Andrea'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. In order to make a Serious game on game star mechanic you need to know what your topic is about. For example my topic is about poverty in Ecuador therefore I must know if the number of poor people increased or decreased, what these people do in order to get food for themselves and their family, if children get an education even though they are poor, etc. There must be a right background for the right topic. For example my topic is poverty in Ecuador. My background shouldn't be pink colored or a outer space background. And in the information box I should type in the objective and a bit about my topic.

The game would be called "SURVIVE". Survive is a game in which you have to collect as much points as possible and not get caught by the little monsters. The points are money and the little monsters are police officers. In order to win you need to collect all the points and reach the finish block. You have no guns or any type of weapon to kill the officers at all. The background would be background #19 because it kind of looks like a city and the blocks would be the dirt patterned ones. The little "Police officers" should be of all kind. you have toget past them in order to get your "money". There will also be a key guarded by a lot of monsters. You will need to get that key in order to get through the door and get a lot of points and get to the star block.

The rules are: You need to collect all points in order to get to get to the star block. No killing officers or you lose the game.

The goal would be to get to the star block and collect all the points to win. No killing officers will be allowed or anything of that type. 2. A Serious Game Mod for an Exisiting Boardgame that follows the design brief. The game I will modify is monopoly. The materials to make this game will be: So in this game instead of the property boxes of being boardwalk and all of that, it would be places in Ecuador, meaning cities. Each player is a charity. the goal is to raise as much money for your charity as possible. The chance cards would have things like "Collect $200, get $400 from marathon walk, Give $100 to each player" there will be no community chest. That would be replaced with chance. You buy each city in Ecuador to have more commercial there and hold fundraisers to recive more money for your charity. The bottle caps would be for different colors, one for each of the four players. The board would have the paper glued to the cardboard. The paper would look just like a regular monopoly board but with names of cities in Ecuador instead. All the rules will be practically the same only with these changes.
 * Cardboard (sqaure shaped at least 12 inches by all sides)
 * Paper ( a bit shorter than your board)
 * Colored paper
 * Colored Pencils and/or markers.
 * Ruler (to make straight edges)
 * Index cards
 * Glue
 * Dice (two)
 * Bottle caps (Different colors if possible)

3. A Serious Game -- Free Choice that follows the design brief. Ayiti is the game I choose to modify. Instead of having the choice of only jobs you have the options of watching cars, stealing (in which you can get in jail for), begging, performing on roads, or selling water small toys and gum. It would be a card game. There would be 5 decks of cards. Whichever choice you make for each season you have to pick a card for that chioce you made. Each card has different things like "got $50, go to jail, sold all gum, collect $20, etc" You will also get $100 in cash to be able to spend on you and your family. This game will be all about choice. The materials needed: You set a time limit and within that time limit you see how much money you have left. Whoever is the most successful wins.
 * Cardboard (for the board to place cards)
 * Colored paper (for money)
 * Index cards (for cards)
 * Colored pencils and/or markers (to add color)
 * Ruler (for straight edges)