Mobile Games get...Physical? Life of George and AppMates

A new concept in games appeared late in 2011 - and I happen to have got two examples of this phenomenon as presents in order to evaluate (oh, and play!).

It's a simple idea, use the potential of games on mobile devices and combine it with physical toys.

1. Life of George 

Cost: Box ~£29.95 on Amazon, App free

This game is a combination of Lego bricks, a special board and a free to download app from the Apple App store (iPhone etc only at the moment).

The idea is to work through a sort of scrapbook of flat pictures you can make out of the lego selection provided - as fast as you can - then use the camera on your iPad2 or iPhone to capture it (this is where the special board comes in as it reads against the dots). It scores you based on accuracy and speed (time allowed is dependent on the difficulty - some are quite hard surprisingly!).

Once you complete a page of the scrapbook you are invited to post it up to Facebook etc. You can also play in two player mode (same thing but one at a time) or create your own scrapbook by photographing your own creations.

This has gone down really well with competitive adults I know as well as the kids. You can tell the people who are taking it too seriously as they start colour and size sorting all the bricks before they start...

More about Life of George on the product website

2. AppMates

Cost: Car ~£15 on Amazon, App free

This game uses a small plastic car (I've got Lightening McQueen) which when you hold by the special conductive side windows lets the iPad read the direction and position of the car on the screen.

Once you've got the iPad reading the car (it can be a little fussy if it's cold or you haven't got a good grip!) then you can start exploring the world. You can drive where you like and will meet characters who set you 'quests' or challenge you to races. As you progress you can collect hubcaps and trade them in for upgrades (like rainbow tyre tracks).

There are some impressive aspects to the game - like when you park you car in front of a mirror and can see all your accessories in the mirror.

The car wheels don't go round - its really about pointing the car where you want it to go, not moving it. For a house like mine with lots of boys toys lying around, this is an easy toy to lose. Have found it several times tidied away with the rest of our normal toy cars...

More about AppMates on the product website

What next?

I've been trying to think of other ways you could develop this idea of mobile meets physical, but it does seem that it has mostly kid/game potential. The AppMates game also works with your fingers - you don't need the car, so for any adult purposes you could just use the app as normal.

The lego model gives potential for ways in which you can capture physical creations in a digital way - we thought maybe cross stich or Hama bead designs?

iPhone 4 (vs Galaxy S) vs HTC Windows Phone 7 evaluation - two months without my iPhone

Regular readers will know I gave up my beloved iPhone 4 for a month in October to test drive a Samsung Galaxy S. Summary: Android ok, but not switching. The next test is an HTC Windows Phone 7 for a month - the month has now been and gone, and I'm still carrying the phone...that tells you something! I reluctantly have to give it back this week, so time to put cards on the table. Here's a breakdown:

For those of you who've never seen a Windows phone, here's a useful intro from http://msdn.microsoft.com/.

Image copied from http://msdn.microsoft.com/ used under fair use

The thing I particularly like about the Windows Phone operating system is the way instead of thinking about apps (Twitter, Facebook, SMS, Email etc...) I can think about People, and see everything related to a particular person centred around them. I'll let Wikipedia describe this idea of 'hubs' to you:

Windows Phone features a new user interface, based upon Microsoft's Windows Phone design system, codenamed Metro. The home screen, called the "Start screen", is made up of "Live Tiles". Tiles are links to applications, features, functions and individual items (such as contacts, web pages, applications or media items). Users can add, rearrange, or remove Tiles. Tiles are dynamic and update in real time - for example, the tile for an email account would display the number of unread messages or a Tile could display a live update of the weather.

Several features of Windows Phone are organized into "hubs", which combine local and online content via Windows Phone's integration with popular social networks such as Facebook, Windows Live, and Twitter. For example, the Pictures hub shows photos captured with the device's camera and the user's Facebook photo albums, and the People hub shows contacts aggregated from multiple sources including Windows Live, Facebook, and Gmail. From the Hub, users can directly comment and 'like' on social network updates. The other built-in hubs are Music and Video (which integrates with Zune), Games (which integrates with Xbox Live), Windows Phone Marketplace, and Microsoft Office. 

Extract from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone 13/12/2011

Things I love...the ideas behind the interface. And some of the features; like the voice control and the way if you're running late for a meeting you can email the organiser straight from the diary reminder, very cute.

My big criticisms of the Android was the ability to get photos off the phone and music/videos onto the phone via my MacBook Pro - not an issue at all on Windows Phone. Using the Windows Phone 7 Connector App (free through the Apple App Store) this is simple, natively syncing with the iTunes music and iPhoto albums. Spot on.

Things I love less...well the number of applications available is hugely limited compared to the iPhone App Store. I don't think you can make screengrabs. If that's it, then that's not bad.

So. What next? I don't want to test a Blackberry for a month. Does anyone think it's worth my while? I want a Nokia Lumia Windows 7 Phone. Everything I like about the HTC but slimmer and sleeker.

Cards on the table. I really like Windows Phone. Better than iPhone? I don't know - they're different. But I'm sticking with Windows. For now, at least.

The Future of Flash - a talk by Seb Lee-Delise

Today I attended a talk organised by the Digital Media students at the University of Brighton, presented by Seb Lee-Delise, a Flash/Javascript/Interactivity guru.

Seb Lee-Delise inspiring his audience to keep on learning

For a considered opinion on the demise of Flash and the rise of HTML5 read this post by Adam Yeats (who co-organised the talk today).

Seb was a highly engaging speaker, taking us through the highs and lows of Flash over the last 10 years. He demonstrated the demand for Flash and actionscript coders (15 times LESS than HTML and javascript programmers at the moment) with stats from real job listings. I particularly liked the way Seb used his tweet stream to engage with his audience, responding to the tweets and identifying the tweet authors in the room. 

So, what is the future of Flash? Is it dead? No, according to Seb, it's not dead. Tomorrow somebody could write the next in-browser multiplayer game to replace World of Warcraft using Flash and suddenly demand could change completely. On the other hand, maybe they won't, and Flash will fade away, left only for specialist applications where video is involved and it really is the best solution. We're in flux. We just don't know what's around the corner. And that links to Seb's leaving remarks - as illustrated in the photo above. We can't stand still, Flash one day, HTML5 the next, who knows what tomorrow! Love learning and experiment and it will be an exciting ride.

What's in a kiss? Seminar - considering language online

This Wednesday I attended a lunchtime seminar: What's in a kiss? Emoticons, initialisms and kisses in instant messaging language presented by Dr Lynn Cahill.

Lynn was presenting the work of a student comparing features of language use in Instant Messaging chat between teenagers and undergraduates. Their findings are shown in the slide below, which gives you a flavour of their research:

A new concept arising from their work is that of 'medial kisses'. Many people sign off messages and emails with an 'x' but medial kisses are those used to end sentences throughout a conversation, almost in place of a full stop.

I was intrigued by the idea that most teenagers don't capitalise the word 'i' unless it's at the beginning of a sentence. This is an irregularity in the English language anyway, so if any changes result to written English over time due to this behaviour it will be to standardise, which may not be a bad thing. In fact the typical view seen in the press, that teenagers are ruining the English language and don't know how to use it properly, was completely overturned in the qualitative analysis of this research. The participants showed that by knowing how to use English properly they were better able to subvert it for efficiency and impact (following the current trends) when typing with their friends.

I've discussed this with a few colleagues since and decided there is definitely something generational happening here. I tend not to type an 'x' on anything unless it is family, a close friend or possibly somebodies birthday. I do however use emoticons (eg smilies like ;-} ) on emails and facebook posts very regularly in order to help clearly express emotion or lighten the tone.

I'm off to check my Twitter stream...how often do I use x and ;-} and LOL in my tweets? I'm pretty sure I always capitalise my 'I's though!

Running a Conference Murder Mystery Game #ecelmurder

As an advocate of the games-based learning approach, I was delighted when asked by my colleague Steve Kilgallon to help plan and run a game at the European Conference on eLearning this year. The conference was at our institution, the University of Brighton from 9-11 Nov 2011, and now the murder has been solved I can share the experience.

We decided to make the game not only an entertaining activity running alongside the conference, but also use examples of games-based learning within the game. We chose a Cludeo/Whodunnit scenario, as something an international audience could all identify with. With 6 clues: 3 activities that could be completed online through existing websites, released on the Monday of the conference week (Weds, Thurs, Fri) and 3 that required looking for or speaking to somebody at the conference itself.

Here is an example of an online clue:
What's the name of the swab used to collect DNA samples from cheek cells?
link: http://forensics.rice.edu/ (Rookie Training, Forensic Biology)


The answers to the clues were entered into the game website to release digits of the final code.

The website for the game: http://student.brighton.ac.uk/ecel2011/ 

What worked well...

• Keeping it simple: The three clues at the conference were all pretty easy, which meant we didn't lose players through trying to be overly cryptic. eg The 'poster' clue required them to spot that one of the posters on display was by Professor #Brown, pretty easy as it was of four elephants, with 'elephant' being the answer they were looking for.

  

  Which poster has the clue?

• The final clue: The 6 clues gave the players 6 numbers. Once invited to the reveal they were given one final clue on a piece of paper and had to race each other to add 11, subtract 12 etc to reveal a number, then work out it was a phone number ('Ring my Bell' was being played loudly while they worked this out) add a leading zero to their number and then dial it. We spent £6.99 on a cheap mobile phone with minimal credit and gave it to one of the conference organisers (Asher Rospigliosi) who was happy to play along and act it up when his phone rang revealing him as the murderer!
• The reveal location: Because we were unclear on how much take-up there would be, we left our options open regarding when to reveal the murderer; either on the Thursday night at the conference dinner, or at the lunch break the next day. In the end we decided on the Friday lunchtime to allow extra time for players to complete the clues and to allow the finale a more intimate space (where you could hear a phone ring) than in the large dinner venue (the Brighton Dome).
• Data Logging: The website was a basic html form to check the responses, but everything entered was logged to a text file. This was a simple technical solution to set up, but gave us a very clear idea of how players were progressing and assess take-up throughout the day.

What worked less well...

• Technology choices: Some of the online activities required Flash, which meant delegates on iPads or iPhones couldn't complete the clues without finding a computer.
• Optimistic social media: I tried creating an #ecelmurder hashtag for the game, but it didn't really take off, and all the conference activity was on #ECEL2011 which I used in all tweets anyway. It's own hashtag wasn't necessary.
• Take-up: With a captive audience of nearly 200 conference goers, interested in eLearning presumably(!) we were hopeful that of the order of 50 might complete the game. In fact the figures were 41 for the first online clue, then descending down to 11 who eventually completed all 6 tasks and logged their email address. About 6 of these came to the final reveal as some had already left by lunchtime on the last day.

What would we do differently....

• As is often the way with these kind of pseudo-Alternate Reality Games, the clue solving/puzzle activity ends up quite remote from the story-line. Although we had created a back story for our victim, it was not important in order to solve the clues. I'd like to find a way of making it integral, perhaps with clues on a (fictitious) blog etc.

The winner, Andrea, collecting her prize (chocolates)

Computing Ethics and Modern Parenting Dilemmas

As part of the first year New Media module I am teaching on this semester, I attended a guest lecture by Dr David Horner on Issues and Ethics in Emerging Media. This isn't an area I've looked into before and I found it fascinating - the idea that technology isn't a neutral thing; changes in technology lead to new forms of behaviour which imply new ethical issues. We find ourselves in situations that our norms and rules just don't cover.

David talked about Moor's (2008) model where because of these new 'rule-free' situations we find ourselves in, we create a conceptual muddle. This covers things like sexting...what is it, is it illegal? And software piracy...what is software, is it like physical property or is it like intellectual property?

Helping my 6 year old son learn right and wrong when the world keeps changing

To try and relate this to my life, this got me thinking about the conceptual muddles I find myself in at home with my children, which they didn't teach you about at childbirth classes...

1. Supervising YouTube
The kids know which tv channels they like and which DVDs on the shelf are 'theirs'. They know they can't watch Harry Potter 4 yet, because it's a 12. They also find endless hours of entertainment on YouTube, but things online aren't quite so clearly labelled. What looks like innocent cartoon sometimes turns out not to be. I tend to go down the line of educating rather than blocking, so they get full access to look up whatever they want - but I can't get on with something else in the same way I could if they were watching CBBC.

2. My iTunes Store Password
My 8 year old knows my iTunes store password. Because he knows he's not allowed to spend money without asking, but he is allowed to download free games that are labelled as suitable for his age, and he can update things on the iPad without needing me. But, technically he could spend an awful lot of money on Smurfberries (for example) if he wanted to.

3. Smurfberries
Since I mentioned it. I don't spend money on virtual goods in games. I think it's a complete waste of money. But to an 8 year old, spending 69p on a basket of virtual smurfberries is as good a way to spend his pocket money as a bag of sweets for himself. And it's his money, so yes, he is allowed to spend it - he pays me the cash and types in the iTunes password to buy.

These are just a few - feel free to add to the list.

iPhone 4 vs Galaxy S evaluation - a month without my iPhone

Image from SmartPhone Envy YouTube video
The iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S

As some of you know I gave up my iPhone 4 for a month in order to give Android a real trial and see what I think of it. Well the month is now up, so time to commit to an opinion.

If you're interested, here's a great technical comparison of the two on YouTube from SmartPhone Envy:

Part 1 (above) covers the hardware and features, Part 2 covers the user interface in more detail.

I'm less concerned with the specification of the phones and more interested in evaluating how well the phones meet my needs. It's a personal thing - for me, email and photos are the killer apps. I haven't tested everything - no, I haven't even plugged in a pair of headphones to it this month. So here's what I think:

1. Old habits and prior investment
I've had an iPhone for about 3 years now. So of course I'm more familiar with it than an Android phone. About a week after I had the Galaxy S I was raving about it and in love, there were some features I really loved (notifications and Exchange integration in particular) - but that initial infatuation wore off, and by week 2 and onwards, I really wanted my iPhone back. It just seemed quicker and easier to do the tasks I wanted to do on an iPhone. I also have several years of investment (time to evaluate and money) in iPhone apps. Although I have downloaded a few on the Samsung, I couldn't face starting all over again.

2. Unpicking who to blame
iPhone and iOS go hand-in-hand, Samsung Galaxy and Android don't - the hardware and the software are not from the same companies. I hated the Samsung Kies software you use to backup and update the phone, particularly as a Mac user where most of it doesn't work. (It genuinely took me a whole morning to download it and update the firmware, it wouldn't connect, gave errors etc etc). But that isn't Android's fault, that's Samsung's fault. There are also various apps on the phone which Samsung put there and aren't Android. But as a user I don't really care who made what - I assume all Android devices will work pretty much like the Samsung phone, and Kies has tarred my experience of Android forever.

3. Doing stuff with photos
I take a lot of photos, and when I get home I download them, edit and do something with them. As I said above, Kies made connecting up to the phone simply hellish. I found saving all the photos from the phone into my Dropbox and then waiting for them to sync through to my laptop the easiest route. A bit late in the month I discovered you could override the Kies mode and get the phone to present as a USB storage device using the cable - that worked well. I found the camera frustrating - you don't seem to be able to just switch off the phone after taking a photo, you seem to need to have pressed the home button first or you get locked in a cycle where the power button doesn't work. Maybe I'm missing something? I do like the simplicity of the iPhone camera, the Samsung seemed to have an awful lot of choices and options on it. I'm sure some people like that, but wasn't for me.

4. Email (and Exchange)
Android wins here. The Exchange ActiveSync for my work email was spot on. Because it's a Google phone I can also sync up all my Google stuff natively. On my iPhone I can only have one Exchange account, so if I choose work I can't also sync my Google calendar, and I'd rather use my Google calendar so I can't use Exchange - not ideal.

Update 6th Nov: I stand corrected, you can have multiple Exchange accounts on the iPhone, and have been able to for some time - thanks @coordinated.

So what now? Well you can probably tell I haven't been converted. I have decided to try an HTC Windows phone for the next month, last time I tried a Windows phone it was a few years ago, Windows Mobile 6, and I hated it. It actually made my life a little bit worse. Can it do better now? Or will I be posting in great relief in a month's time that I'm going back to my iPhone...?