Frank Ferguson over at Curriculum Associates tells me the beta for GameBrix, discussed here, is rapidly improving. The tools work. The tutorials are coming along. FAQs are being developed. Plans at the moment are to go live around the Game Developer Conference in February. As it is in open beta, now is a great opportunity to give feedback to the developers for features and toolsets you’d like to see. Personally, I think GameBrix could develop into an excellent resource for teachers and students.
For aspiring online game makers a new community is now in public beta providing tools for creating games and animations; forums for sharing ideas, game components, and troubleshooting tips; and a host site for games that others can play. Frank Ferguson, president of Curriculum Associates, tells me that GameBrix.net will change to .com once it gets out of beta.
The cool thing about the site is the Web 2.0 aspects involving communities of like-minded players, where budding programmers can seek out the advice and expertise of veteran code-meisters and solutions from all. Folks can work solo, or in teams to produce quality games that can be loaded from the site and played anywhere. Ferguson indicates that different levels of programming can be used, from the very simple to quickly create easy games, to the very complex for professional coders looking to create advanced games.
The pedagogical possibilities are readily evident. Professors and teachers can appropriate the site for educational purposes, designing instructional games or having students design things themselves. GameBrix certainly is worth a visit, and worth watching as it works its way out of beta.
Game Discussion, Game Writing, Making Video Games, Serious Games | John Rice | 
December 18, 2007 4:39 am | 
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