Facilitator Guide (FG) - leemet16/game-design-toolkit GitHub Wiki

Welcome to the facilitator guide for the Game Design Toolkit!

This toolkit provides the guidance and scaffolding needed for high-school students to develop an educational video game for elementary school students. High-school students and teachers are the toolkit’s target audience but the wiki is also publicly accessible.

Why a "Toolkit?"

The toolkit provides many tools that can be used in designing and building an educational video game. A nice analogy to consider is the toolkit that a mechanic uses for repairing a car. There are many tools within their toolkit. However, there isn't one that is called the "repair car" tool. Instead, the mechanic considers the situation, evaluates the problem, and then picks the tool or tools that will help them fix the car. They have a process for solving problems, and along the way will pick the tools that help them diagnose and resolve problems encountered. We encourage you to consider the Game Design Toolkit in a similar fashion. Your game developers (students) will need to use many of the resources provided. The resources selected will depend on their goals and progress made to date.

Digital Literacy

One of the main goals of this toolkit is to support 21st century skills, which includes digital and game literacy (Griffin & Care, 2014, p.18). The toolkit embraces the idea that teaching game design, programming, wiki-based teamwork, web 2.0 communication, and project management skills are of utmost importance in creating transferable and contemporary learning skills as well as game-media digital literacy amongst students (Caperton, 2010, p.10).

Game literacy refers to the multidimensional combination of practices including but not limited to reading, writing, interactive design, programming, engineering, multitasking, system design, storytelling, role playing, and exercising judgement (Dormans, 2012, p.2). Creating games teaches students how to program and understand the language and grammatical rules of different development tools (Hsu & Wang, 2010, p. 406). They will learn basic programming tenets such as how to organize and comment their code and how to keep the proponents of usability concepts in the forefront while completing their code.

Creating games will also teach students design concepts as well as language arts and artistic skills. They will be taught how to create multi-modal systems by connecting elements such as audio and visuals (Kafai & Burke, 2015). Developing textual content for their games could potentially improve their grammar, punctuation, and spelling. It will also encourage creativity and self-expression and teach students how to make designs that are both appealing to the senses and straightforward.

Another benefit of creating games is that it encourages collaboration and builds teamwork skills. Students will be required to work together during the testing phase and provide each other feedback, which will engage them in social learning and the co-creation of knowledge. Learning how to test, debug, remix, experiment, and revise their work should also improve their problem solving and decision-making skills (Kafai & Burke, 2015).

Diversity and Inclusiveness

Researchers have associated the term “geek mythology” (Margolis & Fisher, 2003) with programming culture since it often comes across like an “exclusive ‘clubhouse’ that is not accessible to girls and minorities” (Kafai, Peppler, Lemke, & Warschauer, 2011, p. 94). Stereotypes such as gaming being a “boy’s thing” dissuade many girls from entering this field. Consequently, girls tend to show less interest in game development and have less experience and skill (Denner, Werner, Bean, & Campe, 2005). People of different ethnicities also feel dissuaded because they typically only hear of and see Caucasian and Asian developers (Kafai & Burke, 2015). You are encouraged to use the toolkit and game development to help dissolve these barriers and generate interest in populations who typically do not have experience or interest in this field.

You are also encouraged to use the toolkit to further generate interest by highlighting the many aspects of gaming that go beyond simply writing code. Margolis and Fisher (2003, p.17) state that a narrow view of development that focuses on algorithms and computing can reduce the appeal of programming. The toolkit teaches students a variety of skills including storyboarding, storytelling, character development, project management, collaboration, and audio and visual contributions. Furthermore, the toolkit guides participants to create educational games. This approach focuses on using these game development efforts to contribute back to society with the idea that a bigger, people-focused goal will draw in more students (and also support Digital Literacy and 21st century skills).

The Agile Manifesto addresses diversity and inclusiveness as it promotes a sustainable pace, trust, support for the team, self-organization, reflection, and communication. Going further, Ludica a collective focused on inclusiveness, offers suggestions for an ideal inclusive working environment including empowerment, creativity over administration, challenge, time for experimentation, growth, transitioning through roles, and encouraging team sharing of ideas (Fullerton, Fron, Pearce, & Morie, 2007, p.138). The toolkit also encourages these activities. As discussed in forming your team, there are many different roles and skills needed to create a game. In addition, the supporting videos highlight a range of backgrounds (sound and music, programming, fashion, project management, and activism ) and views on diversity.

Background and Theory

The toolkit is influenced by the learning and learning environment ideas of Piaget (Piaget, 1936), Vygotsky (Vygotsky, 1978), and Papert (Papert, 1988). Building on their ideas, the toolkit also leverages more recent ideas about design and team collaboration including Lean and Agile Software Development, Play-Centric Design, Scalable Game Design, and the Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics (MDA) framework.

Click here for more information regarding these ideas and how they relate to this toolkit.

Preparation

The toolkit itself embeds and highlights the many resources available to help you facilitate this game design experience. In the sections below, we’ll introduce some additional materials. However, the best way to prepare to facilitate this experience is to follow and use the toolkit to build a game of your own! Connect with other potential facilitators and Get Started!

Configurations and Tailoring

  • Reflection and Journaling: Decide on an approach for the Game Development Journal. This should include the tool (or tools used), length of posts, frequency of posts, and whether it is written on an individual or a team basis.
  • Duration and Effort: This toolkit requires significant effort and is best offered over the course of a semester.
  • Preparing and Coordinating Target Game Players and Goals: This effort requires support from other teachers and students. This support is important and must be coordinated.

Additional Guidance

Assessment Guidelines

References

Cagiltay, N. E. (2007). Teaching software engineering by means of computer‐game development: Challenges and opportunities. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(3), 405-415.

Caperton, I. H. (2010). Toward a theory of game-media literacy: Playing and building as reading and writing. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations, 2(1).

Carnegie Mellon University. (2016). What are best practices for designing group projects? Retrieved March 30, 2018, from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/design.html

Denner, J., Werner, L., & Ortiz, E. (2012). Computer games created by middle school girls: Can they be used to measure understanding of computer science concepts? Computers & Education, 58(1), 240-249. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.006

Dormans, J. (2012). Engineering emergence: applied theory for game design. Universiteit van Amsterdam [Host].

Fullerton, T., Fron, J., Pearce, C., & Morie, J. (2008). Getting girls into the game: Towards a ‘virtuous cycle’. Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New perspectives on gender and gaming, 161-176.

Griffin, P., & Care, E. (Eds.). (2014). Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills: Methods and approach. Springer.

Hsu, H., & Wang, S. (2010). Using gaming literacies to cultivate new literacies. Simulation & Gaming, 41(3), 400-417. doi: 10.1177/1046878109355361

Kafai, Y. B., & Burke, Q. (2015). Constructionist gaming: Understanding the benefits of making games for learning. Educational Psychologist, 50(4), 313–334. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2015.1124022

Kafai, Y. B., Peppler, K. A., Lemke, J., & Warschauer, M. (2011). Youth, technology, and DIY: Developing participatory competencies in creative media production. Review of Research in Education, 35(1), 89-119. doi: 10.3102/0091732X10383211

Leutenegger, S., & Edgington, J. (2007, March). A games first approach to teaching introductory programming. In ACM SIGCSE Bulletin (Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 115-118). ACM.

Margolis, J., & Fisher, A. (2003). Geek mythology. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 23(1), 17-20.

Papert, S. (1988). A critique of technocentrism in thinking about the school of the future. In Children in the Information Age (pp. 3-18).

Piaget, J. (1936). Origins of intelligence in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Thomas, M. K., Ge, X., & Greene, B. A. (2011). Fostering 21st century skill development by engaging students in authentic game design projects in a high school computer programming class. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 44(4), 391-408.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological process. Cambridge, MS: Harvard University Press.