Month: April 2013

Existentialism, characters at work, chapters and a great American novel, in card game form?

This feels custom made for the THATCamp games crew. Potentially a teaching tool for the book itself? Or perhaps not, it could end up being more about memorization (in the educational sense), though they seem to claim that it brings the feel of the book as well. Looks like it could be interesting. 

Just as one of Melville’s goals in writing the book was to bring landlubbers like us into the glorious and tragic world of the whaler at sea, our game encourages players to interact with the text in a new, exciting and immersive way. Even without a knowledge of the novel, playing the game will clue you into the relationships between key sailors and the various perils and processes of hunting whales in the 19th century. For our art style, we scoured public and private collections for key imagery that would further bring players into the glory days of whaling. Found illustrations, daguerreotypes, prints and other imagery were integrated into many of the cards throughout the game, creating an important visual record of the world that Melville drew from. As important as the visuals are, the game could not exist without Melville’s voice. Every card features a choice quotation from the book, tying the action at hand to the grand tale itself.

hepatitisbey: I don’t want to learn in a classroom anymore. I want to travel and talk to people and…

hepatitisbey:

I don’t want to learn in a classroom anymore. I want to travel and talk to people and learn that way. I want to learn as I go, gathering knowledge and not being rigorously tested on it. I don’t want to lose passion in the things I like because of the worry of exams. I want to fuelled by snippets of knowledge I gain from people and be inquisitive. School has stolen my passion for the things I’m interested in and I hate it for that.

I understand. For this I give you conferences. The best places to learn things you’re passionate about from people who are also passionate about them. In 5.5 years of higher education I learned just as much from conferences as I did in any classroom. Especially, THATCamp, which is awesomely open and free for anyone. Find one near you and go LEARN STUFF. 

I’ve been to a bunch of them, and they’re all great. At the one I was at last weekend I learned how to make a short browser game, board games and all about RPGs and card games.