Power Game Factory

Sawblade Software has just released Power Game Factory, a user-friendly tool for making Mac-based sidescroller games. Tools like this would be a fun thing to make available to students in the Game Lab to get them thinking about gameplay elements from a designer's perspective.

Personally, I think exposing kids to game design is an important educational experience that the Game Lab could provide. Designing games brings in concepts of logic, set theory, physics, and other areas of mathematics, as well as being fertile ground for artistic expression. With the emergence of creative aspects of gameplay, such as the moviemaking tool in Sims 2, understanding creative play might be a key concept to creating successful games in the near future, especially if one is targeting nontraditional game audiences.