Teachers make 3D Games

Teachers make 3D Games

Thanks to some exciting new technology out of Singapore we should be seeing more games in classrooms in the near future.

A recently concluded month long national interschool 3D games for learning competition, for teachers, was organized by Playware Studio and was co-sponsored by Singtel and Microsoft Singapore.

The novel contest required teachers to design and create 3D Games for learning using the 3D Hive rapid game development platform. Participants attended an intensive 3 hour workshop prior to the competition to learn how to use the platform.

Ms Faith Goh from River Valley High School won the grand prize in the inaugural national interschool 3D games for learning design competition. Ms Goh also won the special prize for the best 3D Game for learning (languages category).

The first and second runners up prizes went to Mr. Liu Peng from Canberra primary School and Mr. Zulkifli Mansor from Gongshang Primary School respectively. Other prize winning entries were from teams from Madrasah Al-Arabiah Al-Islamiah, Greenridge Primary School, Tampines Secondary School and Anglican High School.  

Teacher and a Showman

Can Teachers make successful games? Are talented teachers also natural born game designers? Read on to find out how a small team of dedicated developers is challenging conventions and turning the multi-billion dollar serious games industry on its head.

Game development is a huge business with audience counts in millions, huge budgets and large specialized teams. From the Fifa world cup to Angry Birds to Plants and Zombies Game designers are free to work with topics that excite and intrigue their audiences.

Teachers on the other hand usually work with 15 to 30 students on a subject, alone, through a year and have to prepare their own material within the narrow confines of the syllabus prescribed. There is usually no budget to speak of and a lot of performance pressure.

Even though both Game designers and Teachers alike have to go through years of training in their respective fields and require loads of passion, talent and dedication the two professions seem to have little else in common.

Playware Studios a small Singapore based company asserts otherwise.