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Going "inside the game" with Kodu Game Lab

Kodu_with_year8_english
Kodu Game Lab is a free download that allows you to create your own Xbox style games.  As yet, we are unable to play the games on the Xbox console, however, the games still make a great impact when played on a PC with a Windows Controller.

We started by making two versions of a very simple game called, Rock Chase.  The object of the game was to use the cycle to run over the rocks to score points.  If the wisps flying through the sky hit your cycle, you lost points.

The day before our Year 8's were going on their camp to Lake Eildon, we decided to alter the Rock Chase game by adding Lake Eildon words to each of the rocks.  Therefore, players had to run over the rocks with the Lake Eildon words to score points.  As we played each of the games, the scores were recorded and students enjoyed trying to beat their "personal best" or their peer's highest score.

The object of these activities was to generate interest in games creation and in the use of the Kodu Game Lab software.  It is a free download, has excellent tutorials available to get you started, allows users to create simple games yet there is the potential to create much more involved games using the advanced features.  

It was great to see students asking questions about the software and the Windows Controller. Kodu Game Lab allows you to easily share your games creations with others to play and edit. We shared our Rock Chase with one of our students, Andrew, who made his own improvements and then shared it with us :)

Visit the sites below to learn more about Kodu Game Lab and obtain the free download:
http://www.kodugamelab.com/
http://planetkodu.com/
http://fuse.microsoft.com/page/kodu.aspx

You can also download our basic Rock Chase game and try creating your own version :)

Filed under: Inside the Game Kodu Game Lab Xbox games
 

Inside the Game

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This term, we are very excited to be focusing on games creation and the architecture of games. In future posts, we'll outline aspects of our Inside the Game project in greater detail.  In particular, we are exploring the use of OpenSim, Minecraft, Kodu Game Lab and Kinect2Scratch.  Various activities are taking place in our Senior Library, where interested students from Years 7 to 10 have the opportunity to participate during recess and lunch times.  Having students test various software and work on personal projects is also providing us with valuable information for possible uses in our 2012 curriculum.

So far, our Virtual Worlds Project Team have been exploring "The Architecture of Games" and Kodu Game Lab has been enthusiastically received with students playing and editing Xbox style games with the use of a Windows Controller.

Stay tuned!  There's more to come!

Special thanks to:
The students from Northern Beaches Christian School for their "Minecraft Pixel Art" image
Tara, for her OpenSim creations and
Stephen Howell for sharing his Kinect2Scratch software 

Filed under: Inside the Game Kinect Kinect2Scratch Kodu Game Lab Minecraft OpenSim Stephen Howell games
 

Welcome to the new BGS eLearning Blog!

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Welcome to our new blog!  Previously, this blog was known as BGS Virtual Worlds and was used by our students to share their work as part of our school's Virtual Worlds Project.  However, we felt that a method for sharing information about other eLearning Projects was also needed.  You can find more detailed information about Begonia Island, our OpenSim Virtual Worlds Project at http://begoniaisland.edublogs.org/ 

In 2011 we have continued to explore a number of exciting areas such as games creation using Kodu Game Lab, Scratch and use of the Microsoft Kinect Sensor Camera with these tools.  We have also had lots of fun creating our own special BeeBot, "Phee-Bee" who has been programmed to complete some exciting journeys around our Senior Library this year!

You can follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bgselearning

Filed under: Begonia Island Kinect Kodu Game Lab OpenSim Scratch Virtual Worlds
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