Name: Scott Hewitt

Founder: Real Projects

First Console
8 bit Nintendo Nes

Most interesting interface?
International Karate – No Buttons just 2 joysticks to do the movements. This was an arcade game in a cabinet around 1988 ish!

Most wanted piece of technology?
Development kit and kinect hardware that we can use on the PC

Is there a game that you tell people about?
WarioWare – Smooth Moves. Loads of mini games all of which have no instructions but after few minutes you work out how the interface behind each game works – very clever!

What is your favourite game?
Bubble Bobble! Classic platform game developed by Taito that involves 2 dragons called Bub and Bob. It’s a single screen platform game that you have to complete the screen by capturing the enemies in a bubble and then ‘popping’ the bubble as it floats around the screen.

It has 100 levels, secret levels, bonus lives, 2-player co-operation, superb music and the gameplay is superb!

…second is Super Tennis on the Super Nintendo….

Why game based learning?
About 5 years I thought that Computer Game designers has a great set of skills that would really liven up e-learning projects. Many computer game design graduates weren’t going into the game industry and the skills weren’t really being utilised. I’d worked in e-learning since the mid 90’s and had also had a few years involved in games and entertainment CD-Rom and has seen that many of the skills from game design could be used in both.

I convinced a fantastic creative and graduate advisor called Rod Green from Norwich University Creative of Arts in Norwich that Computer Games and E-learning could mix. We spent some time at the final degree show and we saw a game level that one of the students had created in Unreal. It was a superb piece of work and the only piece of interactive work in the degree show. I could see that if we could remove the aliens, guns and fire we could use the game engine, game theory and skills within e-learning! The next year we set up a link with the degree course that was a great success, being nominated for an education/industry link with the regional business awards and we also started developing more and more game based work.

Is it game based learning every time?
It’s really important that we don’t have a fixed view that each project is going to be a game based learning project. Our approach is to create ideas and these can sometimes work as a game sometimes they don’t. It’s not as simple as saying “we want to build a game”.

I do think our difference is that our team includes computer game designers and e-learning designers. A computer game designer has often completed 3 years of study and has not just been playing games! This brings a lot of balance to the team and the projects. There is much more to game based learning that what you see on the screen. One of the most rewarding project that I’ve worked is an e-learning course that integrated game theory and game techniques within the content to make a more rewarding and interactive course.

The Future
I’d like to see more people trying to develop mini-games and resources. For many years it was really difficult to not only develop but to sell games. We are now in a position where there are several many development tools available but there are also some great routes to market. We are already seeing games like Flight Control, Angry Birds and Field Runners come from no-one and be a huge success; these are the modern day Manic Miner and Horace and the Spiders. From the game based learning perspective this allows people and business to do much quicker prototyping and testing. If you take a train or bus journey you see people using all different types of devices and apps with no problems. With e-learning we need to be a little less frightened – try it and if doesn’t work, try it again!