The graphics aspect creating a game has been troubling me. I have neither the time nor the skills to create the graphics. I’m not talking video game, just graphics for a much lower tech game. One day earlier this month, I was home sick and drafted this proposal…
Background
Three changes at school are leading me to gamify part of my curriculum. First, our schedule has changed. Instead of seeing each student weekly, I now see them every 12 school days. In other words, not so much. That leaves less time for parts of our curriculum. Second, my job title has changed. I am now a tech coach, so I am helping teachers prepare to lead their own tech-infused lessons. Third, a change in the homework policy has fewer teachers assigning typing as homework.
The Big Idea
So, I am trying to gamify part of my curriculum. I want to add game elements (a story, quests, leaderboard, badges, leveling up to earn privileges, etc.) I am still sorting out the details but I want it to be a “super heroes undertaking quests of their choice” type of game. After I have the basic game working I hope to add guilds and other cool things to help them gain collaboration and appropriate online social skills.
I haven’t finalized my platform yet. I suspect I will use Edmodo as our main communication space. I will embed Google Docs into it. Otherwise I will use a blog or website.
To give the game a cool appearance and to unify the various pieces I have two graphic design projects.I am thinking of posting on wants ads to find a graphic artist to create the characters for a gamification project of mine. The project isn’t fully planned yet but I may soon be ready to start drafting materials.
- Any ideas on what should be added to the project description below?
- Know anyone who’d want to do it? I was thinking of posting it on Want Ads to see if anyone knows a high schooler with the skills to do it.
- What is reasonable payment for the base project?
- How about a price for the badge projects? Would you combine it with the character project or keep them two projects separate?
Project 1: Design the Characters
- Super hero theme but not limited to the Marvel comics types. Look here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1367241051/classrealm for examples of the type of thing I want.
- Variety within a common style. The characters should all be in the same style of illustration. Since I hope to appeal to a wide variety of fourth graders the super hero characters will cover a wide range such as the ones below
- warrior/knight
- wizard
- fairy/princess
- sporty/athletic
Specifics
- 5 characters (4 middle schoolers and a pet). Includes 2 boys, 2 girls and a cool pet of either gender. Since we have a multicultural student body, these characters should represent that diversity in skin tone. However, we are not limited to normal human skin tones.
- 3-4 poses for each character and 3 group shots. Poses should make it easy to “decorate” the publicity posters, quests, leaderboard, etc. Would be cool if each graphic were shaped like the character rather than rectangular but I can work with either.
- Banner heading that includes title in a stylized font and the five characters. Would be helpful to have it be scalable so I can stretch it to fit across a page or shrink it to be a log in the corner. Alternately, these could be separate graphics. Working title is Tech Hero Academy but that may change.
- Format: Graphics need to have a transparent background and be useable in the locations listed below so they need to be in .jpeg, .gif or .png format :
- in Google Docs
- In Google Sites
- in Microsoft Word or Pages
- Media: The graphics may be computer-generated or hand drawn/painted, etc and then brought into a graphics program to be digitized and have transparent background added.
Project 2: Badges
To give the kids choice, I plan to have quests. As they complete quests I would like to have badges they can add to their blog. In appearance, I am picturing something along these lines: http://www.classbadges.com/ but I’d like the badge title on the badge. I can create these myself using ready-made icons, but ones created for the game would be cooler.
I will not know all the quests when the game starts. I’d like to purchase them in batches of 5 for a set price per batch. I envision quite a few badges during the year, maybe 15 to start with.
- Style: Same style for all so they all seem to belong to the game. The only thing different between badges should be the image in the middle. However, might want different border color for different types of quests. Might want different shaped badges to indicate level of badge (e.g. novice, apprentice, master, adept). Colors and images designed to appeal to a 9-11-year-old.
- Tied to the individual quest. Don’t want a pair of sunglasses on a keyboarding quest.
- Graphics need to have a transparent background and be useable in the locations listed below so they need to be in .jpeg, .gif or .png format:
- in Google Docs
- In Google Sites
- in Microsoft Word or Pages
- Edmodo
- Pricing: I’d like a base price for the first 15. Those will take longer as we figure out the basic style, fonts, border colors, etc. After that, I’d like to purchase in sets of 5 as needed. Those should be quicker to make since the main details will all be tied down.