Megan Habel's Archive

Global Game Jam (GGJ) is a worldwide event where people gather to develop and create a game in 48 hours. The game could be a board game, PC, mobile, or physical game. The first GGJ was held in 2008. Just last year, there were 500 locations that spanned 78 countries in which students created 5,439 games in one weekend! This year will be ACU’s 5th time participating.

This is a great chance to try something different that you always wanted to try, to experiment, and see what can be done. Students who come to this event will be able to seek out assistance with school projects or with their creative ideas around the GGJ theme. In past years students that were participating used the opportunity to develop a game that they later sold in the iTunes and Google app stores.

DET professor Dr. Burton states,

We are really excited to participate in GGJ this year.  Not only do we have a lot of Digital Entertainment Technology majors and minors who will be participating, but we are expecting a significant participation from students in other majors as well.  This is a chance to bring your ideas to the table for a game and see how much you can get done in a dedicated weekend. Best of all, there will be food available during the Jam, so you don’t have to leave, you can focus on your game.

Student Austin Graham reflects on his past GGJ experiences:

I have been present at the last two Global Game Jams. At the first one, I went with the theme and attempted to come up with a game in 48 hours. The results were less than stellar, but the experience was a good one. I like attending the GGJ because there is, in my opinion, a nice, productive atmosphere where I can work on projects and it does not feel too demanding or tedious.

This event will be held January 29-31 in the third floor of the Mabee Business Building. Snacks and drinks will be provided. The kick-off event begins Friday, January 29 at 6:00 pm.

For information on registering, email us at sitc@acu.edu

This semester in the Introduction to Information, Technology, and Computing class, students have been working on developing a mobile app. Students were given ten weeks to develop an idea, form a team, and develop an app. This Thursday, they were able to showcase their project to their fellow students, faculty, and staff members.

“I learned a lot about sprite making and how to work within a team of various personalities and talents  to create a video game. It was challenging and rewarding to see something I created come to life,” says DET student, Hayley Hand.

Each team performed exceptionally well, thoroughly impressing the faculty. “This is always an exciting event for the students and the faculty,” Dr. Burton says, “This is where we get to see the full app or game that they have been working on all semester. We were thrilled with the results and what our students accomplished.”

When asked, many teams stated that they would like to continue working on this project and eventually get their app to the point where it can be published in the App Store or Google Play store. Shapes & Colors team member, Nathan Sherrill reflects, “This project challenged me to learn a new programming language and be able to develop a mobile app in a 10 week time-frame. It was challenging to do so, but it was rewarding to see I had a final product that was complete and functioning by the end. As Dr. Burton says, I am ready to “make 10​s​ of cents” for each purchase of my mobile app.”

Some of the most notable teams included Barista Buddy, The Unfamiliar Path, Spinball, and Shapes & Colors.

Staff members listening in on the Barista Buddy commercial

Students presenting their game, The Unfamiliar Path, to Dr. Reeves

A closer look at The Unfamiliar Path

Students explaining their game, Spinball

DET professor Brian Burton has started developing an exciting new program that will infuse class with games.

Gamification is a concept that has gained significant interest in the past couple of years. It is a process where one takes game elements and puts them into a class allowing you to earn badges and achievements. Its purpose is to make courses more interesting, fun, and to encourage more participation by students.

Last spring, Dr. Burton and a group of students developed a gamification website. This website allowed you to log in, enter the project you had completed, and earn badges and achievements as well as a grade for the assignment. For example, you could unlock the “Photoshop” badge and were given a little badge that you could display on your website. This project went very well and is now functioning as an independent website that can be used in conjunction with any class.

Dr. Burton reflects, “We started thinking that it would be a lot better if this was integrated into Canvas or Blackboard or any other learning management systems that we typically use on campus”. This led to the acceptance of a grant from the Adams Center to further develop this program. Over the next year, Dr. Burton along with students Austin Graham and Katey Bluel will work to create a plugin that will allow the gamification of the Canvas website. Users will be able to take this plugin and add it to any class.

Gamification has already proven to be successful in raising student participation. Students will do more things to earn a badge than they would necessarily do just to earn points for a project. Another feature to better increase participation is gamification through peer reviews. Gamification samples were added so students could view other student’s works and comment on them. If you completed ten reviews, you could earn a badge. Before gamification, only one or two people would participate in responses. Afterwards, the majority of the class were reviewing and doing ten peer reviews and giving comments and feedback on other projects. They became much more invested in earning a badge or an achievement, even if there were no points involved.

At this point, Dr. Burton and his team have to figure out one thing: how to make the experience as easy as possible for the user. As for the future of gamification at ACU, Dr. Burton states, “There are a lot of places researching gamification or the implementation of gamification. None of them have been easy to use. Our intention is to create an open source plugin that anyone at any university can take and use for their classes.”

Not only will this new program benefit the school, it will benefit the students. “DET students are creating the next generation of inclusion of gamification and they are creating research that will, hopefully, have a broad impact,” states Burton. “It gives them practice in doing the gamification process. If they work for the corporate office at United or a major bank, many of them are looking into how to incorporate gamification. They will already have the experience doing the gamification and they will be able to apply it in an environment like that.”

Dr. Burton is very excited about this opportunity and looks to have this product fully ready to be used by students by next fall.

Check out this promo video for DET featuring Austin Graham, created by senior DET major Cannon Spears:

Check out this promo for ACU’s DET program, featuring Katey Bluel, created by senior DET major Ivan Righi:

Watch this inspiring video created by 2015 DET graduate, Tim Holt:

During his senior year in high school, Austin narrowed down his college search to the schools that had progressive IT Departments. ACU stood out to him because the program felt open-ended. It made him feel like he could take the major and go where he wanted to go with it. He also visited the school and loved how welcoming the atmosphere was to him. With these two observations, Austin decided to join the ACU family.

Originally, Austin was focused on the graphic side, but quickly realized he also enjoyed the programming aspects of IT. Through ACU’s DET major, he is now able to combine both of these passions into one major. The DET club allows him to take school projects that he was working on and excited about to a whole new level.  According to Austin, “You can have an idea and make it real, because of DET”.

Austin is currently debating whether he wants to follow the programming route or if he wants to go towards the more creative side of his education. Ideally, he would like to use both of these in his future career.  His advice to people looking into the department: “If programming is not your thing, it is okay. If you are more towards the creative side, you have a place here. Not everyone can be programmers. We need artists and creative people too!”

Something that Austin loves about this department is truly having his voice being heard, no matter what year he is in school. He really enjoys when professors call him out in class to share his thoughts and ideas. It has helped him not only become a leader in the department but also feel confident in his abilities because his professors truly believe in him. As he advances into higher level classes, he is excited to learn more about programming and the excitement that comes along with that.

He also noted that, “It is not just playing games here. Rather, it is a lot of hard work that is both rewarding and fun”. No matter how old you are or what year you are in high school or college, start practicing and thinking up ideas now. Even if those ideas seem small or irrelevant to what you are currently learning, everyone has to start somewhere. He says that it is also very helpful to come into the department already having ideas to work on in classrooms and for club. “It’s easy to get started once you are here, because you have all the resources that you need right in front of you.”