crw 248
The gameThe game will consists of nine/six environments (modules). Each students will choose either the avatar of Odysseus or Athena. In either case the objective is to get Odysseus back to Ithaka. Each stop represents one of Odysseus’s places of travel in his journey through the Aegean in Homer’s Odyssey. The journey begins in Week 0 with students reading the entirety of Homer’s epic poem.
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Playing Odyssey
THE FIRST STOP IS CALYPSO'S ISLAND. Kimo has done a draft in which the environment is an art gallery with images by different painters, some of which will serve as portals to be located. Behind it ocean wave are moving. N.B. that each of the nine environments will be different in style and in some case time period. For example, the suitors back in Ithaka wear zoot suits and the environment might be a night club from the 1940s.
Each environment will have some text and sound as well as images and atmosphere. We have included humor and witty references within the game, as well as cultural references. For example, Suzanne Vega’s “Calypso” will serve as the soundscape for his first module. My idea is that it will play (complete or partial) in sound loop until the player exits. Odysseus’s exit music might be Led Zeppelin’s “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You.” |
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While the player is in the environment, he she will have to perform three tasks. For the Calypso, they are:
The student will be given a key upon completion of the task, which will allow her to proceed to the next place. Obviously I will have to read and evaluate the work before I can give a student the key. As they complete the task, they will see a visual of a raft being built—the adding of pieces is the “scoring” of their completion.
Prior to playing, students will always have done some reading outside the game. These assignments will be built into Canvas. Likewise, student workshops and peer review will take place in Canvas. But student will always return to the game for the next stage of the journey.
One of my questions will be to what extent facets can be built into the game, e.g. embedded into the page so as to appear part of it, and to what extent they have to be linked. The more the student has to go out, the more the spell is broken and the enchantment is suspended.
For example, this Vimeo video of a Siren waiting for Odysseus is wordless and hypnotic. But that quality is lessened if we are “going into Vimeo,” or on You Tube, having to sit through a commercial.
- Write a 20-line poem in dactylic hexameter, the meter in which the Odyssey is written. The poem can be on any topic and does not have to be related to Homer’s poem.
- Rewrite it in iambic pentameter, the meter into which it was translated by Robert Butler.
- Rewrite it again in free verse.
The student will be given a key upon completion of the task, which will allow her to proceed to the next place. Obviously I will have to read and evaluate the work before I can give a student the key. As they complete the task, they will see a visual of a raft being built—the adding of pieces is the “scoring” of their completion.
Prior to playing, students will always have done some reading outside the game. These assignments will be built into Canvas. Likewise, student workshops and peer review will take place in Canvas. But student will always return to the game for the next stage of the journey.
One of my questions will be to what extent facets can be built into the game, e.g. embedded into the page so as to appear part of it, and to what extent they have to be linked. The more the student has to go out, the more the spell is broken and the enchantment is suspended.
For example, this Vimeo video of a Siren waiting for Odysseus is wordless and hypnotic. But that quality is lessened if we are “going into Vimeo,” or on You Tube, having to sit through a commercial.
Odyssey from Sara Velez on Vimeo. |
There will be pop up windows of short text. Some are poems, some are paragraphs taken from essays. These help to orient the students to the tasks they are asked to do.
I am confident of our pedagogical design, which is based on the two previous courses I designed with Kimo. So outcomes, goals and objectives are not a problem. What I am looking for is an aesthetic and dynamism in the game that will provide students with an experience like no other. Much of this will rely on the graphic design and the overall look of the game. We will be using different styles, but there ought to be an overall mood or feeling to the game that gives it unity. |