The Foundations of Learning
Game Design
Playing to Learn
Thursday, March 23
Sharon Boller
Indianapolis, IN
About me….
Sharon Boller
Game-lover(!), learner,
instructional designer,
product owner, game
designer, dog-lover and
owner, Mom, wife, cyclist.
Oh…and president,
Bottom-Line Performance.
Not “When are
games…?”
Instead “Which kind of
games…?
Bottom-Line Performance
3
Game 1: Sequence
Game Goal
Align the cards into the specified
sequence within 90 seconds.
Set up and Rules
• Deal out the cards to every other person in your
row. The person who starts the deal is Person #1.
•
•
Hand out all cards, giving some people two cards if
necessary.
Make sure cards make it all the way to other end of row.
This might mean leaving TWO spaces between card
holders.
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Set up and Rules
• You have 90 seconds to re-arrange the cards or
yourselves so the words on the cards match the
order they appear on your handout/the slide I’m
about to show. Discard cards that do not belong.
• For your team to win, Person #1 should hold the
first card on the list. The rest should be held by
Persons 2 – 14 in the row. Person #15 should have
all discards.
• Card holders may NOT talk. Nonverbal cues are
allowed.
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Correct Sequence
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Activity
Explicit
Goal
Challenge
Rules
Players
30
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7. Interactivity
8. Players
9. Game
Environment
10. Feedback
Mechanisms
60
11. Cues
12. Performing
13. Quantifiable
outcome
14. Emotional
reaction
90
7
A game is…
• An activity with an explicit goal or challenge
• Rules for players and the system (computer games)
• Interactivity with other players, the game environment
(or both)
• Feedback mechanisms that provides players with
clear cues on how they are performing.
• It results in a quantifiable outcome (you win, you lose,
you hit the target, etc.) and often triggers an emotional
reaction in players.
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Turning this into a learning game…
Game Goal
Stay in business and minimize costs.
Align the cards while using the least
amount of $$ and time to accomplish the
task.
Rules to Know
•
•
•
•
•
•
Each row is a business. Your business is working on an
essential project. Each 30 seconds used costs your business
$300,000. 30 seconds = 1 month.
The person in the left-most chair is the project manager.
Each person in your row contributes $10,000 to this cost.
Finish the task within 2 minutes and earn a bonus for each
team member.
If you need more time at 2 minutes, the PM must eliminate at
least two jobs.
If you are not successful within 4 minutes, your company
goes bankrupt.
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Game 2: Newton
Game Goal
Make the other person’s feet move within
17 seconds.
What “fun” was in these
games? How did this “fun”
engage us?
12
Motivation
Relevant Practice
Specific, Timely Feedback
Spacing & Repetition
Story
Ability to retrieve
13
So how do you get started designing them?
Game 3 (commercial): Spot It
1. Game goal: Spot the matches so you can be the first
one to get rid of all your cards.
2. To get started:
1. Place one card in the center, face-up.
2. Deal remaining cards to players at your table. Make sure
each player has an even # of cards.
Spot It
1. Once the dealer says “go,” you each turn up your first
card. Keep your others face down.
2. Compare the card you turned up to the one that’s face
up on the table. Look for a match. There will always be
one.
Spot It
I turn this card up in my personal deck. I see a match
and call it out. I place my card on the face-up card.
Spider!
Spot It
I have another match! I call out the match and play it
as fast as I can.
Skull!
Evaluate Spot It
1. What was the game goal? Was it fun?
2. What was the core dynamic? Was it fun?
3. What were 1-3 mechanics (rules) that stood out?
Did they help – or confuse you?
4. What game elements did you notice?
5. How did you know how you were doing? (What
feedback did you get?)
6. Any ideas you could pull into a learning game?
Let’s change it up.
1. Replay Spot It. This time work cooperatively at your
tables to beat the clock.
2. Deal out the cards, place one face-up in center.
When I say GO, you have 3 minutes to get rid of all
your cards. Every team that succeeds wins.
3 minutes
2 minutes
1 minute
Q. How do you get started?
1.
Play and evaluate games to expand
your game design ideas.
2.
Consider ALL kinds of games: board
games, experiential games, digital
games. When you need digital,
consider going outside a rapid
authoring tool. “Will the world
collapse if a game DOESN’T get
tracked in the LMS?”
3.
Think cooperative instead of just
competitive.
Q. How do you get started?
5.
Embed within a curriculum; don’t
make the GAME = the course.
6.
Go beyond points, badges,
leaderboards (PBLs); recognize the
power of aesthetics, story, and
theme; be more intentional about
game elements you choose.
7.
Decrease complexity.
8.
Link game elements to real-world job
constraints or challenges when
possible.
Point 5: Embed the game w/in something
bigger
http://bottomlineperformance.com/passwordblaster
Point 6 - “Go beyond PBLs.”
PBLs are fun…for
awhile. This Guru
games does use
them – but goes
beyond them as
well. Check out
Game Design
Guru to see what
else we used.
http://theknowledgeguru.com/2016gamedesign
#6 - Recognize power of aesthetics,
themes – adds element of fun; sets context, sparks emotion.
#7 – Choose game elements with more
intention.
Cooperation
Time
Chance
Strategy
Levels
How could you use these?
Think about commercial games you play – and how they use these elements.
How do you fit these same elements EFFECTIVELY into a learning game?
Ideas on how to use 5 game elements
to enhance learning
•
Time – to compress real-world time, to provide element of stress that mimics
real-world, to manage duration of learning experience, to serve as a resource
that must be managed (much like it must be managed in real-world.
•
Cooperation – to foster collaboration and teamwork (assets in real-world, to
increase and / or maintain learner engagement, to mimic real-world cooperation
required in a job or process
•
Strategy – to encourage problem-solving or use of judgment, to force people to
manage limited resources (a frequent real-world constraint)
•
Chance – to help “balance” a game so people don’t opt out if they fall too far
behind; to mimic real-world “chance” events such as a person getting sick,
someone quitting, a natural disaster, etc., to force people assess and manage risk.
•
Levels – to help balance a game so that different experience levels can play; to
allow people to learn via play by having an easy level precede harder levels, to
increase complexity as players gain experience.
So how do you get started designing them?
https://www.td.org/Publications/Books/Play-to-Learn
Thank you for letting me play
and share with you!
Sharon Boller
President
Bottom-Line Performance, Inc.
[email protected]
@Sharon_Boller (Twitter)