phillips@nccu.edu.tw
http://phillips.personal.nccu.edu.tw/
The following is a summary and introduction to the Game Design Project which I have successfully used in my English as a Foreign Language classes at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. While my focus has been on using games and game-related projects to help my university level EFL students, the project itself can easily be adapted to other subjects and educational levels - the sophistication and subject matter would be different but the methods are fairly simple.
GAME DESIGN PROJECT
The Game Design Project allows the student of English as a Foreign Language to practice English as a means of (1) giving instructions and (2) accomplishing goals. It's also an entertaining way to practice English writing and conversation - depending upon the specific nature of the course. The focus of the assignment is on the creation of games using English as the medium of idea exchange as well of game play.
Students experience the process of game design from initial idea to implementation, playtest, review, and revision. The results are what I call Flash Games, simple games with rather short rules which can be picked up and mastered rather quickly (the term Flash Game is inspired by the literary term Flash Fiction which describes a short short story written under two thousand words). As student-generated Flash Games are completed, they are archived on my Game Design web page at http://phillips.personal.nccu.edu.tw/games/ while student-generated Interactive Dramas (live role playing game scenarious) are archived at my Shakespeare Eclectic Science Fiction Interactive Theatre site in the NCCU Student Scenarios section (the latter site is graciously hosted by the good folks at RPGnet at http://www.rpg.net/larp/). I archive the games on the web so that the students understand there is a "real" audience for their game beyond their classmates - to me too many class projects end up being produced for a single teacher, I prefer "real world" writing and design.
In a nutshell, the Game Design Project works this way: Students follow instructions in the Game Design Assignment sheet and create their own original games. Usually they start the sequence by sharing their game concept with other students in small group discussion and/or with the teacher in indivicual conferences (depending upon the focus of the class and time resources available). From the initial concept discussion, students go home and tweak the design. Each student then builds three prototypes of their game with instructions and takes them to class. Students then break into small groups - usually groups of four - and share their games with one another. Students then have the chance to ask questions about game play and go into some detail in explanation. Once all the students in a group have shared their game introductions, they trade games - each student ends up with three reviewers and with three games to review. The students then take the games home and play them with their friends. They fill out a Game Peer Evaluation and Playtest Review Form for each game. Next, students meet in small groups or in pairs and discuss the games with the designers. They return the prototypes and their review sheets and go over them. With these comments in hand, the students go home once again to complete the final draft and design of their game which is then archived on the web page for classmates and the world to see.
READINGS
A great article to have your students read on game structure and design is Greg Costikyan's I HAVE NO WORDS AND I MUST DESIGN (http://www.crossover.com/%7Ecostik/nowords.html). This piece provides the students with a good introductory critical vocabulary toward game design. Here you will find valuable insights as to how to approach your game design. If you choose not to have the students read the article, then it still provides some useful fodder for your class lecture to open up the project.
ASSIGNMENT
The following is the meat of the handout I give my students. This version of the assignment is a bit verbose and rather complex, so teachers of high school or junior high school classes may need to simplify a bit more. Since I am looking for originality, I do not provide an example game nor do I give the students a format for rules layout (although I have considered a couple variations and may decide to add one in the future). Teachers are free to adapt it to their own class needs or simply use it wholesale or not at all:
"Design an original game. Your game should be clearly written and to the point.
"You may design any kind of game you wish: boardgame, chess or checkers or go or Chinese chess variant, card game, role playing game, interactive drama, trading card game, party game, glass bead game, a new sport or athletic game, or some new type of game.
"Your target player can be children, students, English as a Foreign Language classes, adults, party goers, hobbyists, whatever.
"Your subject matter can be anything you wish - science fiction, real estate, war, fantasy, love and romance, relationships, adult matters, wildlife, cars, or anything else you care to deal with in a game.
"Remember, this should be a new and original game. Don't bother trying to re-write some game you played when you were a kid unless you are making a completely new and original variant (in that case you would need to provide references to the source game).
"Concentrate on creating a game simple enough that it can be learned quickly but complex enough that it can still provide hours of gaming pleasure. Elegant mechanics and simple component design is more likely to be successful for this assignment than weighty and complicated methods - save those for more complex games outside of the realm of this assignment.
"The game must have clear and concise rules. Your instructions and rules for play must be written within 1400 to 2000 words for students of Advanced English Composition class and 1000 to 1500 words for students of English Conversation class (yes, the word count requirement is rather arbitrary - in real life some games need more words to fully describe them while others don't need as much - however, the Flash Games designed for this assignment need to fall within this range as this is an effort to keep the work load for all students about the same).
"Some game components - such as draw cards and the like - may also have game instructions on them which will normally not count towards your word count total but may if the instructions are significant but the main rules must be less than 2000 words. Don't overly-complicate your game just to make the length requirement if it doesn't need it. Feel free to further illustrate concepts with useful examples of play.
"Students in the English Conversation class may feel free to work together on this project or work individually. No more than three students may join a group. The individual word count for each student remains the same, so group projects will be two or three times as long as individual projects. Advanced English Composition students may not work in groups - they must work on an individual basis for this assignment.
"Hint: Make sure you read the assignments above before designing your own game, it will save a lot of revising later.
"You will write your game and construct a prototype (in the case of games which require special boards or cards and the like). Class members will review your game following a Game Peer Evaluation and Playtest Review Form and then you will correct problems.
"The final draft of your game will be placed on the WWW so make sure your game is original (copyright notice will be attached naming you as the author with your email address for inquiries). You will need to hand in hard copy of your rules as well as an ascii text or html file on disk to be converted for the web. If you have components, then hand in full size prototypes and smaller versions for scanning - make these no larger than A4 in size."
PEER REVIEW QUESTIONS
Once the students have built prototypes of their games - some complex others rather simple - they bring them to class and introduce their games to one another. Typically, I ask each student to review and playtest three different games by their classmates. They then take the games home and play them with their friends and fill out the peer review sheet. Questions five through eight are optional but I would suggest keeping the others if teachers wish to modify the sheet:
"Answer each of the questions with as much detail and criticism as possible. When reviewing a classmate's game, you might find it helpful to imagine a bit and put yourself in the shoes of a Game Publisher. Make your comments as if you have already put your own money into developing the game to this point and are committed to putting more of your own money into publishing it. Naturally, you want the game to be the best it can be in order to make sales to recoup your investment. You also need your product to be high quality so as to encourage consumers to buy other products from your company in the future. So, when critiquing your classmate's game, you want to be as honest and as forthright as possible - also be professional.
"1.Are the rules complete and clear enough? Are they well written and comprehensible or are they written in poor or sloppy English? Give examples.
"2.What do you like about this game? Be as detailed as possible.
"3.What do you not like about this game? Be as specific and as detailed as possible.
"4.How can this game be improved? Be very specific and very detailed.
"5.If this were not a class assignment, would you play this game? Explain your answer.
"6.Would you recommend this game to your friends? Why or Why Not?
"7.Given this game as an example, would you recommend this designer's work to your friends? Why or Why Not?
"8.If you really were a Game Publisher, would you put your own money into this game and sell it? Why or Why Not? What changes need to be made to make it more marketable?"
CONCLUSION
Of course, teachers and students should not expect to strike gold every time with this project. In my own classes I have found the vast majority of the games to be rather average and not-too-terribly inspired. A small handful have been wonderful gems which with a bit more elbow grease could be turned into great games. A lamentable few will be unimaginative boring failures too. C'est la vie. Unfortunately some students will consider their games to be of the second category only to be shocked when their classmates' reviews place them in the third. A piece of the introductory lecture needs to clarify how to handle constructive criticism as well as how to be tactful about giving it. Since the final goal of the game is "real world" play, students need to set their sights on helping one another produce the best games possible for them (I constantly remind students that their games will have their names on them so they want to produce good quality and that they want to help each other improve their games for the same reasons). Despite some weaknesses, the project still has a lot to offer a class of imaginative and ambitious students (most classes would fall in this category) and it also helps otherwise "serious" students that games can be a serious business.
While the Game Design Project as I approach it in my classes is specifically intended for my EFL classes, teachers of other languages or even other subjects and levels may find it worthwhile to adapt the project to their own courses. It can lend itself to a variety of classroom applications. Since I am focusing on language use, I do not limit the type of game or the subject area - albeit a fine EFL adaptation is to require the games to be conversational or compositional in nature, depending upon which skills the instructor prefers students work on at the time of the assignment (reading-based games are also a possibility in both language and literature courses). Teachers of other subjects may feel free to narrow the assignment by requiring the student-generated games be within the scope of the course matter (obviously Glass Bead Games are well suited for this sort of classroom application). Teachers may feel free to email me at phillips@nccu.edu.tw with reports of their own adaptation of the project. I'd be happy to archive articles on your own Game Design Project in my web page - or to link to them if you prefer to house them yourselves.
Visit Brian Phillips' excellent website, "Interactive Drama Freeform Live Action Role Play and Educational Gaming Resources" at http://www.rpg.net/larp/. Brian is pursuing a doctorate on freeforms and roleplaying and has assembled an AMAZING on-line collection of articles, scenarios, and roleplaying resources from all over the world.
Email Brian David Phillips at phillips@nccu.edu.tw.
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