Installation Games for Information Technology and Health Issues Education
Background: This was an opportunity referred by a designer I met in a class about Internet arts. The studio that was in charge of two installation games as part of a science exhibition needed a developer team, so I gather two of my classmates studying computer science to take on the opportunity. In addition, to work with my teammates to design and implement the mechanisms behind the two games, I served as the portal for the designer team and the hardware team, so that the three teams could coordinate to finish the project on time for a science exhibition.
I learned two important lessons on application design and project management from this project. First, for an installation game designed to engage with the general public, there was a delicate balance between the expected and the unexpected. We wanted the unexpected in games to create surprise, and yet provide some recognizable patterns for people to make sense of it, espeically for installation games with a large audience in a science exhibition. Second, to coordinate a multi-team project, I needed to talk to different teams to understand their job content and working rhythms, so that I can empathize with them to accommodate any contingency that could delay their progress, and hence ours. Moreover, by anticipating potential roadblocks, I could revise the schedule for our team to properly making progress.
My role(s): Project Coordinator, Developer
Collaborator(s): Jen-Hao Chen, Ho-Lin Chang
Motivation: Engaging the public, especially youths, with history is not always an easy task, as people might get bored quickly if not particularly interested in the subjects. One way to tackle the issue is to engage the audience with a fun activity while history is delivered.
Problem Solving: Working with visual designers and an interactive installation artist, I led a software development team of 3 to create two installation games in Taiwan for the National Science Council's annual exhibition, Taiwan's Amazing Transformation in Science and Technology.
Understanding Design Requirements
Development
Expert Feedback
Revision
Release
Outcomes: A Dance Dance Revolution game was created for the audience to access important episodes of information technology development in the history of Taiwan. People can use their feet or hands to reproduce the suggested sequence of steps to unlock a new episode. A Whac-A-Mole game was created for the audience to engage with health education materials. People can 'hit' different bacteria and get to know how vaccines were introduced at different times to help people maintain their health.
Summary:
Date: 2007 Summer