Grace's-Game-Designs


 * IDEAS FOR SERIOUS GAMES**toc

Middle school students enjoy games but teachers don't appreciate that. Teachers feel that students should read and write to gain greater understanding about world issues. The problem to be solved is to make a serious game that is about a world issue.

**Requirements:**

 * 1) Game must be accessible to the intended players
 * 2) Game must be well-paced to be enjoyable
 * 3) Game must be challenging to the intended players.
 * 4) Game must have a clear goal
 * 5) Game must be winable.

** Constraints: **

 * 1) It must be possible to create this game with the tools available to middle school students (computers, wikis, blogs, cardboard, poster board, glue, colored pencils, markers, scissors, rulers, paper cutter, exacto knives, glue guns, found objects, dice, spinners, and other common items found in the home and school)

1. A Serious Game Using Gamestar Mechanic that follows the design brief. The game that would be made in Gamestar Mechanic would have you as an avatar and you would have to journey through Darfur to reach your neighboring country, Chad. In the game there will be a lot of enemies that have blasters to represent the soldiers that the government sent to kill the citizens. In each level there will be a certain number of points that you need to collect in order to continue your journey. In this case the points will represent food or supplies that will be needed in order to survive. In this game you will not have a lot of life so you have to time your actions right and make sure that the soldiers don't get you or else you are as good as dead. This is only a one player game and in the game most of the challenges will include trying to sneak past enemies. Also you will have to avoid spiked blocks that take way most of your life. This game takes place in Darfur where you are traveling through the country in order to try and escape. At the end of the game the goal block will be Chad were you will be safe from the government in Sudan. This game is for ages 6 and above because there is no mature content.

2. A Serious Game Mod for an Exisiting Boardgame that follows the design brief. In this game your goal is to get to Chad to avoid the genocide currently taking place in Darfur. This game will be a remake of the game life were you can either start in a group of people or traveling on your own to Chad. You will face many challenges which will include dodging soldiers and making sure you aren't in the village when it is being attacked. You will definately have a chance of dying in this game because it is realistic and that is what is happening in Darfur. This game will include many things that happen that may be for mature users which are 7th grade and up. In this game it is pure chance which is meant to show how every action of those in Darfur is a chace that may result in the end of their lives.

3. A Serious Game -- Free Choice that follows the design brief. This game is a card game that includes four players. Each player starts out with 13 cards. The ace, king, queen, and jack are all bad cards while 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are good cards. Everybody puts down one card and will place their hand on one of the good cards. Only one person can have their hand on a card at once. The last person to hit a card will take the last card if it is bad or give the card to whoever has the highest good card. If someone hits a bad one they will have to keep it. If you run out of cards you have been captured by the government and killed. Once someone has 10 good cards they have made it to Chad and escaped the genocide in Darfur.