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This game was developed in conjunction with Dr. Danielle Oprean and Dr. Soren Larsen as a part of the GEOG 1200 course discussion during modules 13 through 16. The course in the program related to the creation of the game was ISLT9480 – Internship in ISLT. The game focuses on the South and East Asia portion of the course. Stories of a GeoFarmer is a Role-Playing Game that utilizes non-player character (NPC) interaction and a farming simulation mechanic to guide students through the nuances of sustainable agricultural geography and societal, economic, and cultural forces. Players traverse through Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines to learn about farming through harvesting crops and working with residents to stimulate the local economy. Players complete quests to progress through the different locales and gain inventory and currency for their farms.
Goals:
Goal 1: To provide students with experiences to develop theory-grounded and research-based competencies for the innovative, aesthetic, effective and sustainable design/development and management of technologies for learning opportunities and systems.
- Objective 1.1: Students are able to design/develop learning and performance opportunities and systems including direct instruction, constructivist learning, collaborative work, and performance support.
- Competencies: Design and Development of learning systems – (student) I am able to design and develop innovative, aesthetic, effective and sustainable learning technologies based on theory-grounded research.
Stories of a GeoFarmer went through multiple development cycles and is a part of an ongoing research project. The initial version of the game is much different from the current version and that is due to, in no small part, the feedback received from students around the learning and gameplay. The game, Stories of a GeoFarmer, provides a great framework for players to actively engage in their own learning. While the game is not truly open world, there are many, many choices that players can make and see how the environment is shaped based on their choices. As they make choices, the players are provided with immediate feedback in the UI and sometimes will see a visible change to the environment (chopping down a tree, starting a forest fire). As we were creating Stories of a GeoFarmer, the level of autonomy for players and how they can interact with the game environment was a huge consideration.
Goal 3: To provide students with experiences to become socially responsible, reflective/sensitive on the interaction of technologies & society and act ethically in response to current and future challenges of emerging technologies for learning.
- Objective 3.1: Students demonstrate technology leadership and knowledge of ethics as applied to current and future socio-technical context.
- Competencies: Leadership & Social Responsibility (student) I developed competencies for socially responsible technology leadership.
One of the toughest elements of creating Stories of a GeoFarmer was balancing the social responsibility and ethics for the game. The topic of the game deals with socio-environmental issues like global warming, over-farming, indigenous peoples’ rights, and corporate responsibility to the environment. Trying to accurately represent these issues and presenting a wholistic view to students is a tall order by itself, but the game also is centered on a region that the individuals involved to not originate from. Cultural sensitivity, deep empathy, and a commitment to growth were necessary to handle developing this game. Several students pointed out that the stock characters used in the initial iteration were not representative of the culture. Some students thought that the game was pro-imperialism as well. Revising the game to be clearer on the issues while presenting multiple sides of an issue was very tricky, but ultimately the version linked above was a significant improvement over the previous versions and challenged me to think critically around difficult ethical dilemmas.
Process
Stories of a GeoFarmer was intended to be a somewhat self-contained learning environment. The majority of the concepts were intended to be taught or reinforced strictly within the context of the game. Tools within the game would then supplement the learning environment with activities to truly imprint the lessons upon the players. Being a pseudo self-contained learning environment is both a strength and a weakness of this design. Not having to rely on external texts or lessons provides the game the ability to truly engross the player in verisimilitude and prevents any issues of miscommunication between mediums teaching the same concepts. However, forcing all the concepts into one learning environment also puts a heavy burden on the game and the design can suffer from that burden.
- Blake Pieper – Lead Developer
- Dr. Soren Larsen – Instructor, Designer, Researcher
- Dr. Danielle Oprean – Designer, Researcher, Project Manager
- Yuanyuan Gu – Researcher
- Nate McGorry – Researcher
- Declan Brown – Researcher
- Alison Clay – Writer
- Nicholas Rankin – Writer
Reflection
The player interactions with the non-player characters can feel contrived at times and the quests are not as engaging as they could be. Along with the limitations brought about from the design of the game, the game engine used to create the game also provides limitations. RPG Maker MV is the game engine for Stories of a GeoFarmer. It speeds up production of the levels and interactable objects with the low-code components of the engine but comes with a large amount of overhead just to create custom interactions and scripts. The artwork that is preloaded into the game is also a heavy limitation of the game engine. After reviewing student feedback, we learned that more representative artwork and a clearer goal for players would provide a better experience. We worked with a graphic designer to create representative artwork. Along with this, a redesign of the interaction mechanics and deeper integration of the farming mechanic were completed. For the most recent iteration of the game, the learning and mechanics are much more closely aligned. The mechanics themselves scaffolds somewhat, but the learning does not scaffold perfectly in step with the mechanics. Players have some feedback around whether their choices affect the environment or the people living in that locale positively, but the visual representation and choices do not change much based on prior choices.