Adventure Quest

Adventure Quest Overview Tabletop Role-Playing Game (TTRPG) Meant to introduce new players ages 10+ to the TTRPG genre Through learning and design principles, the game will be developed to introduce players to the basic principles and traditions of the TTRPG genre, as well as emphasize some of the positive benefits TTRPGs can have, including critical thinking, systems thinking, teamwork, and pro-social behavior. The game will be developed with an associated Theme Unit, a curriculum (biology, Greek history, AI, etc.) that is woven into the game’s content, in order to provide learning opportunities for students. These Theme Units can be interchanged, or developed by educators to create a custom curriculum.

Adventure Quest - 1 Some preliminary research shows TTRPGs benefit cognitive abilities, and help develop life skills such as creativity, problem solving, systems thinking, teamwork, and pro-social behavior. However, there is not much conclusive evidence.

Adventure Quest - 2 Most TTRPGs are inward facing, meaning they are developed for a community of players that are already interested and invested in the genre. As a result, they are often too complex or self-referential for newcomers or children to meaningfully take part, leading to a negative feedback loop towards new community members. Few market-ready games provide a natural bridge from no experience, to being ready to run your own games.

Some educators are starting to create RPG-like systems within their classrooms to improve learning outcomes. So far, the systems have broadly been well-received, and show potential for this system to be effective going forward. Adventure Quest - 3

Explorer Unbound

Explorer Unbound Overview This is an experimental VR game focused entirely on allowing the player to explore a large, beautiful, fantastic world. The game will have few mechanics other than different types of movement to allow the player to explore the different landscapes throughout the game. Primarily an aesthetic project that makes use of learning and cognitive design principles, but it would also allow for investigation into how VR experiences affect our emotional states. Potential use for students who need additional calming or relaxing elements as a part of their daily experience.

Explorer Unbound - 1 Few games in the VR market focus on exploration. In fact, a significant number are focused on being a stationary experience. This is to avoid the problem of movement in VR - this game hopes to address this problem. EU is designed to be as mechanically minimal as possible. My vision of the game is to simply explore the world in the most minimalist way possible - it is meant to simulate a real experience of walking around a supernatural world filled with beauty and mystery.  

Explorer Unbound - 2 An increasing number of ‘games’ could more accurately be described as ‘interactive experiences’, where the user experiences a story in the first person. This shift in thinking about how VR can be used as entertainment is at the center of a paradigm shift that is critical in games media, and is a very profitable area to explore in game design right now.

Explorer Unbound - 3 Emergent narrative, games where the player creates their own story out of provided set pieces in a ‘sandbox world’, there is an experience of closure, where the player puts together the disconnected pieces of the story on their own, and thus feels rewarded by understanding the story they’ve created through their own actions. This powerful mechanism is inherently motivating for players, and is a central element of how EU’s narrative would be driven.

Gombin Synagogue VR

Gombin Synagogue VR Overview VR experience & supporting museum exhibit Explores the history of a wooden synagogue destroyed during Nazi occupation of Poland. The synagogue was an iconic and priceless treasure of the Jewish people living in Poland at the time, and recreating it in VR will allow museum visitors to see the building firsthand, and to hear about it’s tragic but significant history. Gombin Synagogue VR Overview

Gombin Temple - 1 Virtual Reality is one of the most popular and exciting new ways of exploring learning content in museums. Many museums are branching out into online spaces and VR-only exhibits, where users can interact directly with objects or concepts they otherwise could not.

Gombin Temple - 2 VR Museums have been used for art, but have not yet been done in a meaningful way for history, or to explore past events as they actually happened. This is a new dimension to explore for both VR experiences, and for museums.

Gombin Temple - 3 Some initial research has shown that VR is incredibly powerful in convincing the human brain that what it’s experiencing is real. Some preliminary research has even shown that violent games in VR can lead to early stages of PTSD. If VR can generate authentic experiences, how can we use the power of that technology to increase learning and motivation? In this project, I hope to use extreme (but realistic) events and stimuli to generate powerful affective experiences that will lead to much more impactful outcomes.

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