Firstly I don’t think this is anything new, but what I hope to have achieved here is to combine a range of ideas into a unique fully integrated concept only seen in expensive commercial Augmented Reality mobile apps that any teacher can recreate.

My design philosophy:

1. Mobile learning is about being mobile, not playing with fancy widgets
2. Device agnostic (works on any web enabled mobile phone, laptop or tablet)
3. Mobile learning should include the tenants of any good learning experience: social, interactive, problem based, feedback rich and relevant
4. Why can’t a game have a user created portfolio, as evidence of learning
5. How can gathering as a game mechanic be used in learning
6. The game is easy to create so the focus is on designing learning and can esily be created by students

Here is my first effort at creating such a game. Created for a Professional Learning experience about 21st Century Learning. It certainly isn’t perfect but was my first attempt:

Game design:

1. Opening narrative: http://1to1unconference.wikispaces.com/test+mission
2. After completing the ‘Bootcamp‘ the video logically took you to the Concierge desk at the conference
3. The team is allocated a Posterous blog and their email address added so posts did not require moderation
4. The team then receives this message via email:
• Subject: Ding! You have accepted Mission: Darling Harbour Adventures – a journey into the unknown to reflect on the known…
  Your mission is to locate the 5 ‘Tokens’, unlock them and post your reflection of each by email to your Teams Journal, which is: ______@posterous.com
  To do this you must:
  1. Post a “selfie” (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/selfie) of your team to your Team Journal.
  2. Locate the “First Token” & download the terrain map. Then use the secrets hidden in the terrain map to navigate to the approximate location of the ‘Token’ Then you must use the clues to find the ‘Token’. Once a checkpoint is located scan it to unlock it’s secret and file a report via your Team Journal.
  “First Token” Clue: Your hint for the first checkpoint is: “go through the Chillout Zone and seek a pole”
  Good luck – May the force be with you!
5. This post took them to an outside post with this QR Code on it:
6. After down loading the mapset each team followed the clues to discover each checkpoint. At each checkpoint players had to complete a task. Gamers then follow the clues in any order, these are coresponding locations & tasks:

Quest complete:

Game reflection:

After being game master for this game and reviewing the feedback I have learnt:

• It’s a fine line between challenging clues and impossible clues
• Linking QR codes to an editable page allowed me to edit activities and Mapset on the fly
• I need to weave a deeper narrative through this game
• There are lots of opportunities for a greater variety of game mechanics than just gathering
• Having participants choose their path and a variety of tasks at checkpoints was really successful

What skills does the game maker need:

Watch these four videos:

What are the steps in creating a game

1. Design your game:

This is the most challenging part, game design is very complex and not the topic of this post. If you are new to game design, I suggets you first play some xBox games then look at Quest Atlantis. My stimulus for the above game was Borderlands (a rich spatial gathering game) and LittleBigPlanet (a portfolio creation game).

Important mechanics in this type of game design:

• Narrative (either the environment or quest story creates a narrative)
• Gathering (gathering is the main mechanic, players have choose path)
• Player versus environment (complexity in solving problems based on QR code location and cues provided)
• Social support (QR codes can reveal a URL to a forum or Edmodo group code for task at location
• Leveling (completing certain combinations of quests, unlocks a level with further challenges/rewards)
• Points (Quests are allocated point depending on complexity, points can be linked to leveling)
• Achievements (awarded for completing certain tasks or behaviours)

2. Create a bootcamp (Level 1)

Your ‘Bootcamp’ is the first level and gives game players all the basic skills they need to participate in the game. This is the Bootcamp I use: http://geo-quest.posterous.com/pages/geo-quest-bootcamp (free free to copy and paste, don’t forget to change the email to your Posterous Blog). You can create in a Posterous Page, Wiki, Weebly or similar.

3. Create your BaseMap

1. Identify your locations, and create clues
2. Using a Google ‘My Map’ create your base map

4. Create your checkpoint activities

1. Combining the features of the physical location and your game narrative create activities for each location
2. Create a Posterous Page, Wiki, Weebly, etc for each activity

5. Create QR Codes

1. Use BIT.ly to create QR codes or this QR code generator to hide text/Edmodo join codes in a QR code
2. Print & laminate the QR code (if public put a message of what, why & when removed)

6. Play game

1. Put QR codes securely in place
2. Setup a separate Posterous Blog for each team and add their email address so you don’t have to moderate
3. Establish a Gamer Masters location (communicate to teams in feild by SMS, Twitter or email)
4. Have any Acheivements, Level up notices etc ready as drafts in google document
5. watch posts come in and provide relevent and instant feedback

7. Get students creating epic games…