This document outlines a teacher games literacy project conducted over 4 days. The project aimed to help teachers understand games through playing physical games, designing games, and learning about game mechanics. Each day covered different topics like types of fun, prototyping, and pitching games. Teachers experimented with games, reflected on their experiences, and considered how rules and fiction intersect in games. Students also participated on the last day by designing and pitching their own games. The project helped bring teachers and students together and showed that teachers already have strong games literacy skills.
3. About me
• Freelance writer & game developer
• Programmer, designer, writer, educator
• Co-director of Freeplay Independent Games Festival
• Board, Game Developers’ Association of Australia
• Advisory Committee, IF:Book Australia
• Advisory Committee, Screen Futures conference
4. About the project
• Department of Education and Early Childhood
Research Project
• Focused on Game Development
• Running in parallel with ‘Serious Games’ and ‘Virtual
Worlds’
• Began with the question: ‘what would you teach
teachers about game dev?’
6. Aspects of games literacy
• Historical context
• Rhetorical effects
• Rules and systems
• Fiction
7. Day 1 • Physical games
• Board games
• Types of fun
Day 2 • Designing physical games
• Designing digital games
• Prototyping
Day 3 • Designing digital games
• Pitching & planning
Day 4 • Mini-expo
13. Reflections
• What worked, what didn’t work?
• The nature of the end-game
• Their emotional experience
• The intersection between fiction & the game’s
rules
15. Aims of the day
• Deconstruct their experiences from day 1
• Look at mechanics & what makes games fun
• Rapidly prototype non-digital games
• Werewolves!!
• Design a sample videogame
32. Outcomes
• Bringing in real world game developers
• Pre-digital needs a little push
• Teachers already have strong games literacy
• Students engage quickly with content
• Creates a level playing field between teachers &
students
33. Next steps…
• Adapting content for professional developers
• Integrate with technology component
• Integrate into existing curriculum
• ???
Answer the following questions:What does the player do?How does the controller let them do those actions?Who is the player in game?Who are they fighting against or in conflict with?Where does the game take place?Are there any other characters or are you alone?How does the game make you feel?Why is it exciting? Why do you like it?
Verbs and nouns first; then characters; then some levels
Your game’s genreWhat sort of game it isWho the target market isWhat the important player actions (verbs) areWhat the game objects (nouns) look likeGenre: PlatformerTarget Market: Ages 8-15Short pitch: You are Timmy, who has to save the school from the aliens who have crashlanded by using the objects you find around the classrooms, freeing the other students and teachers, and helping the aliens back to their ship.
