GameStar Mechanic (www.gamestarmechanic.com)
© 2010 E-Line Media
By now, everyone has played a Super Mario style platformer, or a maze game like Pac Man. But how many people have made one? GameStar Mechanic makes this doable, as long as you have a Flash enabled Mac or PC with web access to www.gamestarmechanic.com. The template-based toolkit does an excellent job of introducing the basics of the most common types of casual games. These include game specific concepts like sprites and sprite behaviors, avatars, gravity, enemies, health, timers and damage counters. These work together to create an ideal application of higher order thinking skills. After the one-time registration, confirmed by email and a standard log in, you are given a "quest" -- a series of cartoons that set the stage for the design challenges. These challenges are delivered by way of bite-sized, one or two screen games with a clear goal. At times, a level is purposely broken, for example, in one the time runs out too quickly. The only way to fix it is to use a wrench icon to adjust the timer, to give yourself more time. After you complete all the tutorials, you can start publishing your own games. Does GameStar compare to Scratch (http://mit.scratch.edu)? Not really. Scratch is open ended, akin to giving you free reign of the kitchen, whereas GameStar packages the design elements into prepared doses that are wrapped in a comic book theme. Where GameStar Mechanic excels is in making simple games using a 12-by-16 grid, upon which you can place a limited set of elements. These include 11 moving avatars, 7 types of blocks, items to collect, a timer, scorer, health meter and frag (hit) counter. There's also a limited library of backgrounds and music. With Scratch, you can make any sprite, and can import any background music or image. The first levels are free; additional sprites, games and background art are available to premium subscribers for $6 per month and up, a fee that is automatically renewed until you cancel. For schools, licenses cost $9/month or $85 per year, for up to 40 student accounts. By contrast, MIT's Scratch is free with no strings or auto-renewal gimmicks. According to e-Line Media's president, Alan Gershenfeld, the choice of charging for access was not without debate. On one hand, the service couldn't continue without a revenue stream. But the use of a non-refundable fee, with an automatically renewable credit card, seems to suggest more of an interest in profit rather than pedagogy. We would prefer a purchase option for schools that consists of a stand alone version where you get a "full" version (children are not asked to become subscribers) for a one time price. In addition, it would be nice if children could publish their work to sites other than the GameStar Mechanic hub. Mr. Gershenfeld made the following points on this topic in a phone interview: 1. Contests, such as NSF endorsed contests, are provided with equal access to the program using a special "suitcase" of features, at no cost. 2. The base-level (free) service is fully functional. Paid subscribers get extra content and challenges, but no additional programming functionality. I tested the free version of GameStar Mechanic, and was able to create and publish fully functional games. There's no doubt that GameStar delivers on it's promise of giving children a new way to learn debugging and problem solving. GameStar is a collaborative effort between e-Line Media (the publisher), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Institute of Play and Gamelab, with funding from the MacArthur Foundation.
$6, Windows, Mac OSX, Internet Site
Teaches: programming, creativity, game design, logic
CTR Rating: 94%