Today, I’m excited to interview a close colleague and friend, Scott Price. Scott has been helping people play and learn online and offline for over 15 years. After teaching for several years, he entered the game industry with Scholastic and then joined the pioneering studio Gamelab. He moved back into "educational" games with Gamestar Mechanic, the groundbreaking game about game design, which will be the focus of today’s interview. Scott has had QA, IT, Creative, Project and Product Management roles, and has spoken on production, game design, and education at several dozen conferences and events. Scott is now Director of Product with BrainPOP.
I have previously talked about the idea of rewards in games on this blog, as well as intrinsic rewards in specific. This interview is one of several I hope to have over the next year, as I attempt to connect ideas written on this blog to real world work that others have done.
KM: Ok, so I really want to talk to you about Gamestar Mechanic, a project I know you worked on several years ago. Maybe to start, you can describe briefly what Gamestar Mechanic is for those that aren’t familiar?
SP: Sure! Gamestar Mechanic is an online game and community that teaches game design and systems thinking through gameplay and design. Players follow a steampunk Quest and play 2D platforming and top-down games, eventually hitting levels that they can’t beat.
