Linking Reading to Video Game Development
Prince George, B.C. – What do you get when you marry reading with video games? A new love of reading and an education in coding.
Jean Leggatt is with One More Story Games based in Barrie Ontario. The tech start up company has been holding special sessions for youth aged 11-16, teaching them how to use game publishing software to convert short stories and novels into interactive video games.
Leggat will be in Prince George for a few presentations, including one this evening at 7pm at the Art Space, above Books and Company on Third.
She says it’s been her experience that those who enjoy her company’s work are avid readers, writers and teachers.
Her company, which has developed software to create videogames, will be featured on an episode of Dragon’s Den this fall. But the session tonight is not about selling software “It is a discussion about trends in storytelling, how kids can be engaged learners with storytelling and coding as part of their learning, and how to think differently as a reader and writer.”
She will be interacting with youth this Friday at Westgate Academy, talking to students about how they can become better storytellers and learn to code so they can create their own video games.
Comments
“Jean Leggatt is with One More Story Games based in Barrie Ontario. The tech start up company has been holding special sessions for youth aged 11-16, teaching them how to use game publishing software to convert short stories and novels into interactive video games.”
Very good initiative, now if they could just apply this to Hollywood, we could get away with all those movies based to comic books. Don’t get me wrong, all those comic book movies are great entertainment for the low I.Q. crowd, but I sure do miss the quality writing, creativity, and acting required in more serious movies.
After all… what does it say when the highest paid actor in Hollywood today is an ex-wrestler named Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?
“After all… what does it say when the highest paid actor in Hollywood today is an ex-wrestler named Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?”
It means hollywood is still about entertainment. Entertainment sells. Nobody cares about a good plot anymore, we want to escape for a couple of hours in mindless nonsense.
If you want a good story, go read a book. It has never changed. Hollywood has been turning out garbage since the beginning, with the odd decent story sprinkled in every few years.
When I go to a movie I just want to forget about everything and be entertained for a few hours. If the critics call it “Coming of Age”, “Awe Inspiring” or “Thought Provoking” I avoid it. Speaking of the Rock I am looking forward to the release of Fast and Furious 8!!
“She (Actress & Film Maker Jodie Foster) knows something like The Accused (A 1988 Film about Rape) wouldn’t make it past script meetings these days. “It’s not the way it used to be. You used to have complicated conversations.” This century, Hollywood’s output is little more than a never-ending superhero fight with occasional penis jokes by Seth Rogen. Foster blames the 2008 crash for cinema’s great dumbing-down.” ~The Australian Magazine
Film star Simon Pegg has criticised the “dumbing down” of cinema. The actor made his name in a string of comedy films such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and is co-writing the new Star Trek movie. But he told Radio Times magazine that society had become “infantilized” and that challenging films had been usurped in the box office by the vacuous (having or showing a lack of thought or intelligence; mindless).
Despite his reputation as a poster boy for geeks, he told Radio Times magazine: “Before Star Wars, the films that were box-office hits were The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Bonnie and Clyde and The French Connection – gritty, amoral art movies. “Then suddenly the onus switched over to spectacle and everything changed … I don’t know if that is a good thing.”
Pegg, who played chief engineer Scotty in the recent Star Trek films, added: “Obviously I’m very much a self-confessed fan of science fiction and genre cinema but part of me looks at society as it is now and just thinks we’ve been infantilised by our own taste. “Now we’re essentially all consuming very childish things – comic books, superheroes. Adults are watching this stuff, and taking it seriously. “It is a kind of dumbing down, in a way, because it’s taking our focus away from real-world issues. Films used to be about challenging, emotional journeys or moral questions that might make you walk away and re-evaluate how you felt about … whatever. “Now we’re walking out of the cinema really not thinking about anything, other than the fact that the Hulk just had a fight with a robot.”
Yeah but not everyone is a High Brow like you JGalt.
Coming from a “blue collar” family I am not at all “High Brow”. I think you are confusing being intelligent as being highbrow. Remember, intelligence leans left… rather, the definition of highbrow would be a $10,000 dollar a plate dinner at a BC Liberal function. ;-)
The wonderful thing about the movies is that you may choose to watch them or you may choose not to watch them.
Last weekend, I had to the chance to see “Bridge of Spies” starring Tom Hanks! I found lots to think about in this well acted movie. This in my opinion is just one example of some of the excellent films being produced these days and while some may not be someone’s cup of tea, they might be someone else’s.
Funny thing is, if you look back at previous year’s movies, 10, 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years ago or earlier, there were movies that some consider excellent and others not so much! Again, it all depends on your cup of tea!
Jodie Foster has had a hand in some excellent films and some that were not so excellent. However, I don’t think for a moment that she feels guilty about the large sums of money that she was paid for her part. I enjoyed 1994’s “Maverick”, but let’s be honest here, there were no moral lessons coming from this film! It was nothing more than pure entertainment and all that Jodie had to do was basically smile nice for the camera! Her huge salary for this fluff-piece part helped bankroll her along the way to her current net worth that is reportedly $100 MILLION!
So now that she has amassed a fortune, partly by playing roles in films such as Bugsy Malone, Freaky Friday, Nim’s Island and of course Foxes, she elevates herself to higher moral ground and we are all supposed to buy it? I’m not buying it, I think I’ll use my money instead to go see another movie!
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