Matthew-Game-Design


 * 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. Some way that I might be able to use Gamestar, could possibly be to use one of the issues about Honduras. One of the issues that has happened in Honduras are Guerrella warfare. In Gamestar, you can create frags to fight against. I could focus on the Honduras problem of warfare. By using frags, I think I could try to design levels where you have to build up to Honduras' freedom from Guerellas. Another cool idea could be to collect points like money in the game to help your life as a Honduran. Elements I would put in this game would be frags, and an avatar with a weapon. Or, I could put an avatar without a weapon, but place weapons in the area.

2. A Serious Game Mod for an Exisiting Boardgame that follows the design brief. One boardgame that I think that I can modify could be the game of life or monopoly, because my topic deals with poverty in Honduras. Both Monopoly and Life have a setting where you need to make money. I might be able to make a similar version, but I am not sure yet. Since my issue would be community and economic problems, I think that if I modified a game, that game would need money and could possibly be relate to money. If I decide to modify an existing game, I think that I should use my own cards, or tamper with a few others. Monopoly could be an interesting game to modify, but I am not sure if the game could be completely winnable. For example, since I am only modifying this game, the game would only be a different version of Monopoly, but would have a similar, or same game play. I would still use all of the pieces, but give them different labels. 3. A Serious Game -- Free Choice that follows the design brief. One idea that I have in mind is trying to make a game that you can use both a game board, and computer. One of my ideas is to create a game board and pieces, and make it compatible to use the computer. This is like Evoke, because you use the computer, and experience things in real life. Maybe I can make game cards that can be printable for easy use,and instructions that can be read from a website or something. Now that I have thought of making use of Gamestar Mechanic, I think that if I created a whole new game, I could include that into the game play, playing from both the board and the web. I could create a game with my own board with some spaces that go into a board. You would need to travel from space to space and complete various objectives. I do not think I will include dice, but have cards to move instead.