#but I might make some branching save files so I can get certain scenes without having to commit to committing certain acts

[moghedien]

If I don’t romance Minthara soon I am literally going to die

[rickrubinnumber]

What is your process for working this out?

long post ahead

fy00sh (aka aria-of-the-wind-god): so! when we get a new ask requesting a number for an artist, the first step is adding the requested artist to a spreadsheet greenzig and i use to work together on this project. they get added to the submissions list first, and then when we get to where they are on the submission list, one of us starts doing research on leads for what the artist's lowest number might be. usually i start by looking thru their discography on wikipedia (if they have one there) and then i also check on rateyourmusic dot com.

(greenzig: i don’t use wikipedia much if at all most of the time. depending on the kind of artist i will sometimes use rateyourmusic (its especially good for “internet artists” iykwim) but the primary way that i look is on discogs. unless i already have a connection in mind i will usually ignore the releases section and go to the credits tab)

ill first look thru their releases to see who all theyve collabed with, scanning first to see if any names i recognize pop out for artists who might themselves have low numbers or who we've already found connections for. once some connection is found, they get added to the masterlist, which looks like this

the masterlist is really useful because for example if im clicking thru on people credited alongside someone and i see that that person has worked with, say, umru, then i can just move the box for them on the sheet over to its new lowest position and also move anyone else already on the sheet if it affects them too, so theres a more robust reference for later. most of the artists that branch off from umru for example were parts of previous paths for ida deerz that slowly got moved closer to rick rubin as i found new connections (i think the first path i got for her was rubin > skrillex > dylan brady > underscores > 8485 > phixel > cmten > marshall4 > lizzy's personal army > ida, so thats why all those artists are still on there)

once we're reasonably certain that we have the lowest number we can find for someone, we mark them as completed on the submission list, and on the masterlist we mark them as needing to have a graphic made. during the process of finding the artist's number and adding them to the sheet i try to remember to add notes to each cell with a link to the wikipedia/rateyourmusic/discogs/bancamp/etc page of whatever the connection is, but earlier on i was pretty bad at remembering to do that which meant that greenzig or i would have to refind what the connecting track was during both the making of the graphic and the drafting of the tumblr post. 

(greenzig: we were both pretty bad at it tbh, i only really remembered to put the connection when it was through someone very behind the scenes like a mastering engineer that i knew would be difficult to find without knowing the song/project. also though i have made the images for quite a few posts, they are mostly done by fy00sh, it came up with everything and im basically just replicating what it does when i do make the images)

for making graphics, i open up paint.net (my preferred image editing software) and pull up the graphic template file, resave it under the name of whatever artist the graphic is for so i dont accidentally overwrite the template (i would never do that. i would never make that mistake. i definitely haven't made that mistake once already) and first crop the template to the right size and then add in all the text (artist names and connecting tracks/albums). next I'll go looking for images to use for each artist in the chain and save them all to my rickrubinnumber image folder

once the images are added and all the extra stuff around the edges (corners of images outside the bubbles, unnecessary template arrows at the left edge) i first save the file as a psd file and then remove the overlay and resave it as a png. I do it this way so that if a later graphic has a lot of the same connections i can just reopen the previous graphic's psd file and copy paste the image and text layers. that's also why i tend to keep old outdated versions of graphics around, cos they usually have different images in them that ive already done the work of centering and cropping. note the three different revisions of calobi's graphic - we changed that route a few different times before settling on the version we posted.

once the graphic is done, i'll go into the tumblr inbox, find the ask that requested the artist, begin to answer it by adding the graphic, and then i usually just save it as a draft and from there leave the writing of the description to greenzig. sometimes I'll add tags and the "[artist] has a Rick Rubin number of [#]." text but i usually don't.

greenzig: writing the image descriptions is a pretty straightforward process as its just providing some more context to the already found connection. we have actually had a few occasions where we’ll find out at this stage that one of the connections we’ve made breaks the rules we’ve set on the rulelist and have to start again, but that’s not very often. i think to best explain ill walk through an already existing post.

to make the connections as clear as possible, i make sure that the last part of the sentence im working on matches with the first part of the next sentence in a way that is congruous to the image. on this post, the first connections are:

Toby Fox was a composer on bo en's Prelude. Prelude features Alto Clarinet performed by Melody English. Melody English provided backing vocals for You Can Never Go Home by The Dare.

notice how the wording changes. when the connection is being made through the song, the wording is “bo en’s Prelude”, but when the connection is being made through the artist, it is “You Can Never Go Home by The Dare”. also note the names that are bolded. since bo en is not part of the connections, his name is left unbolded. then, skipping to the last connection between skrillex and rick rubin, this is how it is worded:

Skrillex was a writer and producer for M.I.A.'s Marigold. Marigold was written and produced by Rick Rubin (among others).

its easy to see the differences here, as rick rubin and skrillex are both credited for the same thing on the song. 

(fy00sh: i think the only exception so far to the rule of having lines begin or end with artists' names is the set of lines i wrote for the connection between jan Misali and Sapaa in the original, now outdated, jan Misali post. this is because the connecting song was a toki pona song and so i thought it would be cute to have the lines written in toki pona. the issue being that i dont have a lot of experience with writing in toki pona so i wasn't gonna try to find a way to rephrase the toki pona sentences to put jan Misali's name at the beginning and Sapaa's at the end. i was just happy i found a phrasing i was satisfied with at all ^_^) 

the only other thing to note is that i will usually try to list the most “noticeable” contribution someone had. being a writer and being a producer are about the same in that they’re very behind-the-scenes positions, but if someone is a featured artist, regardless of what other credits they have on the track, ill simply make the connection as either

Artist One’s Song featured Artist Two

or

Artist Two was featured on Song by Artist One

depending on which one is needed to keep the formatting.

fy00sh: and that's just about it, once the graphics and descriptions and tags are all done we post it, maybe waiting if theres another post coming up where the path is entirely contained within the other post so it isn't completely redundant. (greenzig: for example with the last two posts louis armstrong was actually requested much earlier than ween)

both: thank you for the ask!

[script-a-world]

How do I keep my worldbuilding consistent when I have multiple timelines and alternate universes? Especially when memories can bleed over too.

Constablewrites: Really, really good notes. You’re gonna need something that allows for a high level of organization and categorization. That might be a tool like Scrivener or Evernote that lets you create folders and tags, or if you prefer physical notes you can use different colored pens, sticky notes, or even multiple notebooks. (There are probably tools out there specifically designed for such a purpose, but I’m not personally familiar with any.)

However you keep your lists, you’ll want to have one set of notes for each timeline and universe that impacts the story. If you have characters hopping around, you’ll also want to have notes for each character’s personal timeline (so the order in which they experience events, which timelines/universes they travel between, what they remember when, etc.). These lists don’t have to be super long or involved--just a brief phrase describing the scene or event can be enough to keep it straight.

Even for writers only working with a single timeline, it can be useful to have a calendar of events. You can call your start point Day 1 and go from there, assign events to arbitrary dates on our calendar, or go into detail with your own system, whatever works for you. The key is just to have a way to be sure of how much time has passed, so you don’t have something like characters saying they’ve only known each other a couple of days when it’s established elsewhere that it’s been a month.

Also, this doesn’t have to be done in advance. Doing it as you go is fine, and so is assembling the lists as you’re preparing to edit and untangle everything. You might save yourself some effort down the line if you sort that stuff out before writing, but not everyone’s brain works like that and that’s okay.

Tex: It’s difficult to make lists and notes if you don’t know what information to put in them. This is a fairly common issue, since the plethora of information available to particularly worldbuilders can easily become a sensory overload.

A calendar of events is an excellent idea, if you’ve got events to catalogue (and dates to go along with them!). Unfortunately that won’t cover the rest of a world, so you’ll need to be careful in how your organize your notes. Please note that both of our suggestions are but one of many methods to arranging worldbuilding notes, especially when it comes to multiple timelines.

Scrivener, Evernote, OneNote, or even a set of notebooks or word documents can be very versatile depending on your style of note-taking. I deeply prefer an iterative process to worldbuilding, wherein I slowly collate and organize scraps of notes into a polished whole that functions as an archive. Usually I keep multiple versions, in case I need to roll back to certain timelines of development and branch off in a different direction, and keep the discarded versions in case there’s a new way to incorporate the research and ideas.

There’s a lot of debate about digital vs physical copies. For digital, the pros are that you can easily edit and transmit files to a high volume capacity, as well as store them in a comparatively small container or even purely online. Its cons, however, are that they’re easily lost, corrupted, or stolen.

For physical, the pros are that the copies are tangible, easy to visually reference in large volumes, and can usually withstand long-term storage without corruption issues. Its cons, however, are that they have a physical weight, can be cumbersome to carry around, and are difficult to edit while retaining coherency.

One of the most successful note-taking styles I’ve seen is a blend of digital and physical. When you’re still developing an idea, a digital format is very useful until you’ve gotten some concrete decisions down. You can do this with some throwaway notebooks or loose paper, too! Just make sure it’s collected in the same place, or at least is annotated in a way that’s easy to identify (e.g. headers of the same colour, washi tape, dedicated ink colours, dedicated folders, etc).

The intermediary point is usually the difficult part, because transitioning into firm decisions about your worldbuilding is where packrat tendencies kick in. “But what if I need this?” is a very common refrain. However, if you’ve isolated your first step, you’ll still have all of your sketches and ideas and notes!

A basic sorting process of “I’ll keep working on this” versus “I’ll set this aside in case I still need this” will tamp down on a lot of that inevitable anxiety. This will give you control over the flow of development, and you’ll always be able to incorporate things from that second pile if necessary.

The main characteristic of the intermediary point is the filing system, and is incredibly useful even when dividing a world into multiple timelines.

The best method that I’ve found for working on multiple timelines is to start from the most common details. Since these notes are likely to be stored with other stories, the first order is fandom vs original work. If you only write original work, it may be helpful to arrange things by title and/or genre.

I’ve made a sample worldbuilding folder on Google Drive (available here) that can be downloaded locally or into your own Drive, and am narrating the main path way; any additional folders you see will largely be blank in order to allow others to learn the overall structure. You can always copy the folders and files I mention into the additional folders, and rearrange as best suits you!

Since I made this for primarily fandom (re-title as necessary for original work), this means choosing Fandom 1 and then World Name 1. Traditionally the first world is the “canon” world, or the original seed, so it gets first pick.

I have in World Name 1 some things pre-seeded:

Timeline 1

Timeline 2

Unsorted

World Name 1 - Meta Info.txt

All of the individual files in there - usually .txt or .docx - have information on them regarding suggestions how to use them. If you already have a method, then disregard and populate as you prefer.

The Unsorted folder acts as a catch-all, and there’s going to be one of these at roughly each level. For the Timeline level, this means working in conjunction with the Meta Info text file - usually discarded snippets and/or research. While you can definitely create subfolders in this one, I would recommend keeping it loose so you don’t create a stressful, nitpicking situation that loses focus on your main goals.

If you have a main timeline, then that’s going to be Timeline 1. However you choose to prioritize the other ones, just make sure you’re consistent with it, and clearly label everything.

Within Timeline 1, you’re going to have the following items:

Story folder

Plot folder

Unsorted folder

Culture folder

World Name 1 - Timeline 1 - To Do List.txt

You already know how the Unsorted folder functions, so pass that one by. I’ll cover the file before delving into the folders. It’s a text file (that’s a bit oddly sized, apologies for that - it can be resized upon opening with Notepad or a similar program), and left without any instructions or suggestions. World Name 1 - Timeline 1 - To Do List is, as it says on the tin, meant to keep track of things that need doing for this timeline. Be it items that need updating, necessary tweaks, reminders for other things, it’s a relatively isolated way to keep track of this timeline on a meta scale.

Moving on to the rest, the Story folder contains two of its own - Chapters and Master Story. I’ve found this method useful, since it’s dumping drafts into a virtual outbox on an as-completed basis. Master Story has a preseeded doc, while Chapters is meant to contain each chapter unto its own folder (Chapter 1 has its own preseeded doc, as well). The guide docs are colour-coded and contain notes for both fanfiction and original work.

The next folder in Timeline 1, Plot, comes with three pre-seeded guide docs of its own:

World Name 1 - Timeline 1 - Characters.docx

World Name 1 - Timeline 1 - Plot Unsorted.docx

World Name 1 - Timeline 1 - Plot.docx

You see how there’s still an Unsorted folder, albeit in file form? That’s for information that can’t be put into Characters.docx or Plot.docx. All three have notes and some sort of sorting and colour-coding applied to them, with some modularity for copying and pasting. Plot.docx functions a lot like programs like OneNote and Scrivener, so the formatting can be ported over if you prefer a more literal digital notebook style.

The last folder in Timeline 1 is Culture. I’ve divided this into Non-Physical and Physical. There’s a readme text file in both detailing the types of things would go into each folder, though otherwise both left blank so you can dive right into creating sub-folder systems of your own. As with the higher-level folders, you can always duplicate the methods of unsorted folders and meta docs!

[fallstreakfeathers]

[ Dont Look Down] Chapter- 3 CH Rating- T Warnings- n/a

Full work here- CLICK Tumblr masterlist here- CLICK

Shouting. She heard shouting… multiple voices arguing about something. They can’t keep the volume down? Kita blinked the sleep from her eyes with a yawn. Where was she? It smelled green. “What do ya mean ya can’t find her?!” one of the voices growled. Something tickled her cheek and she quickly swiped it with her hand. Spider! Oh… no, nevermind. That didn’t feel like it had legs. It was smooth, and flat, and an organic ruffling sound surrounded her as she smacked whatever it was. “I left her right here!” the second voice insisted tautly. She slowly opened her eyes, squinting at the light that sprayed through the leaves. Kita grumbled to herself more sound penetrated the wooden door. If she couldn’t see through the branches and leaves she hid in, she would’ve thought Leviathan was in the room. “She said she wanted to sleep!” “Well she ain’t in the bed!” Mammon huffed. No, not spiders (thank God), Kita reassured herself blearily. Why am I in a tree?

She slowly sat up, rubbing her stomach where it had been pressed against the bark of the branches and winced as her shirt unstuck itself from the imprints left on her stomach. If she hadn’t been intent on remaining hidden from the demons outside her door, she would’ve laughed at grooves temporarily embedded in her skin. “Are you sure she’s not there?” Leviathan asked. “Bed’s made, nothing’s moved, no human in sight.” “Right, well,” Leviathan started,” the human is your responsibility, not that I'll ever understand what possessed Lucifer to put such an untrustworthy, scummy, lowlife demon in charge of anyone else, but good luck finding her!” “Uh-uh, no way!” Mammon barked, “you were the last one with her, so you’ll help me find the human before Lucifer finds out.” “Before I find out what?” a honeyed voice echoed through the door like the purr of a predator about to pounce. “Nothing, nothing! I definitely didn’t bail on the human and Levi definitely didn’t lose her,” Mammon babbled. A nervous rambler? I’ll have to make sure I never tell him anything. A growl of the white-haired demon’s name traveled through the room, heavy and silky. There was no mistaking the authority that rang in his tone.

Mammon yelped and Lucifer knocked on the door twice before it swung open. She froze, hoping that he’d just leave after finding nobody there. His red gaze swept the room before settling on the tree she rested in. His eyes narrowed slightly and her shoulders sagged in defeat. How the Hell did he know where she was? “Dinner is in five minutes,” he said, “it will not be saved for you.” With that, the door closed and Kita sighed and glanced at the small clock sitting on the dresser. 6:55pm. She’d slept less than three hours. Awesome. She grasped one of the lower branches and used her weight to flip herself over and off the tree, wincing as the bark scratched at her skin. She opened the creaky door with a sigh, stalking into the hallway where Mammon leaned against the patterned walls. “Eh? Where the hell were you?” “Tree,” she answered shortly as she brushed past him. The demon paused. “You have a bed though? Are ya that dumb?” “Sure, why not?” she deadpanned, rolling her eyes. Not wanting a bunch of strangers knowing where she was sleeping wasn’t idiocy. Considering her current situation and who these strangers claimed to be, it might as well be a survival tactic. She pushed past Mammon, ignoring his indignant huff, to follow the sound of idle chatter in the dining room. The small scraps of conversation died off as she stood awkwardly to the side. Why’d they have to stop talking? I’d rather just be ignored.

Thankfully, or perhaps to her embarrassment, Lucifer seemed to know her plight before she had the chance to voice it. “You may sit beside Mammon and Satan,” the first born told her. She nodded once, carefully pulling out the chair between the two demons so it didn’t scuff against the plush carpet. Whatever was being discussed resumed without a hitch as she sat at her assigned seat, in front of a large plate already stacked high with various unfamiliar food items. If some of it could be called that. The silver cutlery was as intricate as everything else in the building, and Kita felt small and completely outclassed as light glinted off the expensive utensils. Silver. Kita had eaten from plastic forks and paper plates in the human realm. She’d only ever dream of using plates like the one sitting in front of her. Eating from such wealth didn’t sit right with her stomach, and only furthered her belief that she did not belong there. With a glance through the tall windows, she could see the light of the moon hanging in the sky. Was there anywhere it’s beams couldn’t reach? Kita shifted. Even the chairs were an over-the-top, carefully chiseled luxury. The padding was some material she’d never seen before, velvet soft, and it felt like she was sitting on a cloud. The chair sitting by Beelzebub remained empty. Huh. ‘You’ll be staying in the House of Lamentation with Lucifer and his six younger brothers’. Those were the prince’s words, which meant there were supposed to be seven Avatars living in the mansion. She knew the first through sixth, so who was the seventh? And why hadn’t they been mentioned yet? “Kita, why don’t you tell us about yourself?” Oh no! Anything but that. There it was: The Question. The worst, and most unarguably jinxed inquiry in the three realms. Regardless of whether someone really cared to listen or was simply asking out of politeness, she could never seem to remember anything about herself once that cursed question was asked. Not that anything she could possibly say was of any importance anyway. “It’s a good time to get to know you a little. You’ll be staying with us for a year, after all.”

If I live that long.

“I’m afraid I’m not all that interesting,” Kita said just as Beelzebub stuck the leg of some sort of bird between his jaws. It disappeared in less than two bites.

Did...did he just swallow an entire turkey leg? Is that turkey? Oh my god.

“I’m sure there must be something entertaining about you,” Satan smiled.

“No, you don’t get it,” she disagreed, “I’m really quite boring.” Kita wasn’t as stupid as the demon clearly thought. He’d only asked to be polite, and that (in Kita’s opinion) was worse than not asking at all. If he’d heard her, he didn’t act like it. “Tell us about yourself.” It wasn’t a question anymore. “There’s nothing to tell,” Kita insisted. She shoved around the silver strings of something layered on her plate, then stabbed a lump of purple-ish meat. What was this? Were those insect legs?

“Didn’t you have a file or something about me?”

She was about to take a bite of the strange meat stuck to the end of her fork when a large hand reached over beside her to snag some kind of vegetable from her plate.

She smacked the offending limb with an angry glare, only to gasp when orange nails gripped her arm and a low rumbling filled the air. Her fork clattered on the silver plate as the rest of the demons froze, watching the two warily. The room was silent enough she was certain she'd hear a pin drop. Kita swallowed uncomfortably at the tension suffocating the group as the massive demon’s growls echoed and seemed to engulf her. She could feel the vibrations in her bones, and she tugged her arm back, wincing as his grip tightened and electricity crackled over his form. Kita’s eyes widened and for the first time since arriving, realized that these people were not lying when they’d said they weren’t human. “Beelzebub,” Lucifer’s voice called softly in warning. His eyes traveled to the eldest before he released her wrist with a grunt. She rubbed her bruised skin, wincing at the already purpling marks. The demon had already continued to eat from his plate (and the other’s) before Kita had even picked up her fork again.

 ≿————-　❈　————-≾

Kita mumbled to herself as she navigated the long halls of the house. She’d left her plate with the remainder of her uneaten food on the table. It didn’t make sense, in her opinion, for her to clean up when Beelzebub clearly would do it for her. She was pretty sure she’d seen the ginger eat a plate or two. Possibly a fork as well. I wonder how many people’s half-eaten food he’s chowed on? How does he not get sick? How can he even digest cutlery? There was no apology given for the demon’s actions, and Kita rolled her eyes at her own stupidity. Why would they apologize? They probably enjoyed the scene. Damn demons. She kicked at the rug. The shadows dancing on the wallpaper almost seemed a little too lively as her stomach complained about its own emptiness. She turned to drag herself down a different hall, sighing. She was lost. Wonderful.  Why’s this place so god-forsakenly big? Kita froze as a frustrated groan echoed in the candle-lit hall before a string of hoarse growls and harsh crowing in what seemed to be some sort of language buried the area in a cold haze. A chill ran up her spine. She couldn’t understand a word of whatever was said, but it was unpleasant and grated against her ears like nails on a chalkboard. She shivered, turning to retreat back to the guest room before an irritated voice grunted out in english. “Agh, come on!” Kita squinted at the familiar voice as she raised an eyebrow at the sight before her. Hanging from the ceiling, tied with a rope and upside down no less, was Mammon. Was he the one making that infernal noise? “Hey! Human, come here!” the second born called. Kita sighed, shoulders drooping as she shuffled forward. Of course she wouldn’t get past the demon without him seeing. That was just her luck. She stared at him and he gazed right back as the rope swung to-and-fro. “Are you okay?” “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” the demon said, “would ya get me down though?” “...Who tied you up there?” “Lucifer,” he shrugged against the rope, “because I left ya earlier.” “Does he do that often? It seems unnecessary.” “Glad we agree, now get me down, human!” “Nah,” Kita’s eyes narrowed, “I don’t help people who can’t even be bothered to use my name.” “Help me or I'll  eat ya when I get down!” Mammon snapped. “Yeah, sure you will,” she shoved her hands in the pockets of her pants, “why not use your special demon powers or something? Or am I supposed to believe that a ruler of Hell can’t get himself out of a rope? What an idiot. “Hey! Worthless humans like you should talk to the Great Mammon with more respect!” he barked, “Ya should be kissin’ my boots, not talkin’ smart!” Worthless… She snorted, turning to return to the room she’d been assigned. She rose one hand in a half wave as she left. “See ya, dumb demon.” Kita paid very little heed to the indignant shouts as Mammon thrashed in the rope. She turned the corner and quickly descended the marble stairs. The house was surprisingly quiet, aside from the faint echoes of Mammon’s voice, for a place eight different people lived. She took a deep breath as she opened the door, smiling softly at the delicate scents of the various plants in the room. At least it smells nice, she thought, with my luck I would’ve expected rotting flesh or something. The girl sighed, exhausted despite her nap and more than ready to just climb the stupid tree and sleep once more. Maybe when she woke up this time she’d be back home. She shook her head at herself. It was already known by the demons that she’d used the tree to hide away, so that would be the first place they would look for her. She’d need to find somewhere else. She backed away from the plant, pausing mid-stride on her way to the door again when something on the bed caught her attention. A uniform matching what the demons had worn all day had been neatly folded and placed on the silky sheets, a dark contrast to the obnoxiously pink coverings (seriously would it have killed them for some neutral colors?). A small spray bottle with some sort of liquid sat next to it. “Odor Eliminator” Kita read, “ ferals keep mistaking you for dinner? Get rid of pesky mid-day human odors with this special formula!” She grimaced, unfurling  the clothes before dropping it unceremoniously back on the bed. The jacket jingled cheerfully as it landed, like it was mocking her ire.

There was no way in Heaven or Hell she was wearing the pink, frilly monstrosity of a skirt crumpled in front of her. She refused to even wear shorts on the small side. She gripped the clothing in her hand once more, frowning. Who would be the best to go to with this? She pondered. Lucifer. He was the ‘eldest’, after all, and clearly the one in charge around here so it would make sense to go to him with a problem.  The human nodded to herself, irritation canceling out any fear she should’ve had of the demons in the house while she stalked out of the room. Lucifer or not, she couldn’t find it in herself to care at the moment. She wanted pants. She found Lucifer downstairs in the commons area and wasted no time tossing him the garment. “Pants. I’m not wearing this.” “You’ll wear what is provided,” Lucifer replied in a tone that should’ve left no room for arguments, his tired eyes trained on the article held in his hand as he occasionally sipped a cup of dark coffee. At least, it smelled like coffee. Kita sighed quietly and considered her options. She could simply take a loss (no). Perhaps she could steal one of the demon’s spare pair of pants? Also a no. There was no way she could possibly sneak around without being caught by someone, and the clothes were probably cursed anyway. So that left the only reasonable option left. “Pants, or I jump off the roof.” “You won’t.” “I will,” Kita argued, “I guess I could also ask some random demon to eat me. Shouldn’t be too hard to find someone.” The glare she received should’ve terrified her, but it had no effect in her own irritation. “I do not wear skirts. Or dresses. Or shorts.” “Once more, you have been provided with this, so you will wear it.” “Sure. And I can tell your prince just how great a job you’re doing of making the exchange student comfortable,” Kita frowned, “I don’t feel a slight change of wardrobe is too much to ask, considering what’s expected of me.” Lucifer was silent for a moment. “Mammon will show you to your classroom tomorrow at 8:50am. Be ready by then.” He’s ignoring me?! “It’s nearly time to turn the lights out. Go back to your room and rest. I’m sure you’re exhausted.” Kita opened her mouth to protest, shutting it just as quickly as he raised his hand to stop her. She frowned and left the uniform on the side of the furniture before turning to stalk away. “Kita,” Lucifer spoke over his shoulder, “do not wander at night.” That accomplished absolutely nothing, she berated herself. What did she expect? That Lucifer would actually listen to her?

Ridiculous.

I can’t believe they aren’t even giving me a day to adjust, she sniffed as she walked under the archway to the front entrance. Kidnapped with no negotiations, threatened, humiliated, and they want her to take it all in a stride? What a joke. At least the living space was pretty. Kita padded over the soft carpeting into the main hall where the tall dragon-like gargoyles stood watch over the main doors. She peered up at the snarling faces leaning over its pedestal. Its ruby eyes glowed warmly in the light of the fireplace, and the creature's spiny tail wrapped around its pillar protectively. She tore her sight from the intricately carved statues as loud footsteps fell above her.  Kita lowered her eyes as Beelzebub made his way down the staircase and passed her. She pretended she wasn’t aware of his amethyst gaze watching her. If she didn’t make eye contact, then there would be no reason for him to interact with her, right? Right. That’s how it always was. If she didn’t look them in the eyes, if she didn’t challenge them, then she’d be left alone. Kita released a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding as the massive demon disappeared around the corner and into the next room. Stumbling quickly up the marble stairs, the door to the guest room shut with an audible click.  She wandered over to the bed where the small bottle of ‘odor eliminator’ still sat and read the instructions on the back. If it was meant to destroy the smell of humans on demons after they fed (she shuddered), then it would hide a living human’s scent too, right?  She sprayed it over herself and the clothes she’d arrived with and was pleasantly surprised to find it had no chemical smell. In fact, it smelled like nothing at all. Kita peeked into the hallway, gripping a small blanket and watching for movement before slipping out. She followed the plush flooring back to the staircase, jumping slightly when a clock chimed eleven times. She shook her head at herself before carefully standing on the wooden handrails behind the large statues. Next, she tested her grip on the sides of the round spikes on the creature’s wings, using them to pull herself up to the top of the pedestal. She avoided the sharpest bits and wedged herself between the stone creature’s front legs as if the hard claws and detailed fangs would be able to protect her from the dangers of the house. It was stupid, she knew, but the ruby eyes of the dragon still glowed warmly with promises of safety, so she closed her eyes and attempted to sleep in its stone embrace. She was sure she’d likely be woken before it was time for school anyway. She snorted at the thought. I’ve been dragged to Hell to go to school. Full of demons, and who knows what else.

She’d already had enough demons for several lifetimes.

[onlyawfulrpgideas]

Railroading: Express Train Adventures or Leaves on the Plot Line?

“In gaming, the act of forcing a player to "choose to" do something they don't really want to in order to advance the plot according to the wishes or designs of the GM.”

-       UrbanDictionary.com (other, unrelated definitions are available, but you have been warned)

Railroading your players is bad, right? It takes away agency, free choice and immersion in a game of unlimited imagination.

The term “railroading” is so often used in complaint – a negative descriptor applied to a more controlled style of game-mastering, often associated with pre-written modules. In published adventures, this feeling of being driven along down a pre-laid train track is – to a certain extent – necessary to make the game work. If the players are allowed unchecked freedom, it is almost certain that, at some point, their choices will cause events to diverge from the pre-determined story later on.

           Coming to a game where you’ll be running a published module or adventurers league or whatever, expecting to have sandbox levels of freedom is rather unrealistic. Expecting the GM to accommodate your every maverick whim in this situation is, in my opinion, a little bit selfish. There will be inexperienced players who bring these expectations to the table from time to time, but the joy of our social-based game is that it thrives on patience, understanding and learning. In pre-written adventure scenarios, one cannot really hold the GM responsible for “railroading” because the book is railroading them!

           So what does constitute the evil sin of “railroading”? That rather depends where we draw the lines between maintaining a cohesive plot, “railroading” and just being a narrator of your own story. Somewhere on this scale we also encounter the fabled curse of “being a dick”. For now, let’s leave pre-written adventures behind and focus on homebrew campaigns.

           Giving your players the ability to make choices that genuinely influence the world around their characters is a key component of what makes D&D so special. There’s nothing wrong with video game PRGs, but there is only a certain amount of things you can do: parameters that you can’t venture beyond, because the programming isn’t infinite. We all know the three pillars of adventure are one third Exploration, one third Role-playing, one third Combat and one extra quarter of Sheer Craziness. It’s in the moments of zany plans and “you can certainly try’s” that push the limits of game mechanics, where some of our most memorable stories originate.

Letting these events play out and dealing with the consequences is the mark of a good GM: allowing your players creative freedom with their characters. Automatically shooting down unlikely attempts, without even allowing someone to make a roll for it, is a big source of “railroading” complaints. Especially when a GM overrules the description a player gave for their character’s actions, in order to force a desired outcome – whether positive or negative. It robs the player of their satisfaction.

When a player wants their character to do something that is fundamentally impossible and a roll would be pointless, consider allowing a roll to be made anyway. The outcome, of course, is unsuccessful; but it creates an illusion of choice and possibility. Through your description, place emphasis on the characters’ determined attempts to the best of their ability, even in the face of “almost” certain failure. This can do wonders for the players’ perception of the game and we’ll look at this in more depth later.

For now, an example:

When I first started GM-ing at college, I ran a sandbox-y story set on an island separated into a north and south area by an impassable stone wall with an ancient, giant-made portcullis gate in the centre. The logic behind this was that I had two groups whose stories took place on opposite sides of the wall. They could communicate and pass small items to each other through the gate, but not get directly involved in events on the other side (since they played at separate times).

           Eventually the south team decided to try what had been implied to be impossible and bypass the gate. Despite being enchanted and over a foot in diameter, they weren’t going to let them metal bars keep them out. Against the advice of almost every NPC, they requisitioned as many cutting implements as their money could buy and set to work sawing, filing and axe-swinging away at the portcullis.

           Being largely inexperienced, I thought to myself “this is stupid, they know it’s not going to work”. I declined to even narrate the attempt, streamlining the action into a simple statement of “you can’t do it: it’s impossible”. To my surprise, the group were rather quite disappointed, and after the session I had time to ponder why. They knew full well that their attempt was futile, why make the gesture?

           Perhaps the two player groups spoke to each other, I don’t honestly know, but sure enough during the next session, the group on the North side of the gate attempted to do the same. This time, I tried things a little differently.

           Their monk’s player was, frankly, a complete nutcase and this showed through in his monk-turned-pirate character with an extreme stubborn streak. He made his way down to the wall with every saw blade the island could muster and began to cut at the 12-inch-thick metal bars. I decided to let him roll a general strength check, just for the hell of it. Of course, he rolls a natural 20. Now, this was supposed to be an impossible task…

           Without giving an outcome, I asked him how long he would like to spend making the attempt to cut through. He replied “until I drop”. So I had him roll Constitution checks to represent each hour passing, until he had failed three and collapsed from exhaustion. By this point, the table was lost in gales of laughter and cheering him on in the obviously fruitless endeavour. The following morning, the monk awoke where he had passed out, aching all over, surrounded by a heap of blunt saws, to inspect the small, shallow scratch he had made.

           Both outcomes were the same: the gate was impassable and no mundane means could truly penetrate it. But one group left the table feeling cheated, “railroaded”, and the other tells the tale of the scene to this day. While the rolls were being made, they held onto the comically absurd notion that somehow, against all the mounting odds, success was possible and the effort was worthwhile, if foolish. Above all they enjoyed being given the chance to try and lamenting/ridiculing the outcome, even if that chance was only an illusion.

             In more long-term perspectives, “railroading” is used to describe the instances where no matter what the players do, eventually the story catches up with them just the same as if they had done nothing and the party’s efforts are rendered pointless. This can leave a very firm sense of disappointment and dissolution, where the players wonder why they bother to interact with your world at all, if ultimately, you have already pre-destined what is going to happen. There’s nothing wrong with wider events moving on around the characters if they do not have any direct influence, but be wary of nullifying their actions.

           A storytelling technique I’ve learnt and try (as best I can) to incorporate into my GM prep is the “Yeah but, No but” pattern. Having alternate outcomes in mind enables you to give the players scope for influencing your story, while keeping them firmly on the rails of your longer plot.

           Perhaps the PC’s cleverly thwart the villain’s evil scheme too early through some logic you overlooked… YEAH, they succeeded, BUT... the villain is able to escape, or the plan is delayed and not stopped altogether. Our heroes have their victory: they saved the day for now. But they go forward knowing that the danger is far from over.

           Alternatively, they valiantly attempt to stop the villainous plot and fail… NO, they didn’t succeed, BUT… they discover some kind of clue or blessing that will help them be more prepared next time. Even in defeat, the players can take some measure of victory and look forward to the inevitable rematch.

           Either way, the long-term story remains unchanged. The journey to it, however, just got a lot more interesting and gave opportunity for character development – whether that be through revelling in victory, or a hardening of resolve in defeat.

           Almost reminds me of… a railroad.

You have your Main Line: the express route. Full steam ahead down the easiest track from A to B. Everything unfolds just as you planned; the characters behave like archetypal heroes with one goal in mind and the campaign unfolds like a slick action movie. Nothing wrong with that, it’s perfectly fun and rewarding. This is often how some of the more heavily time-depended modules are written.

When time is less of a pressure, you might take your players to a junction or the “points” as we call them here. An opportunity presents itself to switch to another narrative track, taking a different direction to the main plot and exploring something new. No matter how many places you visit on that journey, the route you took still links back up to the main line: the over-arching plot.

Maybe your players take it upon themselves to go in a direction you hadn’t anticipated and explore a branch line. You weren’t as prepared for this, so the track might be a little bit wandering and there might not be quite so many significant things down there, but it’s a nice way to explore the fictional world you have created none the less. Not every bit of the adventure needs to be full pace towards a climatic confrontation.

Some sessions might feel more like a shunting yard. You’ve laced the story with plot hooks that seem obvious to you, but it’s taking the players a while to figure out what it is you want them to do – if indeed you have any specific plans at all. They might deliberate backwards and forwards for a while, exploring smaller avenues of adventure in the hopes that something will fall into place and open up the main line that’s laid ready for them.

Dead ends are a thing. Literally. And I don’t mean making characters just die because you don’t like them.

          “Railroading” your players into failure can make them feel like you are just mean-spirited or don’t want them to have freedom to try. Equally, don’t try too hard to save them from themselves. If they know the stakes and take risks that might prove fatal for their characters, LET THEM. It’s their story as much as yours and if they are willing to put their characters’ lives on the line for their own reasons, LET THEM. Should they put all their effort into hurtling down the tracks towards a set of buffers, try to minimize damage without some contrived deus ex machina that saves them all at the last minute. Unless it makes sense for that to happen and even then, don’t do this more than once. They can always roll a new character if one of them dies or if the whole party is killed… Then that’s an awesome story!

           You and your friends created a world in which to play, characters who brought it to life and who, in the end, chose to risk everything for something bigger than themselves. That’s Epic. The lovingly-detailed world they never got to see doesn’t disappear: it’s still yours and always will be, waiting for the next generation of adventurers to unlock its secrets and plots.

           I think it’s time we gave the “railroad” analogy a new lease of life and a better definition. A length of straight track isn’t a proper railroad – it doesn’t have branches or diversions, tunnels or junctions, sidings or stations.

           As GM’s we are ALWAYS railroading the players. No matter where it is that their adventures take them, whatever choices they make. There should always be options for different routes that connect back to a familiar narrative – however that takes its shape.

[bffhreprise]

Entry 318

 ”Maxine, why are you doing this?” questioned James in an annoyed tone.

 How did he know I was in the suit?  After all of my efforts creating a fictitious background for Marvelous Max, I couldn’t conceive of how someone had found my true identity.  Was this just a strangely lucky guess?  “I am Marvelous Max, and I’m here to rescue you.  Who is this… Maxine?” I questioned, hoping to throw him off.

 “Rescue me?  From what?” he asked, still sounding annoyed.

 “You have been deceived, James Michael Somerset III.  Your fiancée isn’t what she seems.  She isn’t even human.” I explained, uncertain how much of the truth he could handle.

 “She might incinerate you for making accusations like that.” he replied wryly.  “I know who Alma is, probably better than you do.”

 “I see.” I claimed, though I obviously didn’t, and not just meaning that I’m blind without my equipment.  If James knew about what she was, why would he be marrying her?  Had she used some spell on him to alter his perceptions of her?

 After being quiet for a time, he asked “Is that all you had against her?  If so, please place this thing somewhere near the city.”

 “Are you aware of the types of business dealing your fiancée has?” I asked him, knowing there were probably numerous dirty dealings I hadn’t discovered yet.

 “She’s cutthroat to say the least.  Did you know she tried buying out my own father’s business?” he inquired conversationally.

 “No, but I was aware of your acquisition.  Your fiancée is a very dangerous woman who associates with other dangerous people.  You’re not safe around her.” I warned, certain he couldn’t know of the Slayers and still want to marry her.  James was a wonderful person to his core.  He deserved better.

 “Then if I prove capable of defending myself, you’ll stop with this absurd heroic pretense and leave?” he asked, sounding all too hopeful.

 I cut off the voice morpher, feeling he seemed quite certain of my identity, and said, “James, are you really so determined to be rid of me?”

 “Maxine, I believe you mean well, but I’m going to marry Alma.  Nothing’s going to prevent me from marrying her.” he insisted.  “On another note, you really should consider changing your methods.  Calamity is very against your methods, seeing you as her nemesis.  Kidnapping me isn’t going to sit well with her.”

 “My methods?  I only ever do what is necessary, James.  What I’m doing will save the world in the long run.  What does she do?  Stop petty crimes?” I argued, feeling annoyed that he was taking that buffoon’s side.  What was Calamity going to do against me?  Punch me to bits?  My mind unfortunately went to that strange spear that had easily cut off part of my suit.

 “She’s bagged drug lords too.” added James, sounding amused.

 I sighed and explained “Drugs will always be supplied.  She’s stopped nothing.  James, I’m trying to save the entire world.  Alma’s family and their associates are the ones really behind the terrible things in this world.  They manipulate governments, control the businesses, and strip every last freedom from anyone who’s not one of them.”  If he could only understand the good I was accomplishing, he’d surely see the light.  Perhaps he’d at least look over my accomplishments when we arrived.

 “You’re also helping them in various nefarious activities from what I’ve heard.  Mila has quite an extensive file on you.” he claimed, sounding serious in his rebuke.

 “They can’t be beaten from the outside.  I needed to get into their network to stop them.  I’m getting closer to stopping them.  You’ll see.” I assured him, though I knew I wasn’t nearly close enough yet.  Saving the world couldn’t be done in a day.

 “No, I won’t.  Maxine, you can’t win.  Do you really think Alma would take issue with destroying your suit while you’re in it if she heard what you told me?  She probably would, honestly.  She’s actually one of the nice ones.  You’ll just get yourself killed if the others tire of you.” he insisted.

The idea of him being concerned for my health delighted me.  Perhaps there was still hope for him yet.  “They can’t kill me, and I can protect you.”

 “Why do you say you can’t be killed?” he questioned, sounding perfectly interested.

 “The same way that Calamity can’t.  I was very surprised by her.  How is it that you know her?” I asked, baiting him.

 “We’ve spoken numerous times.  She did save me from you, remember?” he teased.

 “You weren’t in any danger from me, and she hardly knew how to fight at the time.  I could have captured her easily.” I argued, knowing she had improved by leaps and bounds since our first encounter.  Then I pointedly said, “I doubt she checks on everyone she ‘saves’.”

 “She saved some of my family from some of Alma’s, so I’ve been grateful to her.” he happily replied.  “Well, thank you for the chat, but I see we’re outside of the city.  I’ll be leaving now.”

 I wasn’t certain what he planned on trying, but I didn’t want him hurting himself.  Initiating the protocol for the self-hardening foam, I explained “I built this unit to capture Calamity, James.  I didn’t want to immobilize you, but I can’t have you hurting yourself by attempting to escape.”  The software would have measured his mass and released the correct amount to reach his shoulders.  He’d be able to breathe.

 Laughing, he said, “Thank you for the consideration, Maxine.  Goodbye.”

 An alarm sounded, and I was supplied a vision of the breech.  How?  An explosive force capable of making the hole would’ve killed him, and he obviously hadn’t cut it.  More importantly, he was falling now!  I dove after him and started planning on how to get him to my home safely now that the container was damaged.

 Wind suddenly buffeted my suit as I dived at him, and James accelerated toward the ground.    Impossible!.  When had James learned magic?  How!?  Was he descended from something magical?  Noticing him suddenly slow near the ground, my thoughts were confirmed.  He really could use magic, and with remarkable proficiency.  Camila, the best magic user in my service, couldn’t have managed any of this.

 I reached to catch him, though I doubted he’d land hard now.  Suddenly, he grabbed the hand, flipping his legs toward my suit, and ripped the hand off!  How!?  Part of my mind instantly started trying to calculate the force needed, given how I reinforced the steel.  The crash brought me back to the moment as my exposed hand was mangled by a branch that came through the opening.  The offending branch was destroyed as my body healed itself in a small flash of light, and I did a quick damage assessment.

 James easily jumped a hundred feet, landing lightly by me.  “Sorry.  I imagine you can still fly, since this isn’t the first time your machine lost a hand.”

 “This is a new model, so the take off won’t be as shaky.” I explained, hoping he wasn’t going to rip anything else off.  “What are you?”

 “I’m just a guy trying to help people through my business.” he told me with a friendly smile.  He certainly looked human… an extremely handsome one.

 “‘Just a guy’ wouldn’t be able to rip apart my machine with his bare hands.  Are you like Alma?  Part of that family?” I questioned as I pushed my suit to stand.

 “No, not even distantly.  You’d find me remarkably human if you checked my DNA.” he insisted.  “I trust you’ll take my word that I’m in no danger now.”

 “No, I won’t.  That family is only part of the problem, James.  I’ve heard rumors of beings that are even stronger.” I told him, knowing there were things even the Slayer family feared.

 “The eldest vampires?  They’re attending my wedding.  Or do you mean Death?  She’s a friend as well.” he replied in amusement.

 “You’re messing with me.  Why?  Can’t you see that I care about you?  I could be so much more helpful to you than Lady Pendreigh.” I insisted, certain such outlandish claims couldn’t be possible.

 “No, you really couldn’t.  I’m in love with her, Maxine.  I’m going to marry her.  You can’t stop this and really shouldn’t try.  If you make a scene at my wedding, you’ll make far too many enemies.  The eldest of the vampires really will be there.  I imagine Adelmar will be attending as well.  Though she might not be seen, I’m confident that Death will be watching.  I know that you and Calamity feel invincible with your healing, but don’t push Death.  She earned her name.  If you don’t believe me, ask your contacts in Alma’s family.  They’ll certainly tell you to stay away.” he earnestly replied.

 Catching Calamity’s approach, I engaged my thrusters, knowing I didn’t have time to respond.  James wasn’t even moved by the blast.  He stood calmly as if enjoying the breeze.

 “James!  Grab her!” called Calamity.  She knew he could!

 Not willing to find out more about their relationship at the moment, I hurried away.  I needed a new plan if I was to save James.  Assuming he was speaking the truth, crashing the wedding would be virtually impossible.  I didn’t have time to plan an attack, design an army, and…  I couldn’t even conceive what I’d need to build against such a group.  James by himself would need a vastly tougher machine to restrain him if he resisted.  Adelmar Slayer would be at least as strong, and Alma’s rumored to be Adelmar’s equal, despite being younger and of slightly different blood.  Could something be built to fight the eldest vampires?  Then there was Death…

 My heart sunk as I considered that I might have to write James off as an enemy.  If I couldn’t stop him from marrying into that family, they would never let him go, at least not while he was still alive.  I didn’t want to fight James…

[strivesy]

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Metaverse is a powerful augmented reality (AR) programming app for classrooms. I first wrote about this app in December 2017 shortly after launch. Metaverse has come a long way and is specifically focused on becoming an amazing AR app for classrooms with the new Collections feature. In this blog post, I’ll share the vocabulary I use for teaching programming, how I teach with Metaverse, and some new features that help us manage our classroom as students program in AR and share with each other.

This blog post is sponsored by Metaverse. All opinions are my own.

What Is Metaverse?

Metaverse is a free augmented reality app where teachers and students can create unlimited experiences. Using Metaverse, my students have created fun quiz games, trivia experiences, and even an AR tour of our school.  I use Metaverse even before I start teaching programming with Scratch. This is because Metaverse is simple and easy to use.

Getting Started in Metaverse:

Use this Metaverse Studio tour video to get started whenever you’re ready.

If you want a longer teacher PD session, Luis recorded a Metaverse PD Webinar 2 weeks ago.

The Metaverse YouTube channel is full of tutorials that you can send your students to get them started.

A student can go into Metaverse and make an experience in just a few minutes. Then, in the top right-hand corner, they can click to “share” their experience. They’ll see that first screen Immediately on their phone or tablet. Granted, it isn’t really a program yet, as the experience isn’t doing anything, but just realizing that they’ve put a character into the experience gets students excited. The instant feedback, ability to create multiple paths (or branches), embed videos, 3D characters, websites, and even 360 experiences make this tool immediately interactive and usable for students.

As you can see in the graphic below, each screen has possible “scenes” that you can add. They’ve already loaded objects that you can add to scenes, including pop culture and common objects needed in educational topics.

A Few Programming and Design Concepts That I Teach With Metaverse

Remember that Metaverse requires NO coding at all. It is simply an object-oriented drag-and-drop tool. No coding required.

That said, I want my students to end up coding. Metaverse engages them within minutes, allowing me to start teaching them some basic programming concepts. I’ve bolded the vocabulary for those of you who are teaching programming or basic coding. These terms, I believe, should be introduced through a simple-to-use tool like Metaverse. That way, when my students are ready for full app making, they understand the concepts and terminology that they’ll need on a larger scale.

For example, I start with a simple, one-day, “make something fun” experience in Metaverse. However, for the second project, I encourage students to make a major step up toward creating something to perform like an app that a user can interact with. With this in mind, I want my students to be familiar with terminology, and here are some examples.

UX, Alpha Testing, Beta Testing

UX stands for “user experience.” When student teams are alpha testing the app, I have them watch each other and notice how another person uses the app, which can help them make changes. (We also learn beta testing, which is what happens when a person NOT on their team tests the app.)

Onboarding and Cascading Information Theory

I also teach the concept of onboarding, which means what happens as you bring a new user into an app. Just like when entering a video game for the first time, a user doesn’t always need all of the information at once. This is called cascading information theory, which says that information should be given in “the minimum possible snippets for understanding each point during a game narrative.”

Friction, Error Prevention, and UX

Secondly, I want students to consider how users will end their experience. For example, when designing an app or game, error prevention is a basic part of making it usable. In website design, friction isn’t really a good thing — it’s an element of operation that impedes or prevents a user from doing what they want to do. However, when someone is using an app and is about to exit or do something irreversible, adding friction to the user interface design helps prevent errors. For example, Microsoft is using friction when MS Word asks if you really want to exit the program without saving changes. The purpose is to keep you from making an error and not saving your work.

Here’s an example of friction in Metaverse. If a button or screen isn’t linked to another, the user will see a red exclamation point and the experience will end. If an experience ends, then the user might have to start over at the beginning, something that most people don’t want to happen. Additionally, if the user doesn’t expect the experience to end, they’ll believe the app has “crashed” even if it was an intentional ending. I find that the ending of an experience is an ideal place to talk about UX, friction, and error prevention. So one of the first things I have students design is an ending screen that will ask users if they really want to leave the experience or go back to a certain point in the app. Then, if students are building out a large experience, instead of the red exclamation points, they can send users to the “error prevention” screen to keep them from leaving the app unintentionally.

UI, UI Design, and Consistency

UI stands for “User Interface.” Thus, UI design is designing the user interface. One essential element of UI design is consistency. The user wants certain elements look and behave in the same way. For example, I remind students about the “case” of words in this case. Typically “title case” is the best for buttons and titles, but sometimes when a character is talking they might want to go to “sentence case.” These types of decisions have to be made at the beginning as they are discussing UI.

Ideation and Planning

The top student mistake in a larger build is starting without first ideating, or generating ideas, for their app or experience. Then, after they ideate, they have to plan what will be in the experience. I like to use Kanban Boards and Agile Software Development principles (something outside the scope of this article). Without project management tools, students will waste time and not complete the task.

There are many more terminologies that I teach with Metaverse, but these are just some that we use at the beginning of the process. I’ve included them on the image below as a quick reference.

Collections: An Awesome Solution to Classroom Management in Metaverse

As I see it, Collections solves two basic problems of teaching in Metaverse. The first problem is that of linking the students in the class together to see one another’s apps for testing and feedback. In the past, students had to make screenshots of their code and print them to easily test one another’s experiences and share best practices for their apps. This problem has been eliminated with the new “Collections” feature.

The second challenge was that I sometimes wanted to help students on their app or dig into their setup to help troubleshoot a problem. This problem has also been solved because I can go directly into their code using the Collections feature.

While experience creation is free and unlimited for students and teachers, if you want to try Collections, sign up with the code #ARinEDU to try it free now. Go to https://studio.gometa.io/teachers to get started. If you like Collections, you can keep it for $7/month after the trial is over.

Metaverse remains an engaging and powerful augmented reality programming tool for your classroom. Compatible with devices of all kinds, students can also build on a variety of devices, and Collections gives you a teacher’s-eye view of everything happening in all of your student experiences. I hope you’ll try this one out!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

e

The post How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features published first on https://medium.com/@seminarsacademy

[growthvue]

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Metaverse is a powerful augmented reality (AR) programming app for classrooms. I first wrote about this app in December 2017 shortly after launch. Metaverse has come a long way and is specifically focused on becoming an amazing AR app for classrooms with the new Collections feature. In this blog post, I’ll share the vocabulary I use for teaching programming, how I teach with Metaverse, and some new features that help us manage our classroom as students program in AR and share with each other.

This blog post is sponsored by Metaverse. All opinions are my own.

What Is Metaverse?

Metaverse is a free augmented reality app where teachers and students can create unlimited experiences. Using Metaverse, my students have created fun quiz games, trivia experiences, and even an AR tour of our school.  I use Metaverse even before I start teaching programming with Scratch. This is because Metaverse is simple and easy to use.

Getting Started in Metaverse:

Use this Metaverse Studio tour video to get started whenever you’re ready.

If you want a longer teacher PD session, Luis recorded a Metaverse PD Webinar 2 weeks ago.

The Metaverse YouTube channel is full of tutorials that you can send your students to get them started.

A student can go into Metaverse and make an experience in just a few minutes. Then, in the top right-hand corner, they can click to “share” their experience. They’ll see that first screen Immediately on their phone or tablet. Granted, it isn’t really a program yet, as the experience isn’t doing anything, but just realizing that they’ve put a character into the experience gets students excited. The instant feedback, ability to create multiple paths (or branches), embed videos, 3D characters, websites, and even 360 experiences make this tool immediately interactive and usable for students.

As you can see in the graphic below, each screen has possible “scenes” that you can add. They’ve already loaded objects that you can add to scenes, including pop culture and common objects needed in educational topics.

A Few Programming and Design Concepts That I Teach With Metaverse

Remember that Metaverse requires NO coding at all. It is simply an object-oriented drag-and-drop tool. No coding required.

That said, I want my students to end up coding. Metaverse engages them within minutes, allowing me to start teaching them some basic programming concepts. I’ve bolded the vocabulary for those of you who are teaching programming or basic coding. These terms, I believe, should be introduced through a simple-to-use tool like Metaverse. That way, when my students are ready for full app making, they understand the concepts and terminology that they’ll need on a larger scale.

For example, I start with a simple, one-day, “make something fun” experience in Metaverse. However, for the second project, I encourage students to make a major step up toward creating something to perform like an app that a user can interact with. With this in mind, I want my students to be familiar with terminology, and here are some examples.

UX, Alpha Testing, Beta Testing

UX stands for “user experience.” When student teams are alpha testing the app, I have them watch each other and notice how another person uses the app, which can help them make changes. (We also learn beta testing, which is what happens when a person NOT on their team tests the app.)

Onboarding and Cascading Information Theory

I also teach the concept of onboarding, which means what happens as you bring a new user into an app. Just like when entering a video game for the first time, a user doesn’t always need all of the information at once. This is called cascading information theory, which says that information should be given in “the minimum possible snippets for understanding each point during a game narrative.”

Friction, Error Prevention, and UX

Secondly, I want students to consider how users will end their experience. For example, when designing an app or game, error prevention is a basic part of making it usable. In website design, friction isn’t really a good thing — it’s an element of operation that impedes or prevents a user from doing what they want to do. However, when someone is using an app and is about to exit or do something irreversible, adding friction to the user interface design helps prevent errors. For example, Microsoft is using friction when MS Word asks if you really want to exit the program without saving changes. The purpose is to keep you from making an error and not saving your work.

Here’s an example of friction in Metaverse. If a button or screen isn’t linked to another, the user will see a red exclamation point and the experience will end. If an experience ends, then the user might have to start over at the beginning, something that most people don’t want to happen. Additionally, if the user doesn’t expect the experience to end, they’ll believe the app has “crashed” even if it was an intentional ending. I find that the ending of an experience is an ideal place to talk about UX, friction, and error prevention. So one of the first things I have students design is an ending screen that will ask users if they really want to leave the experience or go back to a certain point in the app. Then, if students are building out a large experience, instead of the red exclamation points, they can send users to the “error prevention” screen to keep them from leaving the app unintentionally.

UI, UI Design, and Consistency

UI stands for “User Interface.” Thus, UI design is designing the user interface. One essential element of UI design is consistency. The user wants certain elements look and behave in the same way. For example, I remind students about the “case” of words in this case. Typically “title case” is the best for buttons and titles, but sometimes when a character is talking they might want to go to “sentence case.” These types of decisions have to be made at the beginning as they are discussing UI.

Ideation and Planning

The top student mistake in a larger build is starting without first ideating, or generating ideas, for their app or experience. Then, after they ideate, they have to plan what will be in the experience. I like to use Kanban Boards and Agile Software Development principles (something outside the scope of this article). Without project management tools, students will waste time and not complete the task.

There are many more terminologies that I teach with Metaverse, but these are just some that we use at the beginning of the process. I’ve included them on the image below as a quick reference.

Collections: An Awesome Solution to Classroom Management in Metaverse

As I see it, Collections solves two basic problems of teaching in Metaverse. The first problem is that of linking the students in the class together to see one another’s apps for testing and feedback. In the past, students had to make screenshots of their code and print them to easily test one another’s experiences and share best practices for their apps. This problem has been eliminated with the new “Collections” feature.

The second challenge was that I sometimes wanted to help students on their app or dig into their setup to help troubleshoot a problem. This problem has also been solved because I can go directly into their code using the Collections feature.

While experience creation is free and unlimited for students and teachers, if you want to try Collections, sign up with the code #ARinEDU to try it free now. Go to https://studio.gometa.io/teachers to get started. If you like Collections, you can keep it for $7/month after the trial is over.

Metaverse remains an engaging and powerful augmented reality programming tool for your classroom. Compatible with devices of all kinds, students can also build on a variety of devices, and Collections gives you a teacher’s-eye view of everything happening in all of your student experiences. I hope you’ll try this one out!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

e

The post How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features published first on https://getnewdlbusiness.tumblr.com/

[succeedly]

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Metaverse is a powerful augmented reality (AR) programming app for classrooms. I first wrote about this app in December 2017 shortly after launch. Metaverse has come a long way and is specifically focused on becoming an amazing AR app for classrooms with the new Collections feature. In this blog post, I’ll share the vocabulary I use for teaching programming, how I teach with Metaverse, and some new features that help us manage our classroom as students program in AR and share with each other.

This blog post is sponsored by Metaverse. All opinions are my own.

What Is Metaverse?

Metaverse is a free augmented reality app where teachers and students can create unlimited experiences. Using Metaverse, my students have created fun quiz games, trivia experiences, and even an AR tour of our school.  I use Metaverse even before I start teaching programming with Scratch. This is because Metaverse is simple and easy to use.

Getting Started in Metaverse:

Use this Metaverse Studio tour video to get started whenever you’re ready.

If you want a longer teacher PD session, Luis recorded a Metaverse PD Webinar 2 weeks ago.

The Metaverse YouTube channel is full of tutorials that you can send your students to get them started.

A student can go into Metaverse and make an experience in just a few minutes. Then, in the top right-hand corner, they can click to “share” their experience. They’ll see that first screen Immediately on their phone or tablet. Granted, it isn’t really a program yet, as the experience isn’t doing anything, but just realizing that they’ve put a character into the experience gets students excited. The instant feedback, ability to create multiple paths (or branches), embed videos, 3D characters, websites, and even 360 experiences make this tool immediately interactive and usable for students.

As you can see in the graphic below, each screen has possible “scenes” that you can add. They’ve already loaded objects that you can add to scenes, including pop culture and common objects needed in educational topics.

A Few Programming and Design Concepts That I Teach With Metaverse

Remember that Metaverse requires NO coding at all. It is simply an object-oriented drag-and-drop tool. No coding required.

That said, I want my students to end up coding. Metaverse engages them within minutes, allowing me to start teaching them some basic programming concepts. I’ve bolded the vocabulary for those of you who are teaching programming or basic coding. These terms, I believe, should be introduced through a simple-to-use tool like Metaverse. That way, when my students are ready for full app making, they understand the concepts and terminology that they’ll need on a larger scale.

For example, I start with a simple, one-day, “make something fun” experience in Metaverse. However, for the second project, I encourage students to make a major step up toward creating something to perform like an app that a user can interact with. With this in mind, I want my students to be familiar with terminology, and here are some examples.

UX, Alpha Testing, Beta Testing

UX stands for “user experience.” When student teams are alpha testing the app, I have them watch each other and notice how another person uses the app, which can help them make changes. (We also learn beta testing, which is what happens when a person NOT on their team tests the app.)

Onboarding and Cascading Information Theory

I also teach the concept of onboarding, which means what happens as you bring a new user into an app. Just like when entering a video game for the first time, a user doesn’t always need all of the information at once. This is called cascading information theory, which says that information should be given in “the minimum possible snippets for understanding each point during a game narrative.”

Friction, Error Prevention, and UX

Secondly, I want students to consider how users will end their experience. For example, when designing an app or game, error prevention is a basic part of making it usable. In website design, friction isn’t really a good thing — it’s an element of operation that impedes or prevents a user from doing what they want to do. However, when someone is using an app and is about to exit or do something irreversible, adding friction to the user interface design helps prevent errors. For example, Microsoft is using friction when MS Word asks if you really want to exit the program without saving changes. The purpose is to keep you from making an error and not saving your work.

Here’s an example of friction in Metaverse. If a button or screen isn’t linked to another, the user will see a red exclamation point and the experience will end. If an experience ends, then the user might have to start over at the beginning, something that most people don’t want to happen. Additionally, if the user doesn’t expect the experience to end, they’ll believe the app has “crashed” even if it was an intentional ending. I find that the ending of an experience is an ideal place to talk about UX, friction, and error prevention. So one of the first things I have students design is an ending screen that will ask users if they really want to leave the experience or go back to a certain point in the app. Then, if students are building out a large experience, instead of the red exclamation points, they can send users to the “error prevention” screen to keep them from leaving the app unintentionally.

UI, UI Design, and Consistency

UI stands for “User Interface.” Thus, UI design is designing the user interface. One essential element of UI design is consistency. The user wants certain elements look and behave in the same way. For example, I remind students about the “case” of words in this case. Typically “title case” is the best for buttons and titles, but sometimes when a character is talking they might want to go to “sentence case.” These types of decisions have to be made at the beginning as they are discussing UI.

Ideation and Planning

The top student mistake in a larger build is starting without first ideating, or generating ideas, for their app or experience. Then, after they ideate, they have to plan what will be in the experience. I like to use Kanban Boards and Agile Software Development principles (something outside the scope of this article). Without project management tools, students will waste time and not complete the task.

There are many more terminologies that I teach with Metaverse, but these are just some that we use at the beginning of the process. I’ve included them on the image below as a quick reference.

Collections: An Awesome Solution to Classroom Management in Metaverse

As I see it, Collections solves two basic problems of teaching in Metaverse. The first problem is that of linking the students in the class together to see one another’s apps for testing and feedback. In the past, students had to make screenshots of their code and print them to easily test one another’s experiences and share best practices for their apps. This problem has been eliminated with the new “Collections” feature.

The second challenge was that I sometimes wanted to help students on their app or dig into their setup to help troubleshoot a problem. This problem has also been solved because I can go directly into their code using the Collections feature.

While experience creation is free and unlimited for students and teachers, if you want to try Collections, sign up with the code #ARinEDU to try it free now. Go to https://studio.gometa.io/teachers to get started. If you like Collections, you can keep it for $7/month after the trial is over.

Metaverse remains an engaging and powerful augmented reality programming tool for your classroom. Compatible with devices of all kinds, students can also build on a variety of devices, and Collections gives you a teacher’s-eye view of everything happening in all of your student experiences. I hope you’ll try this one out!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

e

The post How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features published first on https://getnewcourse.tumblr.com/

[athena29stone]

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Metaverse is a powerful augmented reality (AR) programming app for classrooms. I first wrote about this app in December 2017 shortly after launch. Metaverse has come a long way and is specifically focused on becoming an amazing AR app for classrooms with the new Collections feature. In this blog post, I’ll share the vocabulary I use for teaching programming, how I teach with Metaverse, and some new features that help us manage our classroom as students program in AR and share with each other.

This blog post is sponsored by Metaverse. All opinions are my own.

What Is Metaverse?

Metaverse is a free augmented reality app where teachers and students can create unlimited experiences. Using Metaverse, my students have created fun quiz games, trivia experiences, and even an AR tour of our school.  I use Metaverse even before I start teaching programming with Scratch. This is because Metaverse is simple and easy to use.

Getting Started in Metaverse:

Use this Metaverse Studio tour video to get started whenever you’re ready.

If you want a longer teacher PD session, Luis recorded a Metaverse PD Webinar 2 weeks ago.

The Metaverse YouTube channel is full of tutorials that you can send your students to get them started.

A student can go into Metaverse and make an experience in just a few minutes. Then, in the top right-hand corner, they can click to “share” their experience. They’ll see that first screen Immediately on their phone or tablet. Granted, it isn’t really a program yet, as the experience isn’t doing anything, but just realizing that they’ve put a character into the experience gets students excited. The instant feedback, ability to create multiple paths (or branches), embed videos, 3D characters, websites, and even 360 experiences make this tool immediately interactive and usable for students.

As you can see in the graphic below, each screen has possible “scenes” that you can add. They’ve already loaded objects that you can add to scenes, including pop culture and common objects needed in educational topics.

A Few Programming and Design Concepts That I Teach With Metaverse

Remember that Metaverse requires NO coding at all. It is simply an object-oriented drag-and-drop tool. No coding required.

That said, I want my students to end up coding. Metaverse engages them within minutes, allowing me to start teaching them some basic programming concepts. I’ve bolded the vocabulary for those of you who are teaching programming or basic coding. These terms, I believe, should be introduced through a simple-to-use tool like Metaverse. That way, when my students are ready for full app making, they understand the concepts and terminology that they’ll need on a larger scale.

For example, I start with a simple, one-day, “make something fun” experience in Metaverse. However, for the second project, I encourage students to make a major step up toward creating something to perform like an app that a user can interact with. With this in mind, I want my students to be familiar with terminology, and here are some examples.

UX, Alpha Testing, Beta Testing

UX stands for “user experience.” When student teams are alpha testing the app, I have them watch each other and notice how another person uses the app, which can help them make changes. (We also learn beta testing, which is what happens when a person NOT on their team tests the app.)

Onboarding and Cascading Information Theory

I also teach the concept of onboarding, which means what happens as you bring a new user into an app. Just like when entering a video game for the first time, a user doesn’t always need all of the information at once. This is called cascading information theory, which says that information should be given in “the minimum possible snippets for understanding each point during a game narrative.”

Friction, Error Prevention, and UX

Secondly, I want students to consider how users will end their experience. For example, when designing an app or game, error prevention is a basic part of making it usable. In website design, friction isn’t really a good thing — it’s an element of operation that impedes or prevents a user from doing what they want to do. However, when someone is using an app and is about to exit or do something irreversible, adding friction to the user interface design helps prevent errors. For example, Microsoft is using friction when MS Word asks if you really want to exit the program without saving changes. The purpose is to keep you from making an error and not saving your work.

Here’s an example of friction in Metaverse. If a button or screen isn’t linked to another, the user will see a red exclamation point and the experience will end. If an experience ends, then the user might have to start over at the beginning, something that most people don’t want to happen. Additionally, if the user doesn’t expect the experience to end, they’ll believe the app has “crashed” even if it was an intentional ending. I find that the ending of an experience is an ideal place to talk about UX, friction, and error prevention. So one of the first things I have students design is an ending screen that will ask users if they really want to leave the experience or go back to a certain point in the app. Then, if students are building out a large experience, instead of the red exclamation points, they can send users to the “error prevention” screen to keep them from leaving the app unintentionally.

UI, UI Design, and Consistency

UI stands for “User Interface.” Thus, UI design is designing the user interface. One essential element of UI design is consistency. The user wants certain elements look and behave in the same way. For example, I remind students about the “case” of words in this case. Typically “title case” is the best for buttons and titles, but sometimes when a character is talking they might want to go to “sentence case.” These types of decisions have to be made at the beginning as they are discussing UI.

Ideation and Planning

The top student mistake in a larger build is starting without first ideating, or generating ideas, for their app or experience. Then, after they ideate, they have to plan what will be in the experience. I like to use Kanban Boards and Agile Software Development principles (something outside the scope of this article). Without project management tools, students will waste time and not complete the task.

There are many more terminologies that I teach with Metaverse, but these are just some that we use at the beginning of the process. I’ve included them on the image below as a quick reference.

Collections: An Awesome Solution to Classroom Management in Metaverse

As I see it, Collections solves two basic problems of teaching in Metaverse. The first problem is that of linking the students in the class together to see one another’s apps for testing and feedback. In the past, students had to make screenshots of their code and print them to easily test one another’s experiences and share best practices for their apps. This problem has been eliminated with the new “Collections” feature.

The second challenge was that I sometimes wanted to help students on their app or dig into their setup to help troubleshoot a problem. This problem has also been solved because I can go directly into their code using the Collections feature.

While experience creation is free and unlimited for students and teachers, if you want to try Collections, sign up with the code #ARinEDU to try it free now. Go to https://studio.gometa.io/teachers to get started. If you like Collections, you can keep it for $7/month after the trial is over.

Metaverse remains an engaging and powerful augmented reality programming tool for your classroom. Compatible with devices of all kinds, students can also build on a variety of devices, and Collections gives you a teacher’s-eye view of everything happening in all of your student experiences. I hope you’ll try this one out!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

e

The post How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog https://www.coolcatteacher.com/how-to-use-metaverse-awesome-augmented-reality-and-new-features/

[ralph31ortiz]

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Metaverse is a powerful augmented reality (AR) programming app for classrooms. I first wrote about this app in December 2017 shortly after launch. Metaverse has come a long way and is specifically focused on becoming an amazing AR app for classrooms with the new Collections feature. In this blog post, I’ll share the vocabulary I use for teaching programming, how I teach with Metaverse, and some new features that help us manage our classroom as students program in AR and share with each other.

This blog post is sponsored by Metaverse. All opinions are my own.

What Is Metaverse?

Metaverse is a free augmented reality app where teachers and students can create unlimited experiences. Using Metaverse, my students have created fun quiz games, trivia experiences, and even an AR tour of our school.  I use Metaverse even before I start teaching programming with Scratch. This is because Metaverse is simple and easy to use.

Getting Started in Metaverse:

Use this Metaverse Studio tour video to get started whenever you’re ready.

If you want a longer teacher PD session, Luis recorded a Metaverse PD Webinar 2 weeks ago.

The Metaverse YouTube channel is full of tutorials that you can send your students to get them started.

A student can go into Metaverse and make an experience in just a few minutes. Then, in the top right-hand corner, they can click to “share” their experience. They’ll see that first screen Immediately on their phone or tablet. Granted, it isn’t really a program yet, as the experience isn’t doing anything, but just realizing that they’ve put a character into the experience gets students excited. The instant feedback, ability to create multiple paths (or branches), embed videos, 3D characters, websites, and even 360 experiences make this tool immediately interactive and usable for students.

As you can see in the graphic below, each screen has possible “scenes” that you can add. They’ve already loaded objects that you can add to scenes, including pop culture and common objects needed in educational topics.

A Few Programming and Design Concepts That I Teach With Metaverse

Remember that Metaverse requires NO coding at all. It is simply an object-oriented drag-and-drop tool. No coding required.

That said, I want my students to end up coding. Metaverse engages them within minutes, allowing me to start teaching them some basic programming concepts. I’ve bolded the vocabulary for those of you who are teaching programming or basic coding. These terms, I believe, should be introduced through a simple-to-use tool like Metaverse. That way, when my students are ready for full app making, they understand the concepts and terminology that they’ll need on a larger scale.

For example, I start with a simple, one-day, “make something fun” experience in Metaverse. However, for the second project, I encourage students to make a major step up toward creating something to perform like an app that a user can interact with. With this in mind, I want my students to be familiar with terminology, and here are some examples.

UX, Alpha Testing, Beta Testing

UX stands for “user experience.” When student teams are alpha testing the app, I have them watch each other and notice how another person uses the app, which can help them make changes. (We also learn beta testing, which is what happens when a person NOT on their team tests the app.)

Onboarding and Cascading Information Theory

I also teach the concept of onboarding, which means what happens as you bring a new user into an app. Just like when entering a video game for the first time, a user doesn’t always need all of the information at once. This is called cascading information theory, which says that information should be given in “the minimum possible snippets for understanding each point during a game narrative.”

Friction, Error Prevention, and UX

Secondly, I want students to consider how users will end their experience. For example, when designing an app or game, error prevention is a basic part of making it usable. In website design, friction isn’t really a good thing — it’s an element of operation that impedes or prevents a user from doing what they want to do. However, when someone is using an app and is about to exit or do something irreversible, adding friction to the user interface design helps prevent errors. For example, Microsoft is using friction when MS Word asks if you really want to exit the program without saving changes. The purpose is to keep you from making an error and not saving your work.

Here’s an example of friction in Metaverse. If a button or screen isn’t linked to another, the user will see a red exclamation point and the experience will end. If an experience ends, then the user might have to start over at the beginning, something that most people don’t want to happen. Additionally, if the user doesn’t expect the experience to end, they’ll believe the app has “crashed” even if it was an intentional ending. I find that the ending of an experience is an ideal place to talk about UX, friction, and error prevention. So one of the first things I have students design is an ending screen that will ask users if they really want to leave the experience or go back to a certain point in the app. Then, if students are building out a large experience, instead of the red exclamation points, they can send users to the “error prevention” screen to keep them from leaving the app unintentionally.

UI, UI Design, and Consistency

UI stands for “User Interface.” Thus, UI design is designing the user interface. One essential element of UI design is consistency. The user wants certain elements look and behave in the same way. For example, I remind students about the “case” of words in this case. Typically “title case” is the best for buttons and titles, but sometimes when a character is talking they might want to go to “sentence case.” These types of decisions have to be made at the beginning as they are discussing UI.

Ideation and Planning

The top student mistake in a larger build is starting without first ideating, or generating ideas, for their app or experience. Then, after they ideate, they have to plan what will be in the experience. I like to use Kanban Boards and Agile Software Development principles (something outside the scope of this article). Without project management tools, students will waste time and not complete the task.

There are many more terminologies that I teach with Metaverse, but these are just some that we use at the beginning of the process. I’ve included them on the image below as a quick reference.

Collections: An Awesome Solution to Classroom Management in Metaverse

As I see it, Collections solves two basic problems of teaching in Metaverse. The first problem is that of linking the students in the class together to see one another’s apps for testing and feedback. In the past, students had to make screenshots of their code and print them to easily test one another’s experiences and share best practices for their apps. This problem has been eliminated with the new “Collections” feature.

The second challenge was that I sometimes wanted to help students on their app or dig into their setup to help troubleshoot a problem. This problem has also been solved because I can go directly into their code using the Collections feature.

While experience creation is free and unlimited for students and teachers, if you want to try Collections, sign up with the code #ARinEDU to try it free now. Go to https://studio.gometa.io/teachers to get started. If you like Collections, you can keep it for $7/month after the trial is over.

Metaverse remains an engaging and powerful augmented reality programming tool for your classroom. Compatible with devices of all kinds, students can also build on a variety of devices, and Collections gives you a teacher’s-eye view of everything happening in all of your student experiences. I hope you’ll try this one out!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

e

The post How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog https://www.coolcatteacher.com/how-to-use-metaverse-awesome-augmented-reality-and-new-features/

[aira26soonas]

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Metaverse is a powerful augmented reality (AR) programming app for classrooms. I first wrote about this app in December 2017 shortly after launch. Metaverse has come a long way and is specifically focused on becoming an amazing AR app for classrooms with the new Collections feature. In this blog post, I’ll share the vocabulary I use for teaching programming, how I teach with Metaverse, and some new features that help us manage our classroom as students program in AR and share with each other.

This blog post is sponsored by Metaverse. All opinions are my own.

What Is Metaverse?

Metaverse is a free augmented reality app where teachers and students can create unlimited experiences. Using Metaverse, my students have created fun quiz games, trivia experiences, and even an AR tour of our school.  I use Metaverse even before I start teaching programming with Scratch. This is because Metaverse is simple and easy to use.

Getting Started in Metaverse:

Use this Metaverse Studio tour video to get started whenever you’re ready.

If you want a longer teacher PD session, Luis recorded a Metaverse PD Webinar 2 weeks ago.

The Metaverse YouTube channel is full of tutorials that you can send your students to get them started.

A student can go into Metaverse and make an experience in just a few minutes. Then, in the top right-hand corner, they can click to “share” their experience. They’ll see that first screen Immediately on their phone or tablet. Granted, it isn’t really a program yet, as the experience isn’t doing anything, but just realizing that they’ve put a character into the experience gets students excited. The instant feedback, ability to create multiple paths (or branches), embed videos, 3D characters, websites, and even 360 experiences make this tool immediately interactive and usable for students.

As you can see in the graphic below, each screen has possible “scenes” that you can add. They’ve already loaded objects that you can add to scenes, including pop culture and common objects needed in educational topics.

A Few Programming and Design Concepts That I Teach With Metaverse

Remember that Metaverse requires NO coding at all. It is simply an object-oriented drag-and-drop tool. No coding required.

That said, I want my students to end up coding. Metaverse engages them within minutes, allowing me to start teaching them some basic programming concepts. I’ve bolded the vocabulary for those of you who are teaching programming or basic coding. These terms, I believe, should be introduced through a simple-to-use tool like Metaverse. That way, when my students are ready for full app making, they understand the concepts and terminology that they’ll need on a larger scale.

For example, I start with a simple, one-day, “make something fun” experience in Metaverse. However, for the second project, I encourage students to make a major step up toward creating something to perform like an app that a user can interact with. With this in mind, I want my students to be familiar with terminology, and here are some examples.

UX, Alpha Testing, Beta Testing

UX stands for “user experience.” When student teams are alpha testing the app, I have them watch each other and notice how another person uses the app, which can help them make changes. (We also learn beta testing, which is what happens when a person NOT on their team tests the app.)

Onboarding and Cascading Information Theory

I also teach the concept of onboarding, which means what happens as you bring a new user into an app. Just like when entering a video game for the first time, a user doesn’t always need all of the information at once. This is called cascading information theory, which says that information should be given in “the minimum possible snippets for understanding each point during a game narrative.”

Friction, Error Prevention, and UX

Secondly, I want students to consider how users will end their experience. For example, when designing an app or game, error prevention is a basic part of making it usable. In website design, friction isn’t really a good thing — it’s an element of operation that impedes or prevents a user from doing what they want to do. However, when someone is using an app and is about to exit or do something irreversible, adding friction to the user interface design helps prevent errors. For example, Microsoft is using friction when MS Word asks if you really want to exit the program without saving changes. The purpose is to keep you from making an error and not saving your work.

Here’s an example of friction in Metaverse. If a button or screen isn’t linked to another, the user will see a red exclamation point and the experience will end. If an experience ends, then the user might have to start over at the beginning, something that most people don’t want to happen. Additionally, if the user doesn’t expect the experience to end, they’ll believe the app has “crashed” even if it was an intentional ending. I find that the ending of an experience is an ideal place to talk about UX, friction, and error prevention. So one of the first things I have students design is an ending screen that will ask users if they really want to leave the experience or go back to a certain point in the app. Then, if students are building out a large experience, instead of the red exclamation points, they can send users to the “error prevention” screen to keep them from leaving the app unintentionally.

UI, UI Design, and Consistency

UI stands for “User Interface.” Thus, UI design is designing the user interface. One essential element of UI design is consistency. The user wants certain elements look and behave in the same way. For example, I remind students about the “case” of words in this case. Typically “title case” is the best for buttons and titles, but sometimes when a character is talking they might want to go to “sentence case.” These types of decisions have to be made at the beginning as they are discussing UI.

Ideation and Planning

The top student mistake in a larger build is starting without first ideating, or generating ideas, for their app or experience. Then, after they ideate, they have to plan what will be in the experience. I like to use Kanban Boards and Agile Software Development principles (something outside the scope of this article). Without project management tools, students will waste time and not complete the task.

There are many more terminologies that I teach with Metaverse, but these are just some that we use at the beginning of the process. I’ve included them on the image below as a quick reference.

Collections: An Awesome Solution to Classroom Management in Metaverse

As I see it, Collections solves two basic problems of teaching in Metaverse. The first problem is that of linking the students in the class together to see one another’s apps for testing and feedback. In the past, students had to make screenshots of their code and print them to easily test one another’s experiences and share best practices for their apps. This problem has been eliminated with the new “Collections” feature.

The second challenge was that I sometimes wanted to help students on their app or dig into their setup to help troubleshoot a problem. This problem has also been solved because I can go directly into their code using the Collections feature.

While experience creation is free and unlimited for students and teachers, if you want to try Collections, sign up with the code #ARinEDU to try it free now. Go to https://studio.gometa.io/teachers to get started. If you like Collections, you can keep it for $7/month after the trial is over.

Metaverse remains an engaging and powerful augmented reality programming tool for your classroom. Compatible with devices of all kinds, students can also build on a variety of devices, and Collections gives you a teacher’s-eye view of everything happening in all of your student experiences. I hope you’ll try this one out!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

e

The post How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog https://www.coolcatteacher.com/how-to-use-metaverse-awesome-augmented-reality-and-new-features/

[patriciaanderson357-blog]

How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Metaverse is a powerful augmented reality (AR) programming app for classrooms. I first wrote about this app in December 2017 shortly after launch. Metaverse has come a long way and is specifically focused on becoming an amazing AR app for classrooms with the new Collections feature. In this blog post, I’ll share the vocabulary I use for teaching programming, how I teach with Metaverse, and some new features that help us manage our classroom as students program in AR and share with each other.

This blog post is sponsored by Metaverse. All opinions are my own.

What Is Metaverse?

Metaverse is a free augmented reality app where teachers and students can create unlimited experiences. Using Metaverse, my students have created fun quiz games, trivia experiences, and even an AR tour of our school.  I use Metaverse even before I start teaching programming with Scratch. This is because Metaverse is simple and easy to use.

Getting Started in Metaverse:

Use this Metaverse Studio tour video to get started whenever you’re ready.

If you want a longer teacher PD session, Luis recorded a Metaverse PD Webinar 2 weeks ago.

The Metaverse YouTube channel is full of tutorials that you can send your students to get them started.

A student can go into Metaverse and make an experience in just a few minutes. Then, in the top right-hand corner, they can click to “share” their experience. They’ll see that first screen Immediately on their phone or tablet. Granted, it isn’t really a program yet, as the experience isn’t doing anything, but just realizing that they’ve put a character into the experience gets students excited. The instant feedback, ability to create multiple paths (or branches), embed videos, 3D characters, websites, and even 360 experiences make this tool immediately interactive and usable for students.

As you can see in the graphic below, each screen has possible “scenes” that you can add. They’ve already loaded objects that you can add to scenes, including pop culture and common objects needed in educational topics.

A Few Programming and Design Concepts That I Teach With Metaverse

Remember that Metaverse requires NO coding at all. It is simply an object-oriented drag-and-drop tool. No coding required.

That said, I want my students to end up coding. Metaverse engages them within minutes, allowing me to start teaching them some basic programming concepts. I’ve bolded the vocabulary for those of you who are teaching programming or basic coding. These terms, I believe, should be introduced through a simple-to-use tool like Metaverse. That way, when my students are ready for full app making, they understand the concepts and terminology that they’ll need on a larger scale.

For example, I start with a simple, one-day, “make something fun” experience in Metaverse. However, for the second project, I encourage students to make a major step up toward creating something to perform like an app that a user can interact with. With this in mind, I want my students to be familiar with terminology, and here are some examples.

UX, Alpha Testing, Beta Testing

UX stands for “user experience.” When student teams are alpha testing the app, I have them watch each other and notice how another person uses the app, which can help them make changes. (We also learn beta testing, which is what happens when a person NOT on their team tests the app.)

Onboarding and Cascading Information Theory

I also teach the concept of onboarding, which means what happens as you bring a new user into an app. Just like when entering a video game for the first time, a user doesn’t always need all of the information at once. This is called cascading information theory, which says that information should be given in “the minimum possible snippets for understanding each point during a game narrative.”

Friction, Error Prevention, and UX

Secondly, I want students to consider how users will end their experience. For example, when designing an app or game, error prevention is a basic part of making it usable. In website design, friction isn’t really a good thing — it’s an element of operation that impedes or prevents a user from doing what they want to do. However, when someone is using an app and is about to exit or do something irreversible, adding friction to the user interface design helps prevent errors. For example, Microsoft is using friction when MS Word asks if you really want to exit the program without saving changes. The purpose is to keep you from making an error and not saving your work.

Here’s an example of friction in Metaverse. If a button or screen isn’t linked to another, the user will see a red exclamation point and the experience will end. If an experience ends, then the user might have to start over at the beginning, something that most people don’t want to happen. Additionally, if the user doesn’t expect the experience to end, they’ll believe the app has “crashed” even if it was an intentional ending. I find that the ending of an experience is an ideal place to talk about UX, friction, and error prevention. So one of the first things I have students design is an ending screen that will ask users if they really want to leave the experience or go back to a certain point in the app. Then, if students are building out a large experience, instead of the red exclamation points, they can send users to the “error prevention” screen to keep them from leaving the app unintentionally.

UI, UI Design, and Consistency

UI stands for “User Interface.” Thus, UI design is designing the user interface. One essential element of UI design is consistency. The user wants certain elements look and behave in the same way. For example, I remind students about the “case” of words in this case. Typically “title case” is the best for buttons and titles, but sometimes when a character is talking they might want to go to “sentence case.” These types of decisions have to be made at the beginning as they are discussing UI.

Ideation and Planning

The top student mistake in a larger build is starting without first ideating, or generating ideas, for their app or experience. Then, after they ideate, they have to plan what will be in the experience. I like to use Kanban Boards and Agile Software Development principles (something outside the scope of this article). Without project management tools, students will waste time and not complete the task.

There are many more terminologies that I teach with Metaverse, but these are just some that we use at the beginning of the process. I’ve included them on the image below as a quick reference.

Collections: An Awesome Solution to Classroom Management in Metaverse

As I see it, Collections solves two basic problems of teaching in Metaverse. The first problem is that of linking the students in the class together to see one another’s apps for testing and feedback. In the past, students had to make screenshots of their code and print them to easily test one another’s experiences and share best practices for their apps. This problem has been eliminated with the new “Collections” feature.

The second challenge was that I sometimes wanted to help students on their app or dig into their setup to help troubleshoot a problem. This problem has also been solved because I can go directly into their code using the Collections feature.

While experience creation is free and unlimited for students and teachers, if you want to try Collections, sign up with the code #ARinEDU to try it free now. Go to https://studio.gometa.io/teachers to get started. If you like Collections, you can keep it for $7/month after the trial is over.

Metaverse remains an engaging and powerful augmented reality programming tool for your classroom. Compatible with devices of all kinds, students can also build on a variety of devices, and Collections gives you a teacher’s-eye view of everything happening in all of your student experiences. I hope you’ll try this one out!

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

e

The post How to Use Metaverse: Awesome Augmented Reality and New Features appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!