Colonial Williamsburg: Revolution Postmortem - How Commercial Game Engines Affect Pedagogical Design

Speakers: Brett Camper, Matthew Weise

Track: SGS: Game Design

Format: Lecture

Experience Level: All

Description: The Colonial Willaimsburg: Revolution project at MIT was an early serious games initiative that used Bioware's Neverwinter Nights engine to create an online history game prototype for classroom use. Bioware's engine was originally intended for creating fantasy role-playing scenarios, and the postmortem explores how the long-standing genre conventions inherent in Neverwinter Nights created unique barriers to achieving a classroom-ready historical simulation. Several examples are taken from the development of Revolution to showcase how using the Neverwinter Nights engine profoundly shaped the pedagogical goals of the project.

Idea Takeaway: Educational designers and researchers embarking on serious games development projects learn about the practical and pedagogical ramifications of adopting a commercial game engine. Curriculum developers discover which commercial engines best match the skills of their faculty and students.

Intended Audience: The primary intended audience are educational designers, researchers, and curriculum developers. A general awareness of current popular game engine toolsets is preferred but not required.