Learning games are an excellent way to enhance classroom instruction, from serving as bell ringers and rewards for early finishers to serving as interactive assessments.
There are various lesson plan resources for game development available today. The ideal resources provide a clear outline of all of the processes involved and emphasize engaging content creation.
Designing a game
Creating a game can be an engaging and educational experience for both teachers and their students and can also serve as a way of developing critical thinking skills. However, some important considerations must be kept in mind when designing such an experience: the game’s goal, player engagement level, and complexity of gameplay need to be considered, as well as how it will be presented to players.
To create an engaging game experience for students, the initial step should be brainstorming ideas for it. This can be accomplished in small groups by encouraging students to jot down as many ideas as they can using various media forms to record them. After brainstorming has concluded, select several of these concepts for further investigation and expand upon them.
An effective game should provide entertainment and challenge its players to think critically. A compelling narrative and simple control should draw players in, yet challenging enough that they want to continue playing it. Furthermore, the aesthetic design of graphics should match sound effects aesthetically pleasingly for maximum enjoyment!
The video clip in this lesson comes from the documentary “Thank You for Playing.” It provides a captivating portrait of one family’s determination to respond to impending tragedy through artistic expression – in this case, creating a poetic video game. Please note this topic may trigger past or current trauma for some students, so play this clip carefully before assigning it to your class.
Game mechanics
Game mechanics are the foundational building blocks of video games and determine their play. They allow for interactions between the player and the game world and present meaningful challenges and opportunities for decision-making, giving a sense of accomplishment as they build. When designed well, these mechanics foster player engagement and retention – with successful titles often employing multiple game mechanics to meet specific goals while encouraging repetition and skill building.
Game mechanics refer to the procedures and rules that control gameplay, but to fully grasp them, we must examine their interaction with other elements of a game, such as money, tokens, art, etc. Money cannot be considered game mechanics on its own but can serve as a representation of such mechanisms; game mechanics are what makes a game playable – they should always remain at the heart of game design!
As an example of game mechanics, let’s consider the famous puzzle game Tetris. Each piece in Tetris features its mechanic, which governs its behavior – for instance, rotation controls where and how tetrominoes spawn, as well as how fast pieces move – this makes Tetris unique from other puzzle games and provides players with a distinct experience.
Character movement, combat mechanics, resource management, and puzzle-solving are among the most frequently utilized game mechanics. These mechanics form the core of any video game experience and add to its enjoyment, yet each game may have its own set of specific mechanics that make playing enjoyable; for instance, a slow-paced character might require more of an adaptation period before reaching full proficiency compared to its fast-paced counterpart.
Understanding game mechanics is essential for students when creating their games, so they should empathize with their target audience before creating a prototype to test. Based on the feedback received, students should then revise and refine their designs until they make the final game they can share with peers. This learning sequence can easily be tailored to any topic and used in both classrooms or co-working spaces; additionally, it’s easy to download and print!
Game design process
Game design is an integral component of video game creation. This multistep process includes conceptualization, prototyping, and testing; when completed effectively, it can save both time and money by minimizing changes at each stage – however, designers must remain flexible enough to accommodate changes during this phase.
Brainstorming ideas is the initial step in the game design process. A great way to do this is by breaking students into groups and giving them limited amounts of time to brainstorm as many ideas as they can for your game. This will help get their creative juices flowing as well as ensure all aspects of their creation have been covered by their ideas.
Once your students have finished brainstorming, the next step in designing their game should be creating its design. This may involve sketching their idea on paper and outlining its elements, such as characters, settings, and gameplay – storyboards are helpful when creating narrative-focused games, while flow charts work well when creating decision-driven ones.
Prototyping is the second step of game design and allows your students to put their ideas through rigorous testing to see if they work. While prototypes will likely differ significantly from what their final games will look like, this should not discourage them; prototyping allows students to learn from past errors and make improvements that lead to success in game creation.
As your students prepare to develop games, they should set aside time for testing them out. This could involve inviting other classrooms over to test out their game or simply conducting it within your school itself; either way, it provides your students an excellent opportunity to show off all of their hard work!
This lesson features video clips from the award-winning documentary Thank You for Playing, which tells the tale of Ryan Green, a video game programmer, and his family as they use poetry-based video game development as a means of dealing with Joel’s cancer diagnosis.
Game testing
Video gaming is a booming industry, so it is no secret that many teachers want to integrate video gaming into their lesson plans. Before doing so, however, it is vitally essential for educators to gain a comprehensive understanding of the design and development processes involved before incorporating any games into the classroom – this requires understanding the game testing process in depth.
Quality assurance (QA) is the process of finding and documenting software defects in video games. While less technical than general software testing, QA remains an integral step in developing any computer game and is usually handled by in-house teams or contracted gamers with extensive gaming experience.
Remembering the gaming industry as a business and designing attractive games to entice consumers is vitally important, which is why testing is vital before release – this allows developers to identify any problems with the games before they are discovered by consumers, potentially saving a great deal of money in the process.
Video games in the classroom offer another benefit that helps students develop research and critical thinking skills, particularly those studying STEM subjects. They provide an engaging backdrop for these lessons while serving as informal assessments of student understanding.
Game-based learning must be tailored specifically to the students and their current level of learning for maximum effectiveness. Otherwise, it risks becoming unfocused or trying to teach too much at once – this is why leading resource providers can benefit from designing their materials around curriculum standards so as to target specific trouble spots or aptitudes with targeted resources and games featuring content levels that can be adjusted to meet different learners’ needs. Differentiation in classroom environments works like this, too – small changes can make a big difference!
