Gamification Exchange

Project info

According to Newzoo’s “2017 Global Games Market Report” the video gaming industry had a global market revenue of around 109 billion dollars in 2017 and is predicted to grow up to around 130 billion until 2020, showing that it is one of the most growing of our time. However, traditional education systems haven’t made the shift to prepare the youth to this new reality. Bearing in mind the latest available statistics by Eurostat in computer skills, which assesses that only 20% of individuals aged 16-24 inthe EU-28 had ever written a computer program using specialized programming language, we can assess that there is still a low levelof access to education in programming and video game design.

This level is above average in Macedonia (30%) but considerably lower in Romania (9%) and Bulgaria (11%). Thus, a vast majority of the European youth is missing out on a world of opportunities of employment and self-employment, for not even being aware it exists. Therefore, together with our partners decided to support young people by organising a youth exchange in which 60 young peoplefrom Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia worked and collaborated together in order to develop their competences in the field ofprogramming and videogame, as well as raising awareness of videogame design as a solution for employment and self-employment.

The mobility took place in Costinesti, Constanta County for 10 days and the all the activities unfolded were based in non-formal learning methods, designed to integrate and foster the participation of all participants, through group work and with a strong bet on digital resources.

Participants of “Gamification Exchanges” became aware of the importance and potential that digital skills such as programming and video-game design can have in the lives of young people and their community itself. They know now how to design and develop video-games, having a base that will help them in a future career in this field. On the medium term is expected a slight boost for change in the economy of the 3 local communities by helping to solve the problem of youth unemployment and boosting the entrepreneurial activity of the regions from which the participants came. By raising awareness to the potential of remote work in programming and video-game design in the rural and small urban areas from where the participants are coming we are promoting a possible solution to the problems of desertification and brain drain affecting these communities.

On 3rd day, we started the day off by looking at Alex’s game sketches and talking about them. Next up we started working on ourown game sketch which went pretty well for everyone, we think. After that we started presenting our games and ideas and all ofthem were really interesting. We had lots of fun concepts and code sketches that made the games unique in their own way. Day 3rdwas a really good start and a great experience.

On the 4th day we started actually making the games. At first it was a bit hard to keep up but we managed and everything was perfect. Everyone got extremely creative and it was great. Day 4th titled The Real Deal on the flip chart is the day we start with game development. We started the day off with an energizer then we installed the program G-develop 5 and started off with the basics. Alex, the facilitator taught us about objects, moving objects, deleting objects, creating objects. We did an energizer then talked about the Youthpasses and in the end of session 4 we wrote about the learning outcomes from that day.

The day 5th began with an energizer called copycat. After that the creative recap group made an activity outside for remembering what we did yesterday. Alex’s sessions were about the rest of the basics of GDevelop 5 and the ones who didn’t had the opportunity to spend time on a computer had a chance in this day. We managed to work as a team and every one work on the laptop. The session at the end of the day was about games energizers and to know each better. The day finished with secret friend box and gossips box.

On the 6th day on the first session we had a creative recap, timing was good and the creative recap was interesting, after that we were mentioning the things we have not done. We were saying things who are not good enough and we were trying to improve them.We spoke about why we are creating the rules, we changed a game, and we created a new one Bitch-Lasagna.

We liked this day a lot because we had also time to spend with our new made friends. At the end of the day we represented our talents. The 7th day began with an energizer called Adams Family. After that there was a discussion of the talent night. The creative recap group continued with an activity connected to the things we had done the day before. The participants were divided in teams and started making their own video games. Throughout the day all teams were working and collaborating in order to have the games ready by the end of the sessions. The games that were presented had a lot of variety such as action, comedy and many more. We had a lot of fun presenting the games because everyone was so amazed.

The 8th day was maybe one of the best days here in the project. We had the study visit, in the city of Constanta. There we made a lot of pictures which we will remember for a very long time. We had a challenge. We had to ask people to give us anything while we give them matches. There were a lot of interesting and funny exchanges for example they gave us coffee, coins, sugar, tickets, flowers, balloons, pens and shoes. After the challenge we went into Tomis Mall. There we ate very tasty food. We went around the shops and bought some great clothes. After this amazing experience we bonded with each other a lot and everyone had a great time.

The 9th day began with a presentation from each team regarding their outcomes from the match stick game as well as sharing all oftheir adventures that they had during the study visit. Following that, we were given time to take out our learning outcomes from our envelopes and fill out our key competences in our Youthpasses. During session three we were asked to rate various things about the project, such as food, accommodation and the facilitators. In the final session, we compared the expectations we wrote down on day one and found out that we met most of them.

The young participants disseminated the results to their peers and school colleagues, promoting the opportunities of the Erasmus+programme and the experience and competences gained in the project.

In Bulgaria, the young participants presented their experience and video-games created during the mobility. They also, promoted theErasmus+ opportunities and learning experiences provided by the programme.

In Romania, participants of the youth exchange disseminated the results during a workshop, where they shared the games created and offered insights on game design and programming.

Ingens Risus Association disseminated the results of the project during other youth exchanges in Hungary and in Slovakia in which was partner.

The facilitator of “Gamification Exchanges” shared his experience and results of the project during another youth project he facilitated. There were young people interested in the topic of game design and programming, being very curious to find out more about the project and how they could benefit of this type of learning experience.