From Curriculum to Gameplay: A Workshop Method for Educational Game Design

Abstract

This paper presents a structured workshop methodology for designing educational games to enhance the initial conception phase in game development with educators as a target group. It uses a combination of Björk's game design patterns (Björk et al., 2003) with Andersons's Learning Taxonomy Action Verb Groups (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001), creating a matrix that connects educational goals with game mechanics. This structured approach is designed to assist educators, who may lack experience in game development, in generating more effective educational game design concepts. The four-step process begins with an introduction and instruction of the method used and continues with the atomization of a learning topic into smaller, specific objectives. This step leaves educators with more manageable learning goals. The third step uses a matrix that maps gameplay patterns and elements from Björk et al. (2003) to Bloom's Taxonomy objectives, identifying appropriate game design patterns. This helps educators see which game design elements support specific learning goals, enabling them to create more engaging educational games. A companion application was developed to simplify this process, allowing participants to browse and filter patterns efficiently, as well as generate random combinations for inspiration. Lastly participants reflect on found gameplay elements to form an educational game design. This Methodology was applied in an ongoing project and the outcomes of the workshop are currently used in the development of the educational game "The Analyst" at the Technical University of Darmstadt. In this project a serious (educational) game is developed to teach the diagnostic process in sport, psychology and pedagogy.