Dear Shari, and other esteemed colleagues:
The two people I would talk to are Gary Goldberger (of Fable Vision)
and Benjamin Stokes (who has been working on the MacArthur
Foundation's digital initiative). They are well-connect in the
"serious games"; and "games for change" worlds, and can probably advise
you.
Good luck!
Best regards from Deborah
Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn%40post.harvard.edu">deborah_elizabeth_finn
post.harvard.edu
www.cyber-yenta.org
"Nothing softeneth the Arrogance of our Nature
like a Mixture of some Frailties. It is by them
that we are best told, that we must not strike
too hard upon others....They pull our Rage by
the sleeve and whisper Gentleness to us in our
censures."
-George Savile (1633 - 1695)
-----original message-----
>>The River City project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
is looking for suggestions on how we can find developers to help us
port River City to a new platform. River City is a 3D multi-user
virtual environment for teaching middle school science. Students visit
a virtual town during several time periods in the 1800s and try to
figure out what's causing the residents to get sick. Students walk
around the town, look at and click on objects, talk to characters, and
communicate with their teammates. The program interfaces with a
web-based guide that provides instruction, data collection, and a
saved notebook of student work. For an overview of River City, visit
http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/index.html River City
was first developed in 2000, and uses the ActiveWorlds engine. We need
to move to something that can support a larger user base (potentially
thousands of students around the country), be multi-platform (Mac and
PC), and allows scripting of game
actions and events. We also need something with support for common
mesh formats for models, and ideally, that has source included. River
City is an educational application; we don't necessarily need the most
high-performance, physics-based engine, but we do need something
usable in a school-based setting. Our budget is also based on
non-profit, educational research funds. The goal is to have something
ready for fall 2008. Please let me know if you have any suggestions
on platform or know of developers who might be interested in working
with us. Thanks!>;>
.
