In this workshop, veteran game designer Nicholas Fortugno introduces the core idea of serious game design: using game mechanics and play to communicate, teach, or persuade. The workshop gives a definition of games that provides tools to think about the underlying systems that make them work, and then shows how those systems can be constructed to lead to specific play patterns. Examples are shown from successful serious games of the relationship between the game mechanics and the serious content. Participants then take part in a hands-on analog game design exercise to put these lessons to work by making a prototypes of a game for a pre-selected issue. The goal of the workshop is to give participants direct experience thinking in game design terms and trying to apply game design in an instrumental way. No previous game design experience required. PARTICIPANTS: Nick Fortugno, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Playmatics

1. Game Design Workshop
Nicholas Fortugno
Playmatics

2. Game Design Basics

5. Game Design Basics
• Games have goals that the player tries to
reach in order to win.

7. Game Design Basics
• Games have goals that the player tries to
reach in order to win.
• A game’s rules are constraints on the player’s
ability to reach the goal.

9. Game Design Basics
• Games have goals that the player tries to
reach in order to win.
• A game’s rules are constraints on the player’s
ability to reach the goal.
• The combination of goals and rules forms a set
of incentives that guide player choices and
behavior.

10. nti

11. Game Design Basics
• Games have goals that the player tries to
reach in order to win.
• A game’s rules are constraints on the player’s
ability to reach the goal.
• The combination of goals and rules forms a set
of incentives that guide player choices and
behavior.
• This is what creates fun and the other
emotions and messages games produce.

12. Using Games for Serious Purposes

13. Using Games for Serious Purposes
• The key to using a game for a message or
lesson is to embody the message in the play.

14. Using Games for Serious Purposes
• The key to using a game for a message or
lesson is to embody the message in the play.
• The player has to engage with the message by
playing, meaning through the action of
making choices in the game system.

15. Examples of Embodied Play

16. Examples of Embodied Play
• Games as modeling

17. Examples of Embodied Play
HD Lab, Playmatics

18. Examples of Embodied Play
The Redistricting Game, USC Game Innovation Lab

19. Examples of Embodied Play
• Games as modeling
• Games as simulation

20. Examples of Embodied Play
Peacemaker, Impact Games

21. Examples of Embodied Play
Ayiti: The Cost of Life, gameLab, Global Kids

22. Examples of Embodied Play
Hustlin’ Healthcare, Clay Ewing

23. Examples of Embodied Play
• Games as modeling
• Games as simulation
• Games as abstract representation

24. Examples of Embodied Play
Humans vs. Mosquitos, Mohini Dutta, Ben Norskov, Lien
Tran, and Eulani Labay

25. Examples of Embodied Play
• Games as modeling
• Games as simulation
• Games as abstract representation
• Gamification of the method of change

26. Examples of Embodied Play
Commons: The Game, Suzanne Kirkpatrick, Nien Lam,
Jamie Lin

27. Workshop Exercise
• Create a prototype
– A very crude, very broken, first pass at a game
• The goal is to have the core interactivity of
the game (e.g. the players’ choice) embody
the lesson or system you want the players to
learn.

28. Questions?
nick@playmatics.com
Design | Innovation | Engagement
www.Playmatics.com