Earlier this year I sat on a panel at BETT organised by Channel 4's education team. Whilst there, I got a taste for interactive things forthcoming from the broadcaster and grabbed Commissioning Editor (and Wonderland creator and geek in chic clothing) Alice Taylor to get the skinny on just what the channel has in mind for the future of public broadcasting gaming, and how they intend to support new industry talent.
Why games and education? There's often a funny reaction to the word "education", although learning something new is usually incredibly satisfying. Games -especially sociable ones - are often key to how we figure out the world, and the people in it, so if we can use games to teach useful things, and the learning becomes a fun process, then that has to be something to be pleased with. Channel 4's target audience for educational output is the 14-19 age group, who we know to be extremely fond of the odd game or two, so this approach makes even more sense: dedicated television consumption in this age group is not what it once was, so in order to reach them with useful stuff, we should look to all the platforms and formats that they're interested in.
Why are Channel 4 involved and what can the Channel contribute to this sphere? Educational television programming on its own isn't reaching enough of our target group, so we're broadening our output in order to figure out what appeals. Of course, with this comes new challenges and problems, as well as the opportunities, so it's going to be an interesting few years ahead! As for what Channel 4 can contribute, I see it as perfectly placed to do what it's always done with television: ferret out the new, the exciting, the unusual. We're going out there looking for emergent gaming talent, to support new ideas, to back some innovative technologies, the sort of thing Channel 4 has always liked to get behind. Since the consoles came online, and digital distribution is a sensible alternative to boxed, retail games, we won't have to go the trad publishing-retail route either, which means some of this is even affordable.
Who are these games aimed at? Primarily 14-19 year olds in the UK, but we will have a few projects that may appeal to a broader audience too. The material will be designed to be educational, which means we're at great pains to make sure that the content is both fascinating but not factually wrong. Or mindless. Or simplistic. Or denigrating, or any number of things that might slip into something purely designed for entertainment if the creator wasn't really thinking (or didn't really care). We do care, a lot: the material we're commissioning should challenge, make the player think, consider, learn something new - and all while thoroughly enjoying herself.
Where will they be made available? Generally where they can be reached by as many people as possible, and as free as possible too. The digital world is everywhere and anywhere, so gone are the days when stuff flowed by like a river, and you watched it in order. The internet is like the ocean: massive, never ending, free and open, so that's where we'll put most of our output. Getting attention will be hard, but technically reaching people will not. We'll look to proprietary platforms like Xbox Live and Sony's Home too, of course, and mobile phones; plus - despite some early misreporting, we're not switching off any of the televisual output on the morning schedule, that too will continue to exist.
What's the first to launch? We got cracking with commissioning some ideas in late 2007, so you'll see some output in the first half of '08, but the majority of it will turn up in the second half and beyond. First in line is Bow Street Runner, a point-and-click detective game set in the late 1700s in filthy old Covent Garden. We commissioned it while the television show City of Vice was being made, and the two, while not directly connected, complement each other quite nicely. The show is post-watershed and for adults; the game is designed for teens, and introduces the player to the early policing methods of the day. Bow Street Runner goes live this month, on February 11th.
Which are you particularly excited about? Okay, it's predictable to say "all of it", but I really am: we're commissioning a broad range of ideas to get us started, and I think the collection as a whole is looking varied and interesting. We have our early-policing detective game, which really pushes the boundaries of what a web-based flash game can look, feel and sound like, all while representing what real street life was like in 18th C London town. We have a huge romp of a alternate-reality treasure hunt in development, with a central theme of genomics, cartography, patent busting and DNA experimentation (one inspiration there was Alias, but avoiding all of the made-up junk pseudoscience: all our science will be real and cutting edge stuff). We've got an SNS-style thriller game designed to explore themes of privacy, security, surveillance and freedom - players will learn things about SNSes they might not have considered, as well as about their own civil and personal liberties. Other potentials could include a PC game aiming to explore isolation, emotional development and space/time bending, a Bluetooth game and some playful widgets aimed at subculture teens who want to explore facets of their personality and personal relationships.
What steps are you taking to ensure that these games are as high quality as the games people expect commercially? Without vast reserves of cash to throw at projects like purely commercial channel brands might have, we have to be very careful. It's true that your average teen will expect high-end graphics from a traditional game on a disk. But this is also a very experimental age group, who in my experience are willing to explore new things, or try something different. As long as our games feel good, I think we'll be okay: what we'll absolutely try to avoid is any cheap bandwagon-jumping, where we end up making a second rate version of something better that has gone before. That's the copycat game, and we don't want that. We want the new and unusual, the indie and creative, so hopefully some experimental flavours will be both forgiven and appreciated.
What other kinds of gameplay experiences are you experimenting with? I'll tell you next year ;)
