We are currently looking for interested people who would like to give their feedback on the current state of development of Ludwig.

You are located in Vienna, interested in games or physics (no special knowledge or skill required) and in the age of 10 - 99? Perfect! Please take a look at the short facts:

• Attending a testsession is voluntary. We can compensate for your time with € 10,--.
• One testsession lasts max. 1 hour. You will be able to play a short sequence of the game. Afterwards we ask you to complete an online survey.
• With your admission we will record your gameplay and your face in order to analyse your emotions during the gamesession.
• We will not ask you for any personal information. All your data will be stored and processed anonymized.
• There are no special requirements. We are looking for female and male testers of all ages and backgrounds. You don´t even have to be a gamer at all!

The testsessions take place in our office in Vienna (ovos, Waaggasse 2a, 1040 Vienna)

Größere Kartenansicht

Curious?

Please send a short email to jk@ovos.at to get additional information or apply for a testsession.

We are looking forward your most welcome feedback!

Take a look at the techdemo featuring a list brand new features like:

• interactive objects which are useable, collectable, stackable all together with an inventory featuring a 3D-preview of all the collected objects
• better lightning using lightmaps as well as interactive shadows
• integrated knowledgebase with conceptmap and detailview
• video module
• much better performance (increased by over 100%) while still adding more detail to the scenes

Here´s the video - enjoy!

We are happy to announce that we will investigate knowledge transfer effects in Video Games (exemplified by LUDWIG) within Sparkling science, a research program of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research

The Project is lead by the Danube University Krems, Department of "Applied Game Studies" in partnership with the University of Graz, Didactics of Physics and ovos.

Abstract:

playful learning!

Research on motivational aspects and knowledge transfer in digital educational games for children aged 10 to 14 years.

Current research on serious games allows only little inference about the optimization of knowledge transfer. To fill this gap we develop a research scenario to study motivation and knowledge transfer factors in educational games for children from 10 to 14. Our game “Ludwig” is an interactive learning game built around a serious topic: renewable energy. It is developed within an iterative didactic design approach developed by Wagner (2009). The development process is following three primary principles of game play: freedom to learn from errors, freedom to experiment, and freedom to make an effort (Osterweil, 2007). Empirical research with both focus- and expert groups will be part of this first application. This new design approach allows a scientific discussion of our results, the development of our empiric methods is influenced by the transfer model of Jürgen Fritz (2003). A mixed-method-design with different quantitative and qualitative methods will provide a validation of our scientific insights.

Students and teachers are asked to join the project from the very beginning (conception stage). They will frequently give their inputs in various playtesting sessions during the whole didactic design process. The teacher’s inputs are used to evaluate different aspects of applicability in class. Based on the inputs of students and teachers, we develop the gaming objects and a research prototype. The student’s inputs strongly influence the progress of Ludwig and therefore the outcome as well as the quality of the research project. To allow the students to be aware of the whole research process, they will get feedback on how the findings of the test-settings are implemented in the development process of the gaming objects and the research prototype.

Ludwig showed up on television. Because the video is in german language, it has been posted in the german blog. Please check the details there.

A film by Rosa Maria Plattner

camera: Rudi Vesely
montage: Stefan Koll, 
production: STEKO FILM
editors: Julius Kratky und Gundi Lamprecht