Introduction to my MRP

I have chosen to do a major research project instead of a thesis. I am using this blog as a journal or log to track my research progress as I come across information etc. so that I will have an amalgamated source to refer to when pulling my project together.

I will be designing an educational videogame using the Hero's Journey (also known as the Monomyth) as it's core. However, I have chosen to put a twist on the project, and make it a Heroine's Journey because rarely do hero's journeys have a female protagonist.

During my initial research when I googled the term "heroine's journey" the only references that came up were to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Xena Warrior Princess." When I turned to the York research librarians for assistants, I was given Penelope (Odysseus' wife) and other Ovidian/classical examples, which most people would not be able to identify with today.

The challenge for my MRP at this point as I see it is four fold. If anyone has other suggestions, thoughts, comments, ideas etc. please email me.

1) Design

• Story/Script (Dialogue) - Character - Plot - Setting - Conflict - Archetypes etc.
• Levels
• Music
• Playability - balancing action with puzzles etc.

2) Educational content - Initially I was going to design the game for a junior/intermediate audience (Grades 4-9); however, after watching the popular TV game show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" I realized that many adults are not familiar with material grade school students are learning. As long as there is not "graphic" content and language I don't see a reason to limit the audience.

• I need to determine what topics from the curriculum could be learned from this type of game and demonstrate from existing literature what other learning is occurring during game play.
• Educational material MUST be embedded into the game and not an add-on.
• Content MUST not be drill like problems

3) Joesph Campbell was the first to write about the basic pattern of the Hero's Journey found in many myths from around the world. In looking at the Heroine's Journey, I need to explore

• If and how it differs from the Hero's Journey.
• Does a Heroine need to kill in order to fulfill her journey
• What will be the Heroine's trials
• What will be the boon she brings back to her people - one idea I had for linking this to curriculum was that the heroine would bring back the Magna Carta

4) Lastly I will be looking into various programs for building the game. I have limited programing ability. I need to find programs which will be relatively easy to learn for a novice. I have discusses this with my advisor, and we determined that it is quite possible that I will not be able to actually find anything suitable for my programming level but I should document my search and experience with the programs I try.

The subsequent posts will all have little bits of work that I have been doing towards the above. Images, music etc. that I am using are all for educational purposes only. I have not given specific references for images as in some cases they are too numerous (e.g. I used over 20 sources to create a film clip explaining the Hero's Journey using Star Wars as an example.) I have used YouTube to house my images but they are set as private as not to violate copy write issues.