Reality Next

RealityNext’s international student connection

Joel — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 19:49:11 +0000

Seattle-Tel Aviv Connection Students from Seattle, Washington joined with theater students from Tel Aviv, Israel as guests of the TLV AR/VR Association to make stories and play games about physics in our virtual playspace. The students enjoyed taking this leap into the future of technology and getting to know one another as they increased their […]

Ready Player One good for box office, bad for business

Joel — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 21:14:32 +0000

My low opinion of the film notwithstanding (or perhaps in spite of it), Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s fanboy novel Ready Player One has done reasonably well at the box office—topping $100 million domestically this past weekend. The virtual reality-based dystopian adventure takes viewers through a classic hero’s journey with lots of special effects, […]

Why stories matter. And they matter.

Joel — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 05:01:27 +0000

It happens to everyone at some point in their life. You lay in bed at night, knowing in your gut that you’re in the wrong place. Maybe it’s the wrong career, the wrong relationship, the wrong city. Maybe it’s the noise of politics, social media, or the never-ending news cycle that doesn’t feel right. Whatever […]

RealityNext goes to college

Joel — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 19:19:31 +0000

We know that kids in middle school and high school have a great time going through our story-game making workshops. But we didn’t know how the methodology would transfer to people in different age groups and demographics. So on March 3, we tried something new: we got together with the Virtual Reality Association at the […]

Teens Produce Their First Game in Virtual Reality

Joel — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 22:34:46 +0000

When 13 teens showed up at Fluke Hall on the University of Washington campus one wet November day, they had no idea what they were in for. When they emerged from Portal VR in Ballard on Jan. 28, they had just played a virtual reality game they had made through learning, narrative-building, performance and collaboration. […]

RealityNext showcases climate change game for City of Seattle

Alex Stolyarik — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 19:07:48 +0000

On Jan. 31, RealityNext showed off its first VR story-game made by kids to “The Mixer,” an event sponsored by the City of Seattle for film and creative professionals in the city. Here are pictures from the event.

More Workshop Activities

Joel — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 23:52:51 +0000

Eleven of our 12 students enjoyed their first experience in VR and showed the enthusiasm to want to develop their own story-game after trying it out. The students enjoyed hearing from a casual, energetic and knowledgeable speaker, VR Industry Expert Dr. Evie Powell of Verge of Brilliance. They spent more than a half hour asking […]

Practice & Showcase

Joel — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 23:51:25 +0000

Before the second part of the workshop, where students will record their games into virtual reality in a motion capture studio, they needed to act out their story to demonstrate the power of their game-based learning.• All students and mentors were very engaged in acting out scenario to guide player to correctly answer questions• Students […]

Storymaking

Joel — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 23:50:54 +0000

Once students established the question, to make the game interesting they built stories around the right answer to integrate knowledge and memory retention into a fun environment.• Through creativity, innovation, and collaboration, 2/3 of students and mentors quickly turned questions into story for their game • Students used deductive and hypothetical reasoning to express high levels […]

Game Mechanics

Joel — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 23:50:21 +0000

We explained and employed game mechanics as students shifted from being consumers of content to producers, which spurred critical-thinking skills• Student-centered, mastery-based methodology helped all the students understand the concept of advancing to next levels by having future players answer subject-related questions: One about release, the other about absorption • All teams were able to synthesize […]