Let’s Make Games: Pick Pairs


For our second class of "Let's Make Games" we created a set of memory match cards. Each student received a set of 16 cards on which to make 8 pairs of images. I had printed a drawing of a pear with the words "Pick Pairs" onto one side of the cards, making them a little harder to see through. Using fruit as the theme I walked everyone through the steps of drawing graphical fruits, from apples and oranges through strawberries and lemons slices. The children then duplicated their images and everyone had a fun set of cards to play with. One child bragged about how well he could remember and proceeded to demonstrate with a quick game of pair picking. See more posts about this game design class →

Be the Video Game Developer


The Girl Scouts has created a really cool interactive video that walks viewers though the creation of a video game, including the different job roles at a game design studio and the creative process in a work environment. The video outlines the design decisions and engineering work that go into game creation, all while allowing the viewer to choose different elements for their own custom game. It's a great way for kids to get an idea of how creative studios function and how teams of people with different talents can work together to create a unique product. LINK: Be the Video Game Developer

Drawing Game Pros at CentCom


Last week I went to a panel about careers in digital gaming hosted by the Center for Communication. It was a great chance to hear about the career trajectories of a number of professionals in the industry. Of course I was compelled to sketch all of the panelists while they were speaking and later I applied ink wash to refine the pictures and add depth. Click for a larger image. More →

EJ Keats: Jennie’s Hat


The Keats Foundation recently launched a game I worked on, "Crazy Hats". It's a dress-up toy where you chose a character from one of Ezra Jack Keats books, add a hat, then decorate it with items selected from his books. It's inspired by his gorgeous children's book "Jennie's Hat", the story of a girl whose Sunday hat is decorated with flowers and lace by helpful birds. Decorate your own hat now!

It’s “Arts in Education Week” in America

In 2010 the US House of Representatives designated the second week of September as "Arts in Education Week". To honor the important role that art has in developing young minds, here are the "10 Lessons the Arts Teach" by Elliot Eisner and the National Art Education Association. 10 LESSONS the ARTS TEACH 1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail. 2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer. 3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world. 4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds. 5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition. 6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties. 7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real. 8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job. 9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling. 10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.