bought a mini MIDI keyboard and deep dived into the world of VSTi's (virtual instruments) for a week or so. This would lead me to dipping my toes into some basic musicology stuff like the "Cycle of 5ths" and some common 4 chord chord-progressions.

Putting it all together

The most challenging part of this was not setting a plan for when to work on the coding, the art assets or the audio. It was constantly switching hats. From programmer, to level designer, to animator, to background designer, to audio designer, to music composer, etc... 

Sometimes I would sit down and create a bunch of different 'sprites' (2D models) and some animations but completely forget that I did these because I would get stuck on some bug in the code for a few days.

      

I think the most fun I had was composing the main background music for the game. Creating layers, trying to do build ups, breakdowns, beat drops, and seeing how it all came together. It did not feel like a chore at all. But to be fair I only needed to make 2 songs. One for the menu and one for the game.

The game itself was a very simple infinite runner platformer. Think like, pared back visuals like Flappy Bird but jump platforming like Geometry Dash or Jetpack Joyride.

I've only been learning these for about 3-4 months, so I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew. I just wanted to finish a game - from start to finish - and make every asset on my own and experience that journey. 

In the end I did end up using some other people's assets for a couple of sound effects (footsteps, jump and game over), but still very proud that I was able to create the rest of the assets myself. 

Reflection

I've been making mini updates to the game here and there. Some new sprites, updated backgrounds, fixed some bugs and added small features like a random quote on the start menu (like Minecraft).

I think the thing that really helped me get this completed was thinking about the target audience. It's aimed at kindergarten students (as that was the grade I was teaching before I went on leave) and there were a couple of kids who really like ninjas. 

Had I just tried to make this very generic, aimed at for everyone, then it probably wouldn't be near as engaging. 

The game

Anyway, if you want to check it out, you can do so HERE.

It works on mobile and desktops. 

I'm thinking of little adjustments to make to it moving forward, but nothing too crazy. Maybe some little polishes here and there and then move on to starting a new, slightly bigger project.

Epilogue... (kinda)

One thing that I did take away from this - once I started working as a casual, although I didn't have any work to take home, I was still feeling pretty exhausted from needing to be thinking on my toes all the time. Because of this, the development slowed to a crawl until I forced myself to work through the sleepiness just to get a little bit closer to finish it. 

This is something that I hope to continue doing as a hobby. I have no ambitions in trying to pursue this hardcore and eventually make it a job. In a lot of ways, thinking about making this a job actually deters me. I think it will take away a lot of the fun and creativity if I make it something where my livelihood depends on it...

Device for specific needs

When I first learned about linux OS and how it can extend the life of older machines, I tried to refurb my sister's ancient laptop that weighed more than a desktop by cleaning it out and booting it on Mint OS.

It worked out surprisingly well. The computer that used to refuse to get past the login screen on Windows xp, was now running quite smoothly. I could browse the web, watch videos, type of documents using the Open source office software.

Then I realised it had a video out port. So I thought, let's see if I can plug it into the TV and watch some YouTube. Sure enough, it worked. There was the odd stutter here and there, but it was watchable.

My thought would move on to seeing if this thing could run any games. I installed Steam and downloaded Team Fortress 2 and CS:GO. It barely ran and I needed to put everything to low settings and even scale down the resolution, making it look like I was playing from a POV of a person with bad eyesight who lost their glasses.

After this, I realised that I spent a lot of time trying to research and figure out how to get games running optimally on an old rig - even though I knew there would rarely be a time I would use it to do so. I didn't really have a purpose for refurbing the machine, just wanted to try.

I remembered doing something similar with those eePCs that were all the rage back in late 2000s, early 2010s. I got one on a super sale (shop misadvertised price, but had to sell them at that since it was on print) and at first I would use it for work (worked at an office at the time), something portable but could run some word processors and spreadsheets. Eventually I started to try and run some games on this thinking it could be a portable games thing. I ended up only being able to run a 90s game - Fallout 2 off GOG (Good Old Games) and I played it probably twice - once on a flight from Sydney to Tokyo and once on a bullet train from Tokyo to Hiroshima. 

So fast forward to today and I got an early birthday present in the form of the ASUS ROG Ally. It is supposed to be like a Steam deck but running Windows 11 so I can play games not just from Steam. 

The first thing I did with this? I uninstalled ALL productivity software. 

I learnt my lesson. The ROG Ally is going to be a machine just for games on the go (and the odd streaming videos via a dock). To be honest, there were tempations while setting up a dock with keyboard and mouse - thoughts of doing work on it, maybe some emergency video editing, etc... It all came down to "maybe if x happened..." or "what if..."

Kind of like trying to build the ultimate robot but you try to make it have no weaknesses and give it protection to everything while making it have the deadliest weapons. In the end it would probably just become a stationary metal cube.

I have a laptop for working on the go. An iPad for consuming media and producing media (Garageband and Adobe Sketch). A desktop for high end gaming and video editing. And now my ROG Ally to play some PC games on the road, or even to stream games via Xbox Ultimate Gamepass or Chiaki (PS Remote Play).

In education, I feel like companies are trying to create these all-in-one solutions. But I always feel these feel bloated and sluggish to run. It also lacks a lot of options to customise because I'm guessing that allowing this could break parts of the software if the wrong options were touched. Some educators want these all-in-one solutions too. "Too many different tools to remember", "Why can't x do y as well?", "It's all just too much" - are some common statements I hear.

However, I think having multiple, purpose-specific tools makes more sense for our profession. If we could learn everything with one approach then everything would be doing it. If we could teach everyone at 100% success rate with one approach, then a computer would be doing it. But we haven't figured these out yet...

Yes it might be more convenient to have everything in one spot. But usually these come at a cost of sacrificing other functions in order to streamline it all. 

Basically, it ends up being a stationary cube. 

My journey as a gamer turned learner (part 3)

Continuing from my last post, I wanted to talk about how my experiences with Starcraft 2 (SC2) helped me understand the connection between games and learning. As I pursued my postgraduate degree in education, I found myself fascinated by the intersection of games and learning, and SC2 was the perfect game for me to explore that connection.

Unlike with WoW, I was no longer satisfied with simply finding easy strategies to win. Yes I started seeing the importance of the 'why', but I was still more focused on the result. Instead, I wanted to truly understand the game mechanics and the reasoning behind them. Through podcasts, news articles, and videos, I dove into the world of SC2, and thanks to Day9tv and his dailies, I began to learn the "why" behind the game's strategies.

Even though I never reached the highest ranks in SC2, I'm proud of how far I came, starting in Bronze 1 and reaching Gold 3 or 4 before running out of time due to my full-time job and newborn child. But more than that, I'm proud of what I learned from the game and how it influenced other aspects of my life.

I realized that the macro mechanics of SC2 were my strong suit, just as I was better at thinking of big ideas and interconnecting them in my job. But I struggled with the micro mechanics, or the execution of those ideas. This realization helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses and how to leverage them in my personal and professional life.

For example, a little after this, I started playing (low-level) competitive basketball with some old friends. I had a solid understanding of the game, I knew what type of game plan to go in with for the players that we had (strengths and weaknesses) and read the situations during a game to make little adjustments. However, having not played for many, MANY years, my mechanics of the game itself was rather rusty. In other words, I did not have the skills to execute my plan. So using the lessons learnt from SC2, I examined what skills I needed most, prioritised and started researching drills and tips that I can practice on a daily basis. 

One of these was losing weight. My weight got in the way of my ability to be quick, my endurance and I also had a hunch it played a role in getting minor injuries often. This took me down a whole new rabbit hole. It was a lot of experimenting, research and reflecting. Eventually I was able to find some new habits that I could sustain even after playing basketball - and able to pick up easily again after gaining a lot of this weight back from no longer playing basketball** and lockdowns.

**Not playing competitive basketball made me lose a lot of motivation to exercise as I couldn't find a WHY that I could really latch onto.

A really big lesson I learnt from Day9tv that I always keep in my mind in ALL aspects of my life is the mindset - "What can I do better NEXT TIME?" I found that 99% of the time when things weren't going to plan, whether it be in a video game, basketball, classroom or in life, I started to stray from the original plan and try to patch leaks on the fly, usually making it worse or having no effect. But with the "next time" mindset, I stick to the plan as much as possible until the end of that session and reflect on it afterwards and THEN make adjustments to the plan where needed for next time. In games this is quite easy to do, as a lot of them have the abilities to save replays so you can go back and analyse your performance. IRL things however, it's harder to do. I normally jot something down quickly on my phone or a piece of paper when I notice things I might need to address for next time - usually the small things I might forget. The big things I will always remember first anyway :)

To add to this, SC2 was primarily a 1v1 game. It meant that no matter what, YOU are responsible for every outcome. I took this mentality on to team games as well. That's why the mindset is "What can I do better", not "What can they do better". I did realise soon though, lots of people find this hard to swallow. They don't want to believe that they are flawed and can improve. Like I used to hear a lot in team video games like Dota and Overwatch - "Everyone on my team sucks. Except me." I truly believe people who hold onto this type of idea tightly will hit a big wall in their lives.

Going back to basketball, I took this approach so in the first season starting 'the plan', I was doing my drills, my exercise and diets, all the while reflecting on the season. I didn't look at executing, just treated it like a practice season. The next off-season, I stepped on the accelerator and every free moment I had I would use this to practice my dribbling and shots. Sometimes I'd call my teammates to see if they were up for a practice session together. These cooperative sessions were also valuable because I could pick their brain for feedback.

The next season after some nail-biting games in the playoffs, we won our first (and only) championship as that particular team. When I watch sports or eSports finals and see the players just collapse into tears, I never understood why - until that final buzzer in the finals. It was something that needed to be worked on over time and results weren't immediate. A lot of the time I did question whether I needed to scrap my entire original plan and make big adjustments - but I stuck to it and it did pay off. Obviously I wasn't the sole reason our team won. One of my close teammates (who practiced with me often) also did the same thing. The rest of our team were just straight up hustlers. There were no free baskets and we all had each others' backs. I just wanted to make sure that I built myself enough so that I wouldn't be a detriment to the team, but a contributor.

The skills I learned from SC2 naturally lead to other competitive games I played later on like CS:GO, Dota 2, Rocket League, or Overwatch. Nowadays, I don't play competitive games often, because if I commit, I dive into the deep end and it just takes over my schedule, my mind and my life. I am more of a spectator, appreciating the awesomeness others showcase. But I still apply the lessons learnt in other aspects of my life and I don't think it will ever go away.

WoW helped me extend my online research skills, and analysing gameplay to improve. It started me on a journey of learning. SC2 humbled me, made me realise we learn at different speeds, importance is persistence and consistency, every game is a step to improve in our next game and looking at things I can do to help the team, rather than the other way around.

My journey as a gamer turned learner (part 2)

Gaming and Learning: My Journey Continues in the World (of Warcraft)

In my previous blog post, I talked about how I first got into gaming and the role it played in my early learning experiences. Now, I want to continue that story and share how my passion for gaming continued to shape my learning and problem-solving skills in the years that followed.

When World of Warcraft (WoW) was released, I was immediately hooked. At first, I played with friends but soon found myself drawn to PvP and, when arenas were introduced, I was all about it. However, I never considered myself to be very good at games, and I think that's because I was always looking for shortcuts and end goal oriented. That changed with WoW.

I would watch videos on Warcraftmovies (can't believe this site still exists!) and read articles on different matchups. It was the first time I practiced mechanics and did drills suggested in the guides - this taught me how I can break down a skill into smaller pieces to make it more manageable to practice, but also give me the WHY behind it. I even created a schedule to fit in WoW practice and PvP times around my work and study times to maximize my time. These skills would later prove to be very useful in my life.

My learning in WoW was still game-based, but I tried to apply some of those skills to my everyday life. I worked on my peripheral vision and keyboard mechanics while at work. Well, it was still game-based, but doing it irl! It was a flip of an idea my dad showed me once when I was following him around with his cleaning jobs. I must've looked quite unenthusiastic (obviously, I mean I was cleaning some shop during my school holidays) and he showed me how I could use mopping like a basketball drill, killing two birds with one stone. To be fair it wasn't the best drill - he was saying that when I push the bucket on wheels to get the water changed and push it back, I can pretend I'm dribbling past a busy defence, making sure I keep low and weave. I added a little jump shot at the end, imagining I was pushing the ball up, going coast to coast and pulling up for clutch J. And by just getting my head into it, I did end up enjoying it more - not sure if it translated well to basketball, but for some reason this memory is something that I will probably never forget.

As life went on, WoW became more of a second home for me and my wife, who had been playing with me for years. We got married, graduated, got jobs, etc... and couldn't keep up and became casual players, but I still used my internet search skills to find guides on how to complete quests, bosses, dungeons, and achievements.

During my post-graduate degree, this skill came in super handy. I was able to dig out references and information without leaving my home and make it look like I borrowed books from the library. Later on, in my work life, people thought I was very tech-savvy because I was able to troubleshoot a lot of computer and IT issues at school, when really, I was just good at googling compared to them.

Looking back, I realize that gaming taught me more than just how to beat a level or conquer a boss. It taught me how to learn and problem-solve in a way that was fun and engaging. It taught me how to create a schedule and maximize my time. It taught me how to research and find information effectively. And most importantly, it taught me that learning can be enjoyable and that it's never too late to learn something new.

We took a long hiatus from WoW. We dipped our toes in here and there but never really got to commit enough time for it. My wife took on a higher level position and she was working non-stop and our son was still a little nublet. But every time we do revisit Azeroth, we reminisce the 'good old days' - all the battles, banter, adventures we had, forging friendships that many still hold strong even today. Recently we came back once again, for the Dragonflight expansion, convinced by an old friend we made in WoW over a catchup dinner. With our son being much older now and able to figure out most of the mechanics by himself, we reentered Azeroth once again, this time as a family. 

So, to anyone who thinks gaming is just a waste of time, I say: you're missing out on a whole world of (warc... nevermind...) learning opportunities. 

To end, here's a really cool talk about games and learning by the awesome James Gee.

My journey as a gamer turned learner (part 1)

I grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, a time when gaming was not just about entertainment, but also about learning new skills and connecting with others. My dad found an old 286 Commodore that was being thrown away and brought it home - fortunately it was in working condition. (By this time 386 PCs were the norm and cost about $3000) I used this 286 for 4 years - playing games that could run on EGA graphics (like commander keen, arkanoid 2, ET's Rugby, Lakers vs Celtics NBA). We had a family friend who was a computer wiz and he taught me how to use DOS and troubleshooting when things didn't work. 

I remember in year 6 when CDs were starting to become the norm, I tried putting in a demo CD that came with a PC magazine into the 5.25" disk drive - just in case it works... That ended up with a stuck disk and the first time I opened up a PC as I frantically figured out how to get the disc out before my dad comes home and sees a broken computer.

I was always a generation behind with gaming consoles too. I got hand me down Atari when people were playing the NES, a Master system (and later a NES) when SNES and Mega drive were the norm. And I completely missed the PS1, Dreamcast, Xbox era as we could not afford to buy a current gen console.

My dad bought me a new PC as a high school present - and it was good for about 1 month but then the specs started becoming obsolete pretty soon. He expected me to use it until I graduated high school - which I somehow managed.

I had to figure out things like autoexec.bat to get our sound blaster working, and we often had to tap into the computer nerds at school or seek out family friends who were really good at computers to help us troubleshoot issues. And of course, the fear of breaking expensive equipment and getting in trouble from my dad was always looming.

Reading PC game magazines and finding tweaks to files, as well as learning about game hacks from editing files from friends, was a popular way to enhance our gaming experience. Games like Starcraft, Counter-Strike, and Diablo 2 were not just about having fun, but also about improving our skills and competing with others.

Dial-up internet was the only option for most of us, but we learned to make the most of it, using it to play games or check NBA scores. The only resources we had were people we knew or met at internet cafes. We watched them, asked for advice, and learned from their experiences.

When Dota came out, I finally had broadband, and I found out that people released guides on the internet. This was a game-changer. I started looking up how-tos for not just Dota, but for basically everything. The internet became my primary resource for learning, and I could access information from anywhere in the world.

However, one problem I faced was that I was always results-oriented. I didn't care about the why; I just wanted to know how, so I could win. This mindset led me to face some serious walls down the road, but it was also an essential part of my learning journey. Eventually, I learned that understanding the why was just as important as the how - I'll write more on this in later parts.

A thing to add here was also the WHERE we used play games. As a kid, I first learnt about a gaming community on a visit to South Korea to see my grandma. I took Tae-Kwon-Do lessons down the street and it was right next to this small, dinghy arcade. I would go there after my lessons and just watch all the kids (and adults) play a variety of games from Mario to Street Fighter. I would hear people giving each other some pointers, talking about strats or even just patting the players shoulders to congratulate or sympathise with them. Back in Australia, the local milk bars would often have an arcade cabinet - usually a fighting game like Street Fighter or Final Fight - and I would be familiar with the other kids who frequented there. We never knew each others' names, but it felt like a silent community who came to be just by being there.

In high school, internet cafes started opening up all over Sydney. It was the norm in Korea but we never knew of such things. It completely changed our gaming experience. Before this, we would play at home and then talk about it at school. But now it was like a brand new playground opened up. We could go as group of friends and slug it out for bragging rights, or join the local server and play against random people who were there. Nowadays with internet connections being so fast, these places aren't as popular as they used to be - we are back to playing at home, communicating virtually behind a monitor.

One thing that hasn't changed is the importance of the community. Today, I can connect with others from all over the world through online communities, forums, and social media. This provides opportunities to learn from others and share experiences, just like in the early days of gaming. It's just like being the schoolyard again, albeit a large, virtual one.

Getting some more ideas down

Firstly, happy holidays!

Secondly, in the spirit of trying to keep promises to myself, I thought I'd use this opportunity to use this to at least jot down ideas for more posts so at least I don't forget...

The one that came to mind today...

How my introduction to Fromsoft games - from absolutely hating to not being able to get enough - has transformed the way I approach learning and its influence on how I look at lesson planning and examining the merits of an "easy mode". 

By easy mode, I don't mean making it difficult for difficulty sake, but rather having "easy modes" available via playing rather than it being an option from the get-go. (Lots of kids who already know how to play the game of school have figured this easy mode out...)

It's a contentious issue in gaming and I'm sure it'd be the same in the context of education; where things are even more sensitive..

As usual, my approach is based on opinion posts by other gamers, as this particular topic doesn't have much in the way of scientific research. And even if it did, it wouldn't be out for a few years and as with any research, there's always the risk of underlying bias and/or purpose.

Anyway, as usual, I know this is more of a journal I keep for myself than for others to read, so it's just another monologue :)

Enjoy the break! 

Game on :)

And just like that, it's been 4 years...

It's not that I forgot about this blog. Far from it. It's actually always been on the back of my mind. 

I would make notes of all the different ideas, every time I came up with one, but I never ended up getting around to it due to - energy levels, time, or just life being life.

But I thought today, I'm just going to post something. 

Think of it as my first step in my second (third? fourth? fifth?) attempt at re-updating this thing. "The journey of a thousand miles, starts with a single step." or something, right?

I've learnt so much over the last four years. About teaching, learning, leading, being a dad, hell, being a person. 

I've also met and built relationships with so many amazing people. Some of them, they probably don't reciprocate the feeling as we had our clashes and debates (re: arguments), but in hindsight, it only expanded on my experiences, my knowledge and ultimately, who I am now. I thought I understood what Steve Jobs meant when he said to trust the process and "the dots will connect later on", but now I really understand what that means.

Anyway, enough with the airy fairy fluff stuff.

Some things that have been on my mind (the past 1000+ days) include:

- Role players (think, 'support') making ideal leaders (in some cases)

- Feel vs Pattern

- Some problems with using games in education

- Why aren't educational games as engaging as 'normal' games?

- My history/journey of learning from games (and my hobbies)

- What I've been up to (more for personal reflection later for future-me - just like the rest of this blog :))

I think one of the first reasons I stopped updating this as often was because I started it thinking I could find other like-minded people out there. But I didn't really want to promote it, because I didn't think it really has anything of value - afterall, just one person's opinion. So it kind of just became like my collection of random thoughts.

After reading through these though, made me realise how I've progressed as a thinker, learner and as a person. So, moving forward, I'd like to continue doing this for myself. Like a logbook of sorts.

I'm in my last year of being in my 30s. I can't wait to see how my outlook changes and shifts as I get old (and probably grumpy)!

Colony World - Reflection

Intro

• Usually run a gamified classroom for the Government/Democracy unit (also links well with Global Connections that follows)
• I split the teams into colonies to simulate the Colonial Australia parts and then they will eventually federate, form a constitution and their own government.
• Classcraft is usually the place to make these elements more engaging and it has a currency in it where students can purchase vanity items. I use this also as a classroom currency.
• This has always been an engaging program for students in the past as they were able to live the unit and see how their actions and decisions can affect the whole of the class.

Having the opportunity to use Minecraft Education Edition, I wanted to add an extra dimension to this by using Minecraft as a virtual realm. My goal for this was to have more depth, and try to reach out to all 100% of the class. In the past, though pretty successful, there were always 1 or 2 students who didn’t engage with the gamified classroom approach. However, with Minecraft, this pulled those extra 1-2 students, as they were more comfortable in the virtual realm to voice opinions and take action.

The main question was HOW could I incorporate this. The goal with the previous gamified classroom was to eventually identify problems in the class world that could be compared to the problems in the school, country and the world. This was also a great link to the next unit, Global Connections.

However, I didn’t need to think too hard as I realised the main engaging aspect of the gamified world was it's sandbox feel. There were rules, but it wasn’t on rails. They could do pretty much whatever they wanted to. If they wanted to aim to be the richest person in the classroom they could do this by trying out different business models, creating a product or even via real estate. Minecraft is a sandbox game as well, so it was pretty much the same experience. All I needed to add was a common goal for them to all work towards - this was to sneakily push them towards federating and working as a nation rather than separate colonies.

The Minecraft Survival Guide by Lucas Gillispie would be that common goal. It was perfect. It had a set of tasks that became progressively more difficult and the final ones would require large numbers of people to complete - much more than a colony of 5.

I also grouped them this year according to their results in the Bartle’s Player Type quiz. I was trying to think like a game designer - create some balance among players so that noone feels alienated or bored. I think that was the most challenging and rewarding part throughout this unit.

Very beginning

I found a seed on Ben Kelly’s (a Global Minecraft Mentor) website, that was perfect for this. A limited resources map. I used border blocks to lock them in their own colonial lands to begin with so that they focus more on surviving rather than interfering.
The game was initially on Normal mode, but this posed some problems. The main thing was that certain resources held very little value with regards to cross colony trades. Food was not considered important by the Minecraft veterans, as they knew they couldn’t die of hunger - some would just eat rotten flesh and wait out the sickness effect. To counteract this, I changed it to Hard so that hunger can result in death. This kickstarted the trading and dramatically increased the value of food, especially sustainable ones such as vegetables and fruits. I also started to remove some of the border’s border blocks.

The opening of the borders led to some immediate controversies. There were accusations of theft and colonies were fining each other and imposing their own forms of justice. Tensions were rising. One of the golden rules of this game was that if any of the in game conflicts continued offline, the game would automatically be over. Luckily, this never happened!

I used these moments of conflict as opportunities for learning. We looked at alternate solutions, negotiating and compromising. At the time, we were also looking at Australian Federation and suggested this to the class. I told them we could create a parliament and become a nation representing the Commonwealth (I would be Governor-General) and our Assistant Principal, the Queen. This way we could help each other out, 30 is better than 5 afterall.

There was a divide in opinion on this. Half the class were for it but the other half were not. There were debates held in class and students were trying to convince each other during recess and lunch as well.

The day before the referendum on federating as a nation, we looked at the arguments for and against in class. I showed them the pros and cons Australian policy makers had during their debates as well. The looks on some of those students were gold. They saw that there were many common ones such as the poorer colonies would eat away the profits of the richer colonies, and how some colonies did not want a federal set of laws, but rather, enjoyed how each colony had the freedom of creating their own. It was about freedom and opportunity. This was also the same for the other side, one of the main ones being, if the colonies federated, all border’s border blocks would be removed - this would enable military reinforcement at a faster speed if needed.

Just to push things along, the next colony world session, which is what we referred it to, I spawned a LOT of mobs on multiple corners of the map. These monsters would slowly progress towards the mainland and though each colony were able to fight it off, they took a big hit as well.

Following this, the referendum was run and passed overwhelmingly 28 votes for, to 1 against.

Post federation

The colonies were no more, they were now a states within a nation!

After this, there was a little pause in the colony world game, as we changed the focus to more on the parliamentary side. Once the politics were settled, some laws passed and a federal reserve created, they were ready to start moving on to complete the rest of the quests.

Some interesting moments from here include,

• The decision to invade a nearby island as the “Indigenous” inhabitants were aggressive and they voted that it was to ‘civilise’ them.
• This became the basis for the business district that started construction.
• Expeditions were sent out with cartography teams to map our mainland and also explore other lands in the greater world.
• When I had visiting students from other classrooms due to their class being split, if they had no work to do, I invited them to create their own class embassy building on a little plot of land I created for them in our country.

Eventually, the class was able to defeat the Ender Dragon - though it was a little cheaty because firstly, a few boys found the seed of the map, loaded it at home and did the /locate for the stronghold. Also, during the battle, the dragon glitched out so I had to remove and resummon it, making it a little anti-climatic.

At the moment, they are basically finished with the game’s main quests and upto the community challenges. These are about creating maps for other classes/students to play, running a Minecraft event, writing/filming/recording an article blog/vlog/etc on their experience using Minecraft in class, etc..
 

On the map itself, it is now more a side project. They are working on their business district and exploring the end city and shipwrecks for treasure to fill their shops with. The idea is that I will be inviting other classes in Term 3 to create their own nations in the world and we can use this map as part of the Global Connections unit, identifying problems, shortages, etc.. in each country, creating a UN like organisation, being really ambitious, and things will probably fail a lot but that’s what I’m going for.

REFLECTION

I really enjoyed this approach as a lot of the learning was in the process, rather than a result. I mean, there were results, but they didn’t really have anything to do with the unit. For example, defeating the ender dragon doesn’t automatically make them learn about how the Westminster system of government works! However, the road to get there required them to do so and that’s where the learning occurred. They also see the effects of these in their own lives, that their voices and decisions really can make a difference.

It also heavily helped them work on their collaboration skills. Some groups were very quick to work together, and they advanced through the quests really quickly, whilst some were much slower. However, when things started to get really bad for those colonies, I was able to step in, mediate and again, use them as learning experiences. You could really see how the class grew as a group, and the lessons they learn in forming relationships, compromising and how actions they cause in one world to one person, can affect them later in a different world by different people.

The world could also use other things they learnt outside these sessions. For example, learning about binary code, I used this to place coordinates for the stronghold around the mainland so they could figure it out themselves if they forgot. They also could use their experiences on their writing and rewriting of their persuasive writing task - Does Minecraft have any educational benefits?

Some things that I can definitely improve on - I need to create a more concrete guideline on how to run this. I only had a very broad idea and ended up improvising a lot, making adjustments on the fly to make players take action. (Inaction, will lead to static, which will in turn lead to boredom) Now that I know some of the things to look out for, I can create a guide, like a cheatsheet on this. It’s also more for other teachers who might want to take this approach, because I think many people, from the outside, will look at this as just play. But so much of our learning comes from play, and it comes from here because we are engaged in the activity - it’s just that we’re not aware of it. I need to do a better job at making them aware of it, using things such as learning intentions, but at the same time, not make it so “in your face” that it seems “educational”. I believe Vsauce and MatPat’s Game Theory and Film Theory videos on YouTube do a wonderful job of this - trick people in to learning. A lot of it is tangential, but another large chunk is from the actual activity as well - big chunk on problem solving and critical thinking.

I see the children arguing about laws, trying to negotiate trades, discussing with their teams on purchases among many other things before, during and after classes. The immersion is just unreal. The lesson doesn’t ever end. When we visited Parliament House, they already knew what to expect. I could see smiles on their faces during our roleplay at the PEO (Parlimentary Education Office) because it probably reminded them of something that happened in our class parliament meetings. It’s a great way of reinforcing concepts, ideas and problem solving, without hammering them over the head with it like many “educational” games do.

I recorded a little vlog on some final thoughts, like a rough, progress journal of the journey so far, which can be seen below.

Learning Minecraft - Update

So I've been playing a LOT of Minecraft over the last term and the last week and a half of the holidays...

At the start it was just learning the mechanics with my son on our Survival world. Experiencing that heartbreak of starting fresh every time we felt like we were progressing. For example, venturing off into the world and finding some diamonds for the first time. We made some diamond tools, gathered all our riches and on the way back home, get blown up by creepers...

So that was our weekend for the first month or so. I'd look up some guides to get some tips on Survival mode, learning about animal and plant farms, water mechanics and even a little redstone.

I also learnt a LOT from the students at school during their Colony Game in Minecraft: Education Edition. I found out about potion brewing, little trick mechanics when fighting certain mobs and also about the scary Nether.

Some of my ex-students who graduated in the past also invited me to their Survival world and I learnt about strip mining and about the F3 function, particularly using coordinates.

Bring that all together and back on the Survival world at home, we started prospering. Didn't die as often, and even if we did, we would just run back and get our things back as we learnt how to 'orienteer' out in the Minecraft wilderness. (Using man made beacons, or roads, or torch placements)

Then my wife joined us just as holidays were about to start.

We went on this crazy spree of Minecraft for about a week. Started a new Survival world (on Easy) and she picked it up really fast. We created our own strip mines and we were doing really well. Then I discovered automated farms and that took my obsession to another level. I started researching and watching videos. I created* an AFK fishing spot where we started getting books and enchanted rods. So I looked into enchanting and books. I also created an automated melon/pumpkin farm and sugar cane farm using redstones and I felt like a tinkerer! I watched more videos on what else I could build and found that I needed 'sticky pistons'. That required slimes. So next, I learnt about 'chunks' and used tools to find slime chunks in order to create an automated slime farm. Once that was done, I went in to the Nether and after many deaths and watching numerous videos, I finally made a blaze farm.

(* By created, I mean I built it but the designs were from people I found online)

After the Blaze farm, I was kind of exhausted with Minecraft so I took a little break, just hopping on now and then to play with my son. But later on I also discovered banners and custom designs. That was really fun to play with as well.


It really showed me how deep this game really is and why so many people enjoy it. There's something in it for everyone. There's action, design, tinkering, collecting, organising, homemaking, fishing and I'm sure there's more. It kind of reminds me of Vanilla WoW where I would just give myself these mini missions/goals to achieve in game - I didn't need the game to give these to me. My experience in Minecraft was pretty much the same. I'd give myself a goal, for example, create a blaze farm, and this would entail so many other mini goals in order for me to get there. I use blaze farm as the example because this required the most research and preparing on my part from my playthrough so far. I first looked up the materials I'd need. Found out that I need sticky pistons and slime blocks. So I went about finding out how to farm slimes. Researched Slime Farms. Learnt about chunks. Spent hours digging out a chunk to create a Slime Farm. Once I had this, I located a blaze spawner and spent days trying to light it up and create a covering around it so I could farm them in peace. (Even though I probably died close to a hundred times - from blazes that slipped through, ghasts and fall damage) Finally, I needed to create the actual mechanisms, which required me to look more into redstone and quite a lot of failings.


I've recorded a lot of the gameplay and will upload it once I can edit it all down to a more digestible size. Photos to come soon too!

Learning Minecraft

I've begun my learning journey in Minecraft recently, and who better to do it with than my 6 year old son. We've played Terraria in the past before (pre hard mode only) and a little familiar with it, so we approached it thinking it'd be the same. I've also gone through the Tutorial World in the Education Edition, so packed with this knowledge, I thought we would be okay. We set one rule (well it's more for me), and that is that we are not allowed to look anything up DURING gameplay. We are to note it down if we aren't sure of something or something doesn't work and we do the research afterwards for the next session. So far we've had 3 sessions in total (2 in Education Edition and 1 in Java) and it's been quite interesting.

The beginning

Our initial session in Education Edition was relatively easy. I had it set to Peaceful and realised it didn't affect hunger so after my son got accustomed to the controls and the new 3D environment, I put it up to Normal. The crafting recipe box that shows up makes things so much easier - I remember when I first tried to play a few years ago, I was constantly looking up recipes because I had no idea. Also, from my run through of the Tutorial World in MCEE, I had some basic ideas on what we needed to make to get going at the beginning - crafting table, furnace, chest, and house.

Crafting Table, Furnace and Chest

         

Crafting recipes on the left hand side

                                                                     
We were able to get to stone-made equipment, found some coal to make torches, defeated a few zombies, and we were on our way to experimenting a little and exploring more. I also made use of the Classroom Mode to try a few things out. I disabled PvP damage as we were accidentally hitting each other when we were mining closeby and also teleported my son to the house when he ventured too far off and became lost. I used the fixed equip command to place quill and cameras in our hotbars so we could journal our adventures there. That was the original plan - to do a virtual journal rather than via the blog.

Don't copy that command - it's wrong :(

The last two hotbars are the fixed slots. Camera and Quill (writable_book)

These three are photos taken from the in game camera. (You can use an item called Portfolio to export them as image files)

However, we ran into a little hiccup. My son's game was crashing frequently in our first 2 sessions and when we booted up for the 3rd one, we found out he only had 3 trial sessions left! So rather than playing this out and possibly getting one, maybe two more sessions in, I purchased an extra retail copy for my son and continue/restart the journey there. I mean how different could it be?

Same but different

I created the world and a house with the usual starter setup as mentioned before on my own so that when we have the next Minecraft session, it'd all be there. Java version was pretty much the same but I noticed a few differences. For example, it had the recipe box to tell me what I can make, though it only showed me recipes I unlocked from obtaining new ingredients. This meant I couldn't plan ahead with what materials I needed to find like I did in MCEE, making it a more "raw" playing experience.

Crafting recipe guide on retail.

I also found it much more difficult. It was on Normal, but I never died in MCEE, but I died on my fifth or sixth night on retail. I realised the hard way, that when you die, you drop EVERYTHING you have on you. I was a little greedy because I found an iron-rich area, got carried away mining it all and pushed my luck with time, even though I knew it was going to be night very soon. To make matters worse, I was low on torches and quite far from my house! I saw the death message in the chat channel, so I went back to retrieve my hard earned iron and stone items, but I didn't even make it halfway there; shot down by some skeletons. So I thought I'd sleep until morning and go when it's safe. But alas, I get the message, "there are enemies nearby so you can't sleep". So I AFK'd for a few minutes in the house and waited in real (game) time until morning to collect my belongings. As most of you veteran Minecrafters can guess (and probably facepalming right now), my belongings were gone. I was naked except for the clothes assigned to the default Steve skin I chose. In just a few short moments, all that hard work amounted to nothing. That's when I realised that death in this game mode (on Normal anyway) is something you need to actually worry about and plan ahead to avoid happening!

Luckily, I still had the house, crafting table, furnace chests and bed so when my son and I started our 3rd Minecraft session, 1st in the Java version, we had somewhere safe to hide. Just before we booted this up though, I found out about player skins and it made me realise why so many students in my classes in the past were so fond of pixel art. I got an Optimus Prime skin for my son and a guy with a Chicago Bulls shirt for myself. I also tried editing mine and the experience made me definitely want to go back and revisit this aspect, try to make my own skin from scratch.

Reflection - comparing the two so far

After the 3rd session, we found some more iron to make my son an iron chest armor and myself an iron sword. We stocked up on some food, I tried fishing and we expanded the house just a little in size. I tried planting some seeds and my son planted some trees right outside the house and it was a great experience for him to see his trees grow, absolutely amazed him. I also used the tip I found in the Global Minecraft Mentor resources about using a shovel to pave roads, and my son is obsessed with this! He is so busy creating paths wherever we go, that I need to make lots of extra shovels, but he also drops to his death occasionally too.

I must say, having some basic background knowledge of the game made this much more enjoyable than when I first tried to dabble in it years ago. I don't mind looking up guides when stuck in a game, but back then, it was like I had to alt-tab out constantly. It was like somebody giving me some tools, throwing me into a forest and telling me to craft some furniture. I was just completely overwhelmed! The Tutorial World in MCEE showed me just enough to get me kickstarted in the game, without feeling the need to know more. From these basics, I would try to expand on it out of curiosity. It actually made me want to experiment and find things out myself, because I understood the basics - I didn't want to be told the answer. This in turn would help me remember things more effectively as I was "learning by doing". When you have your own "aha" moments.

There were a few things I missed about the Education Edition from playing the retail one. First is the clarity of name plates. In MCEE, it's really easy to spot where the other players are. The name plates are clearly visible through objects. But in retail, unless I have line of sight of the player, it's very difficult to spot them. So when my son is yelling for help, I am frantically running and looking around, whilst asking him to describe where he is. (Which can also be a good exercise too!) I also miss the camera and the quill, and the ability to add fixed inventory slots. My son loved taking photos, just like he does in real life when playing with my phone (so many random photos on there thanks to him), and when he found out you can set the camera up on a stand and you can take selfies, he was even happier.

One thing I did like about the retail was the way the crafting recipe book worked. I liked how it slowly unlocked recipes as you gathered/discover new materials. It gives a more steady sense of progression, whereas in MCEE you can click a button to see all available recipes, making it easy to just get either overwhelmed by the choices or over ambitious and go straight for the top. (making it more of a result rather than journey based experience) The difficulty isn't a big thing, I can always make it higher on MCEE and I'm sure it'll kick my backside either way.

I will continue the Minecraft sessions with my son on retail, just because there's no trial limit for him. And I might play around with the Windows 10 version that comes free for people who purchased the retail, since you can cross platform play on that. I think that's something MCEE can benefit from, as the school I'm in doesn't have a space where 30 kids can play at the same time. Lots of students have P.E (Pocket Edition) on their devices, so it would make things logistically easier. Also, since it's a little difficult for our school to set up an "always on" server, the cross platform feature again would really be useful.

My plan is to learn the game with my son from the retail version and use the knowledge gained from that to test out things on MCEE. Whether it's lesson ideas, map ideas, designs, etc...

I recorded some footage of one of our MCEE sessions a week ago and edited it so it doesn't go for 70 minutes! Enjoy :)

Minecraft Education Edition!

So, I am officially a 2018 Global Minecraft Mentor (for Minecraft Education Edition) now. It's really odd because I didn't get it last year and I gave pretty much the same reasons for this year, but I got in!

We had our first conference call today. I was overwhelmed with the amount of work the Microsoft team put in to this. There's so many resources and everyone seemed super helpful and enthusiastic.

I feel like I'm a student again, learning about something new, and being really excited about it. I know I haven't posted in this at all in 2017, (and I've always been meaning to) but this year I will be working harder at finding, no, make that, making time to share my thoughts and experiences.

I started off going through the starter kits they prepared for us on OneNote, and playing through the Tutorial World set up. At first, it was pretty standard FPS fare - W,A,S,D, Space, left click, right click, you know the usual. I've played Minecraft before, but mainly on Creative mode with my 5 year old son, trying to create weird creations. We like to do that with LEGO, so I thought why not try it in Minecraft. But this Tutorial World very quickly covered aspects I had no idea about because it's something you'd need in Survival, like crafting, repairing, smelting, cooking, redstone, etc... It absolutely blew my mind. To think that I completely missed all this - mainly because almost all the tasks I've set in class that allowed Minecraft submissions were done via Creative mode, as they were design tasks. (design a classroom, recreate a scene from the play, etc) But also because most of the material I've watched or read online about Minecraft in the classroom seemed to disregard the whole Survival aspect.

I'm not surprised though. Survival is more like a "game". It could be seen as a distraction to the curriculum they are trying to deliver. But the more I went through all this, the more I thought how this could fit in with the whole gamification I've been trying to do in my classroom the past few years. I've always felt that when you say "Okay children, today we're going to LEARN...", that straight away, I've lost half of them. They've been hardwired to see the words "learn" and "work" as negative things. Why do you think they play all these games? Because it's the opposite of work (to them anyway) and we, as adults, tell them that it's not good for them. Thus they see the value in it!

There's also a lot of STEM possibilities here as well. Our school has been approved to be a part of NSW's Minecraft Education Edition Early Access, so I've asked a few of our STEM class teachers to participate. From just the Tutorial World, the things you can do with redstone, switches, levers and buttons, it's like playing with littleBits and Makey Makeys. On top of that, you have all the crafting and smelting elements - computational thinking, maths and science again. You can grow crops, requiring sunlight, water and dirt, the list goes on. Also, with additional tools like the slates, camera, book/portfolios, I can see how it can integrate so many different Key Learning Areas (KLAs - RE: Subjects). Instead of asking students to submit task reflections separately on Google Docs, I can get them to do it via Minecraft. Instead of typing up progress journal entries, they can do it with the book or just do a visual diary using the camera of the progress.

And the more I went on the more awesome features I found. Like Classroom Mode, I could envision myself being the Gamemaster like in Hunger Games, though I can't spawn monsters, I can still teleport people around the place, change rulesets and send messages to the server. Or Code Connection, where you can connect the game to one of 6 or so different coding applications like Scratch, and the game spawns a little bot that you can use the code to do stuff. I'm sure I'm just scratching the surface here - there's bound to be things on the internet people have figured out with this stuff that is way beyond me - but as you can see, lots of exciting learning opportunities.

Personally, I'd really like to explore the Survival aspect more, and try something related to the Tragedies of the Commons. I've done something like this in class with our fictional world, but I'd like to see if the same thing happens inside the game. I know for a fact there are some students who will be very experienced in this game and would like to see how they use this upper hand.... and if things go south, get them back together and see if they can figure this tragedy out. Is it really the survival of the fittest? Maybe the fittest doesn't mean an individual?

Of course, I'll need to start with simpler projects first. I'll get the new cohort to design the classroom, get accustomed to the login system and controls for the newbies, and also steal an idea I read from a blog post here, challenging students to survive one night and write about it.

Still 3 weeks away until school restarts, so plenty of time to plan, play and test things out... As long as I spend that time wisely!

Stay tuned :)