Game DesignExperimenting with ARIS

Vivian Harris

Festival of Learning 2012

ARISARIS is a user-friendly, open-source platform for

creating and playing mobile games, tours and interactive stories. Using GPS and QR Codes, ARIS players experience a hybrid world of virtual interactive characters, items, and media placed in physical space.

http://arisgames.org/

http://arisgames.org/projects-and-papers/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3TH9OAuE-c&noredirect=1

The PlanTo make an interactive ARIS game for a high

school teacher visit to our upriver schools and community

Base it on the idea that the bushranger Thunderbolt, who really did have a hideout in this valley, may have hidden treasure here.

Use the game to encourage interaction between the high school teacher visitors and the local parents and community members.

Reasons1. FUN!

2. Encourage high teachers’ use of technology and game based learning.

3. Suggest its use for year 6/7 transition days and maybe for cross school Macleay Educational Community fun day.

What HappenedHow to make an ARIS Game

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wxKZI2nGgoEvJJcb63Q5MJKa_pZErJIh17aKZnLehmQ/edit

It didn’t WORK.

I couldn’t get it to be sequential.

So at 9pm the night before the visit I changed to Plan B……

QR codes

I changed all my narrative and clues to QR codes.

QR code Treasure Hunt. Need ipads, ipods or iphones or equivalent with QR code reading app eg Scan

QR code generator

website eg i-nigma

Clues

First Clue-Setting the

sceneThe bushranger Captain

Thunderbolt (Fred Ward) and his wife Mary Ann Bugg are

rumoured to have had a hut at Stockyard Creek, not far from

Bellbrook. There are persistent whispers about a treasure. Look

for another clue at Bellbrook School.

What did I learn?Games are Fun!

Give yourself plenty of time to make a game

Test it, test it, test it

Sometimes simple can be better than complex

The FutureI would still love to spend the time to get it right

I would love to make a historic village tour for Bellbrook with historic photos popping up when you pass the real place (the sequence problem wouldn’t matter then)

It would be great to make a game that included the whole CBD of the town.