Hello, I should begin with an introduction. My name is Kenneth Cox, a senior at Rollins College. During the fall semester of 2016, I met with the chair of the History department, Dr. Julian Chambliss, to create an independent study project. Over several of his classes, we had worked with Hannibal Square and the Hannibal Square Heritage Center. As we talked about various possible projects, I brought up the subject of gamification.
Gamification is the education technique of applying game theories, like in video games, to teaching. While it does not mean the use of video games or simulations, they can be used as a tool to help start a conversation about a subject. Dr. Chambliss suggested created a simulation based on an important event in Winter Park history. As a student goes through the simulation, the goal is for the student to learn about the petition to separate Hannibal Square from Winter Park, some of the racial tension found in the South, Reconstruction, and the actions of the Florida Senate after the petition failed.
Once we agreed upon the project, the rest of the project would be created by me with guidance from Dr. Chambliss. The first step was to decide the method of the simulation. Initially, I thought I could create an 8-bit graphic simulation. I tinkered around with a program called RPG Maker, but I soon realized that it would take too much time for me to create in the time span of a semester. Instead, I turned to a style from books and games of the 1980s. Choose Your Own Adventure, or text games, were played before graphic games by focusing on the reader making choices to branch out the story.