MAGiCAL Projects is an enterprise of UCL IOE, based at the UCL Knowledge Lab. It is a combination of R&D, building softwares for creative work in education, and a commercial venture, bringing such solutions to schools and other education sites. It builds on research and development work we have done in the past with Immersive Education, developing the successful games authoring tool Missionmaker, with David Buckingham and the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media. Sadly, Immersive  went into receivership in 2012, and the IOE bought their four products: Missionmaker, Kar2ouche, Krucible and MediaStage. These are now being marketed and developed by MAGiCAL with the support of UCLB, and external partners Creative Edutech. We are keen to build this enterprise, and to seek new opportunities for research and development of the products.

To discuss R&D partnerships, please contact Professor Andrew Burn (a.burn@ioe.ac.uk).

 

MORE ABOUT MISSIONMAKER

The tool was designed to develop aspects of media education conceived of as forms of literacy: an understanding of game design through playing games, but also making them. This shift to an emphasis on the production of media texts was already growing in media education, but while it was easy enough to see how making films, radio programmes, newspapers and websites might work in the classroom, making games was more challenging, and had previously either depended on a grasp of programming, or on the use of game-making entertainment packages which offered little insight into how conditionality and procedural narratives were designed.
MORE INFORMATION ON THIS PROJECT, AND ON MISSIONMAKER, IS AVAILABLE HERE.

 

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Playing Shakespeare

 

This project, funded by the AHRC’s Digital Transformations programme, was a collaboration with Shakespeare’s Globe to make a game-authoring software based on Missionmaker, with which users could make games of Macbeth.

The video below is a capture of a play sequenc eo f agame level made by two 13-year-old girls, based on the murder of Duncan.

For more information, go to the project page.

 

Playing Beowulf

 

This project, also funded by the AHRC’s Digital Transformation programme, is a collaboration with the British Library, developing a tool for users to make games based on the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. It is a collaboration also with Anglo-Saxon scholars at UCL, with Drama educators at the University of Sydney, and with Game City, Nottingham, as well as schools in London.

The video below shows a capture of a demonstration game sequence made by two UCL students during the project. More information is available on the project page.

 

 

MARKETING PARTNERSHIP

 

 

The MAGiCAL products are marketed through Creative Edutech, an educational software distributor specializing in animation and game-based products. See their site for more details, demos, downloads, testimonials and sales information.