I must disagree on the ‘no room for failure’ point, though. It’s true, games in factual and education settings are a new thing. Their value still needs to be argued for and promoted (part of the reason I run this blog). But I don’t think that the existence of a single non-awesome game undermines the whole idea of using games in a factual/educational context. There’s a tremendous amount of good work being produced by Channel 4, Persuasive Games, and BBC Childrens’, among others. It all proves that games can inform and educate as well as entertain.

I didn’t actually have a problem with the pacing of the game (as an RPG fan I like a measured approach to combat) but I thought there was too much of a discrepancy between the lack of urgency in the game as a whole and the tight time constraints of the minigames that governed actions. Perhaps the notion was to simulate the natural pattern of war – long periods of inactivity/boredom followed by brief interludes of terror and panic.

I agree that the controls were counterintuitive at times but the main issue I had with the game was the lack of an in-game tutorial. As someone who is fairly game literate I VERY rarely read game manuals. I’ve got used to console offerings leading me by the hand on the first level or two (very well in the case of some games and not so well with others). I also expect to receive unobtrusive in-game direction as and when I find new skills or have to perform new tasks. If I have to sit down and go through the equivalent of an online instruction manual then I want it to be over in a couple of screens, max. Certainly with a browser based experience that is designed to be consumed episodically and (for me anyway) is maybe played in half hour chunks grabbed during lunch hours, looking at the 10 orange blobs that represent the progress through the help guide is a little demoralising. Who knows, there may well be in game tuts’ later on but I didn’t get far enough through as I spent all my time learning how to play rather than playing.

However, I agree with Phil that the game looks beautiful and has some really nice touches. C4’s work in this area is to be applauded. 1066 is a fabulous idea with some flaws in its execution. The problem is that it’s simply not good enough to deliver substandard products in the game based learning space. Anything that doesn’t absolutely blow people away simply adds to the argument that games shouldn’t be used in education. It’s a bit of a bugger really as there’s no real room for experimentation. Experimentation by its nature has to include failure and that’s not something we can afford to do.

On a positive note to end, Flash once again shows how well it lends itself to the minigame format. Minigames are a good way of releasing a bunch of different content that can tie together into one offering, keeping the overall experience as fresh and engaging as possible. Apparently the Nintendo DS’s browser (opera variant) doesn’t run Flash which is a shame as it’s the perfect platform for half hour blasts on minigames – see GTA Chinatown Wars or the multiplayer minigames in the recent DS Mario offerings. This again comes back to the issue of clear and concise direction though. As the technology games are made with and delivered through becomes more and more capable game designers need to ensure that gamers are directed in correspondingly sophisticated ways.

Cheers,

Brendan