Metaplace Newsletter

Metaplace April Beta Newsletter, San Diego, California, April 28, 2009

Interview with 3DSquared – Digital Workforce Intensive on 4/28/2009 at 5:34 pm
Tami Barbeau, “Cuppycake”

Many of you may be aware of Joe Castille and 3DSquared, and their work with the Digital Workforce Intensive. We managed to snag Joe to talk to us a little bit about the experience, so please read on and make sure to visit Transforming Louisiana to see all the work the participants did!

Can you tell us a little bit about what the Digital Workforce Intensive is? Who was involved?
The Digital Workforce Intensive is a 10 day, 12 hour per day, workforce development program involving 40 Louisiana middle and high school students. It was held at the 3D Squared Digital Media Lab at LITE, a technology center in Lafayette, Louisiana. Participants worked in teams, attended lectures about game design, art and programming, and about the Metaplace platform. Teams selected social problem areas such as education, healthcare and coastal restoration, developed a game concept and design. The teams developed Powerpoint presentations and prototyped worlds in Metaplace. They presented their prototypes to industry experts such as Dallas Snell, Billy Cain, Paul Trowe and Doug Prince who gave commentary and feedback.

What sort of worlds did participants make?
The participants made worlds themed around Louisiana social problems. All of the worlds can be accessed through a hubworld: Transforming Louisiana. One team did worlds about industrial pollution, one did a world about the coast, one team built a game about getting a job, one team prototyped a game about classroom discipline and another about recruiting and retaining law enforcement. Some of the worlds had more game like features than others. We were very impressed however, with how quickly the kids tackled the scripting challenges. They produced worlds involving custom object behaviors, dialogue trees, scoring systems and other features that we consider more advanced.

How did the world presentations work?
The Teams gave their presentations in the Kathleen B. Blanco Auditorium at LITE. About 100 legislators, parents and teachers, business and civic leaders watched. Each team had a half hour to deliver its presentation. They started with powerpoint presentations that outlined the game concept, platform, elements of gameplay, features, etc. Then, they showed how they used our ning community to coordinate their Team activities. Finally, they presented their Metaplace prototype worlds and explained how those worlds illustrated the game concept and design they had chosen.

What was the overall experience like for the kids?
The experience for the kids was amazing. They really got into it. One of the big surprises was when we offered ‘free play’ time, and several of the groups continued working on their worlds! Everyone was very excited about the capabilities of the Metaplace platform. One of our teachers has already taken Metaplace back to her classroom to use as a teaching tool. We got incredible feedback from everyone involved – from the elected officials, to the parents and teachers, to the kids. We were particularly moved by the reaction of the game industry veterans. They were stunned by the kids and the quality of the presentations, as well as what the kids had been able to accomplish in such a short time on Metaplace. One of the particularly tough game gods was actually on the verge of tears! For everyone, it was truly the transformative experience we had hoped it would be.

http://3dsquared.ning.com/forum/topics/metaplace-spotlights-digital