Digital Media and Learning Competition

Game Changers

AWARDS: $5,000-$50,000

The Game Changers awards are development grants for work to be undertaken in the grant period.

Winners in the Game Changers category will receive awards for new, creative user-generated levels and adventures designed for either of two existing commercial games. These should offer young people highly engaging game play experiences that incorporate and leverage principles of science, technology, engineering, and math for learning.

The aim of the Game Changers category is the creation of new game play experiences using the popular video games LittleBigPlanet™, winner of numerous "Game of the Year" awards in 2008, and Spore™ Galactic Adventures. Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) and Electronic Arts (EA), in cooperation with Entertainment Software Assocation and Information Technology Industry Council, will team with MacArthur to support this component of the Competition. Sony Computer Entertainment of America will donate PlayStation®3 (PS3™) consoles and copies of LittleBigPlanet™ and Electronic Arts copies of Spore™ and the expansion pack Galactic Adventures to community-based organizations and libraries in low-income communities. In addition to making the winning levels and adventures available to the game playing community at no cost, SCEA and Electronic Arts will also specially highlight the winners within the games’ communities and their respective websites.

Criteria

Submissions will be judged by a panel drawn from the Little Big Planet and Spore communities, as well as a experts recruited by the Humanities, Arts Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC). There will be 12 categories of awards.

Awards will be issued based on criteria that include the demonstrated potential of excellent learning content regarding STEM for a level, assessment, playability, engagement, problem-solving, aesthetics and collaborative play.

LittleBigPlanet™ (LBP™) and Spore™ Galactic Adventures

LBP™ levels and Spore™ adventures will be judged in accordance with the following criteria:

Content: levels and adventures will be evaluated on the extent to which they engage and/or leverage STEM content.

Assessment: levels and adventures will be evaluated on the extent to which the learning goals of the level are met through play.

Playability: levels and adventures will be evaluated on their playability, to include scaffolding of challenge, clarity of game play goals, and feedback. All levels must be beatable by an average player.

Engage young people in creating the game-based learning experiences for others?

Problem-solving: levels and adventures will be evaluated on the extent to which they support problem-solving and player-led inquiry.

Aesthetics: levels and adventures will be evaluated on aesthetics, to include use of stickering, audio, lighting, and object creation. All levels must be fully textured to be considered for judging.

Collaborative play (LBP™ only): levels will be evaluated on the extent to which they support meaningful collaborative play.

Awards

The individual or team responsible for each submission chosen will receive a $5,000 award to further develop, enhance and test the proposed level. Depending on the quality of the proposed level, an individual or team can be supported to create up to an additional 10 levels, with a total of $50,000 to support development work. If awards for multiple levels are sought, individuals and teams are encouraged to create levels that exist as a broader module of related tasks and activities.

Best in Class Awards

Best in Class: Middle School – for the best new LBP™ level and Spore™ adventure for middle school players.

Best in Class: High School – for the best new LBP™ level and Spore™ adventure for high school players.

Best in Class: Physics – for the best new LBP™ level and Spore™ adventure that most engages players in understanding the ideas of physics.

Best in Class: Engineering – for the best new LBP™ level and Spore™ adventure that most engages players in an interdiscinplinary approach that requires engineering knowledge and skills.

Best in Class: Technology – for the best interactive experience focused on technology.

Best in Class (LBP™ only): Multiplayer – for the best new multiplayer level.

Best in Class : Most Artistic – for the best visual and audio design.

Best in Class (Spore™ only): Creatures – for the most innovative creatures.

Best in Class: Innovative – for the overall most innovative game play.

LittleBigPlanet™ Community Award –for the highest rating by the LittleBigPlanet™ community.

Spore™ Community Award –for the highest rating by the Spore™ community.

People’s Choice Competition Award—for the LittleBigPlanet™ level and Spore™ adventure voted by the public to be the most innovative.

This HASTAC competition is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to the University of California, in collaboration with Duke University. The University of California Humanities Research Institute and Duke University's John Hope Franklin Center are the principal administering bodies for this grant on behalf of HASTAC.