Tiltfactor instigates, provokes, and inspires change. Our lab is home to many research projects which creatively disrupt the norm by using an approach we call “critical play.” Our mission is to research and develop software, events, experiences, and artifacts that create rewarding, compelling interactions. In most of our works, we invite public participation, and often, these situations involve play and games. With focus on inventive game design for social change, human values in the design process, and sustainability, our team seeks to create imaginative interventions for critical thinking and social change. Our ultimate goal is to bring dialogue and action to the forefront, and help people explore what is possible for themselves and their communities.
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Interrupt! Health Games |
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Our Interrupt! series of games advances effectiveness of interactive games, both on and off-screen, for health. We are particularly interested in the design, quality, and innovation in health games to achieve significantly better health outcomes. Our games aim to improve physical activities and promote self care. We work with groups such as the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center to develop innovative means to work with the public, especially in regard to HIV/AIDS education, mental health, and disease prevention. |
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Metadata Games |
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Metadata Games is a new project to develop a game prototype that utilizes the idea of crowd-sourcing, in which groups of people will compete against one another to tag data for archives, libraries, and repositories. |
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envision: Visual Environments |
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From fantastic landscapes to marvelous underwater environments, we study and prototype compelling visualizations of information traces. From working with archives to exploring how groups — especially designers and novices — work together, we are interested in the ways in which data maps to salient topical, linguistic, and temporal patterns that translate into unique environmental patterns and features. These environments provide alternate contextual browsing. |
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Massively Multiplayer Urban Games™ |
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We have developed a collection of urban games based around issues such as diversity, literacy, and community. In our multiplayer, street-based games, we strive to create entertaining experiences that also foster community values. Our games are set in both vibrant cities and smaller urban centers to bring community members into dialogue. Massively Multiplayer Soba™ celebrated diversity in language and culture; Massively Multiplayer Babble™ crossed generations and languages to help the community play bilingually. |
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Games for Learning |
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Our Dartmouth branch of the Games for Learning Institute research consortium is geared toward investigating Design for Learning: those specific design aspects of games and learning which allow for good learning in games. Our research is focusing on immersive qualities of games and what affordances games offer that are unique to learning with the medium. learn more |
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Player Consistencies in MMORPGs
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How much are stereotypes about social roles at play in online games? This Tiltfactor research, led by student Scott Henning, aims to identify real world, external influences and personal habits of players of the popular World of Warcraft game, and discover what habits move with the player into the virtual game world and affect virtual practices. The goal of this research is to examine player trends to see how the relationships between player’s habits inform play patterns that emerge in social game design. |
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Values At Play™ |
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Values at Play (VAP) aims to bring to light the role of social, moral, and political values at play in digital games. We are developing a systematic approach to considering values in the design process. Our team is also creating and disseminating curricula and instructional materials for introducing students to our approach, and, more broadly, to “values conscious” design. Dr. Flanagan and Dr. Nissenbaum (NYU) were funded by the National Science Foundation to research and create a values-based toolkit to promote the integration of human values in game development. more info |
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Rapunsel |
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Introduces diverse audiences to the often intimidating world of computer programming through a game environment. The game prototype, PEEPS!, was used in research with nearly 100 children. The research project brings programming terminology and frameworks into a game environment in order to make familiar these often “specialized” knowledges. In our research our team has found that self-efficacy can be improved through a video game. In collaboration with NYU’s Ken Perlin and Jan Plass. NSF Research on Gender in Science and Engineering learn more |
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The Adventures of Josie True™ |
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This research explores the boundaries of the gender gap in computing, science, and math and manifested these new theories through an online adventure game. As the first online adventure game for girls, Josie True is a product of research into the complex relationship of gender, technology, and learning. Female students still take fewer advanced computer-science classes than their male counterparts, and remain more likely to shy away from careers like engineering. The game reinforces what players already know, and offers a strong narrative as its focus. Discussion of the project in the New York Times learn more |
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SWAMI |
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Innovation in pedagogy is one of our many interests. Tiltfactor and a CS department worked together to research the means by which women + minority students might become part of a Computer Science PhD Pipeline. In creating a model of Support for a Women and Minority (SWAMI) PhD Pipeline, our team explored new pedagogical models in computer science, with a particular focus in the use of computational media as a means to attract and retain women and minorities to the degree, and with mentoring and research experiences to support the PhD Pipeline. |
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Think Tanks and Salon |
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Tiltfactor regularly takes part in, and is home to, research thinktanks for digital culture, as well as a weekly digital salon, variable_d. Variable_d is a weekly informal gathering that is also part of the Computation and Culture initiative at Dartmouth College. |
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The Critical Play™ Method |
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When developing our projects, Tiltfactor members are as interested in the process of design and creative practice as they are in the results. We believe the mindset of the creator, and the culture in which one is creating, affects that which is created. Objects are embedded with the beliefs and values of their designers. With that mindset, the Lab studies and produces tools to empower other artists, activists, and academics to make more intentional expressions. The forthcoming book, Critical Play (MIT 2009) explores activist and artistic game design throughout the history of games and play. |
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