CSCI 5530: Serious Games Development (Simulations and Serious Games) 1 Winter 2012 Bill Kapralos CSCI 5530, Winter 2012 Bill Kapralos Winter 2012 Theoretical Basis of Simulation / Serious Games and Design – Part I Friday, February 17 2012 Bill Kapralos Overview (1): Before We Begin Administrative details Brief review from last week Theoretical Basis of Simulation Overview Learning theories Designing Games as Learning Tools Designing games as learning tools Understanding your player Selecting a game style Overview (2): Games as Learning Tools (cont.) Game elements Offering a choice Understanding your content Choosing your learning activity Selecting a game style
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CSCI 5530: Serious Games Development (Simulations and Serious Games)
1
Winter 2012
Bill Kapralos
CSCI 5530, Winter 2012 Bill Kapralos
Winter 2012
Theoretical Basis of Simulation / Serious Games and Design – Part I
Friday, February 17 2012
Bill Kapralos
Overview (1):Before We Begin
Administrative details
Brief review from last week
Theoretical Basis of Simulation
Overview
Learning theories
Designing Games as Learning Tools
Designing games as learning tools
Understanding your player
Selecting a game style
Overview (2):Games as Learning Tools (cont.)
Game elements
Offering a choice
Understanding your content
Choosing your learning activity
Selecting a game style
CSCI 5530: Serious Games Development (Simulations and Serious Games)
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As an Aside
Course Website (1):I’m Assuming You are taking a Look at the
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Learning Theories (24):Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition (cont.)
Proficient holistic view of situation
Prioritizes importance of aspects
“Perceives deviations from the normal pattern"
Employs maxims for guidance, with meanings that
adapt to the situation at hand
Expert transcends reliance on rules, guidelines, maxims
“Intuitive grasp of situations based on deep, tacit
understanding"
Has "vision of what is possible"
Uses "analytical approaches" in new situations or in
case of problems
Learning Theories (25):Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition (cont.)
A sixth category → Dreyfus model in its original form
does not account for innovation (how new skills come
into being and outcompete old ones)
Makes model relatively un-dynamic and unable to
grasp skill acquisition in full
Flyvbjerg proposed as a remedy a sixth stage for
innovation
Later, Hubert Dreyfus embraced both a sixth and a
seventh stage taking into account innovation and
practical wisdom in the Dreyfus model of skill
acquisition
Designing Games asLearning Tools
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As an Aside (1):
A Quote
“To be an entertaining and educational game , it must
first be a game, and only then, a teacher”
Ashley Lipson → creator of the legal game
Objection!
Designing Games as Learning Tools (1):
Overview
Is it possible to take all the engagement of video
games and the learning that takes place when one
plays them and design video games that produce
reliable learning of academic or training material ?
The ultimate quest of many educators since the
introduction of video games
As we previously saw → Edutainment era!
“Learning games” are generally not real games at
all in the commercial sense but rather short
multimedia pieces
Designing Games as Learning Tools (2):
Overview (cont.)
According to one game designer → “the instructional
designers brought into the creation of a learning
game because they supposedly know how to get
people to learn, typically suck the fun out of any game
they get their hands on”
Main issue with learning games and it generally all
leads back to a lack of gameplay → the fun things
the player gets to decide, control, and do
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Designing Games as Learning Tools (3):
Why it is Hard
It is definitely possible to combine the fun of a real
game with educational content → but hard to do!
Designer for regular (new) entertainment game
Start with a blank slate and single goal → make
something that will engage players for as much
time as possible (30, 60, 100 or more hours)
Invents all the content of the game (worlds,
characters, puzzles, etc.) to help reach the goal
In the design process → any element or idea can
be accepted into game if it furthers engagement
Designing Games as Learning Tools (4):
Why it is Hard (cont.)
Designer for regular (new) entertainment game (cont.)
At the end of the process → write a “book” (often
done by the publisher) about the game’s content to
help players understand the world in the game and
succeed in it
Designing Games as Learning Tools (5):
Why it is Hard (cont.)
Designer for an educational game
The “book of content” already exists before the
designer starts → the game has to somehow be
about that “book”
Designer has two “prime directives” to follow
simultaneously
1. To make the game engaging
2. To follow the “book” → to be accurate
• Can’t simply “jiggle a concept here, add a fact there”
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Designing Games as Learning Tools (6):
Why it is Hard (cont.)
Designer for an educational game (cont.)
To complicate matters, designer has to think about
the game’s effectiveness → does the game cause
people to learn ?
How do we deal with these three issues → gameplay
Makes the difference between bad games, good
games, and great games
Players still expect great graphics, sound, etc. but
many examples of failed “pretty” games → many
good games with poor graphics thanks to gameplay
Designing Games as Learning Tools (7):
Why it is Hard (cont.)
How do we design “educational games that don’t suck” ?
It challenges us as digital game-based learning
designers/developers to take any material that is our
starting point and design a series of great gameplay
experiences to get it across
The games we design will involve graphics, sounds,
characters, etc. it’s what gameplay has those
characters do → more importantly, what gameplay
has you the player do
Designing Games as Learning Tools (8):Combining Gameplay and Learning
How do we combine, what appear to be very different
phenomena, gameplay and effective learning ?
Helpful to think of digital game-based learning along
two dimensions that need to be combined to make it
work → Gameplay / Engagement and Learning
Digital game-based learning (DGBL) quadrant
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Designing Games as Learning Tools (9):
Combining Gameplay and Learning (cont.)
Game-based learning quadrant
Low gameplay and low learning → probably
traditional computer-based training or “e-Learning”
High gameplay and no “learning” of traditional
educational content → consumer games
High gameplay and high learning → DGBL
High learning and low gameplay → non-existent ?
Designing Games as Learning Tools (10)
Combining Gameplay and Learning (cont.)
DGBL part of the quadrant
Even within this area, there can still be very much
variation → each dimension is a continuum and each
project has different amount of learning & engagement
Ideally → move out continuously on a 45o line
How about a slider as part of the interface so that user can choose his/her own mix between learning and engagement based on their mood at that time ? (Prenskey)
Designing Games as Learning Tools (11)
Combining Gameplay and Learning (cont.)
As we design serious games we must consider both
learning and engagement dimensions
Not enough emphasis on learning → risk sliding into
being “just a game”
Not enough emphasis on gameplay/engagement →
risk of becoming nothing more than a computer-
based training (e-Learning) application
Better to keep thinking about keeping both
dimensions high than to think about trading them off
as has been suggested by some
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Designing Games as Learning Tools (12)
Combining Gameplay and Learning (cont.)
Process of developing a DGBL (or serious game)
Find or create a game with great gameplay that will
engage the intended audience
Find the learning activities that will teach what is
required → doing each with the other in mind
“Successfully” blend the two
Of course, we must also take into account the political
context, the technology, and the available resources
Understanding Your Player (1):
We Usually Start with the Audience
Most learners will be excited when they hear you are
designing a game for them
But they may also be quite skeptical → so much
learning is boring that people need to be clear that
the game is being made to engage them and that
they will have a “say” in the design
Ultimately audience will quickly determine whether
game is engaging and if not, they will “throw it away”
→ don’t want to waste our time and money so it is
best to consider your audience!
Understanding Your Player (2):
We Usually Start with the Audience (cont.)
Of course, once we consider our target audience, we will
select a representative group whom we will work with
Some audiences are reasonably homogenous →
simplifies matters considerably
Some audiences are more diverse → more difficult
Typically, audiences are diverse and the following
variables are amongst the most important to consider
Age, gender, competitiveness, and previous
experience with game
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Understanding Your Player (3):
We Usually Start with the Audience (cont.)
If audience is diverse amongst one of those variables,
there are alternative strategies for dealing with creating
games for such groups
1. Seek a “lowest common denominator” game style
such as a game format that appeals to both men
and women, or to both competitive or non-
competitive people → potential game formats that
serve this purpose include detective games,
adventure and puzzle, and strategy games
Understanding Your Player (4):
We Usually Start with the Audience (cont.)
If audience is diverse (cont.)
2. Create more than one game, for example one
competitive game and one more competitive →
Games 2Train created a template in which the user
can choose from eight different games to learn the
same content
3. Provide a non-game alternative for those in the
audience who are not engaged by the game you
choose
Understanding Your Player (5):
We Usually Start with the Audience (cont.)
If audience is diverse (cont.)
Danger with first strategy → may involve too much
compromise resulting in a game that doesn’t please
anyone
The second option may be too expensive
Very important to get representatives of the audience
involved early on in the design process → consider
conducting focus groups, informal interviews,
including audience members on the design team
CSCI 5530: Serious Games Development (Simulations and Serious Games)