Blips: Family Synthesis

Source: Making Fract as a family
Author: Charlie Hall
Site: Polygon

We all know making video games is hard work, but how about making video games, building a company, and starting a family all at the same time? That's exactly what Richard Flanagan and Quynh Nguyen did, founding Phosfiend Systems to create the virtual synthesizer game Fract OSC, all while raising their infant daughter. In a lovingly captured profile over at Polygon, writer Charlie Hall tells the story of Fract from this trio of perspectives, and how Flanagan and Nguyen managed the chaos. At times heartbreaking, and uplifting at others; give it a look.

Having recently played and reviewed Fract OSC, I think all of that effort was worth the final result. As someone who loves electronic music, that there would be a game centered around synthesized audio production, wrapped up in a Myst-like world of music-inspired puzzles sounds like my perfect game. Ultimately Fract isn't perfect, but it does so many unique, stylish things that I'd still consider it a must-play. The game seems squarely aimed at someone like me, but it seems like plenty of folks who are less invested in electronic music have been digging it too. The one thing I'll recommend is that if you're coming from more a music interest than a games one, you might want to keep a guide handy or occasionally ask someone else who's played the game where to go, since many of the exploration systems can be indecipherable to players not in the know.

Blips: Teaching With Games

Source: ChicagoQuest: Teaching with games in Chicago's Cabrini-Green
Author: Charlie Hall
Site: Polygon

Can games be a useful learning tool in formal education environments? Schools like ChicagoQuest certainly think so. In Charlie Hall's piece or Polygon (with accompanying video above), he shows how ChicagoQuest integrates games into their curriculum in ways that still make good on common core standards and don't abandon more traditional tools for learning either. It's all in the service of educating kids in systems thinking, so they can be critical observers of the world around them and potentially come up with feasible improvements or solutions.

It's great that ChicagoQuest was able to build so much of their institution from relative scratch because often it seems like digital media-integrated pedagogical models are tough sells in long-standing, set-in-their-ways schools. Sometimes it's a matter of funding, sometimes it's a matter of tech-savviness, and sometimes it's a matter of acceptance, but an of those factors can lead to dismissal or aversion to games integration. I'm not here to sell you on games in schools, but I would suggest giving this piece on ChicagoQuest a read and seeing what you think.