By Rae Ostman, Arizona State University, USA, Sarah Chu, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada This interactive workshop will focus on using games and game design to create more compelling, immersive, and participatory museum experiences. We’ll explore the ways that gaming can advance our professional practice and the visitor experience, offering new ways to design and enhance both traditional and digital forms of engagement. During the half-day workshop, the presenters will walk through the game development process and share some examples of projects that use games to promote engagement and learning for a variety of audiences, including families, school groups, and young adults. Participants will then divide into small groups for a fun, collaborative game development activity, with the goal of creating a playable game by the end of the workshop. At the end of the session, participants will understand the potential for “game thinking” to inform museum experiences, be familiar with general resources and ready-to-use educational materials related to games in museums, and be inspired by ways they might apply game design and strategies at their own organizations.

1. Gaming in museums:
How to level up your museum’s public engagement
Rae Ostman, Arizona State University, USA
Sarah Chu, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada
Museums and the Web Conference | April 18-21, 2018 | Vancouver, BC, Canada

2. Land
acknowledgment
We would like to acknowledge that we are
situated upon the traditional, ancestral, and
unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and
Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. We also recognize
the enduring presence of Indigenous peoples on
this land.

3. Introduction
and agenda
▪ Introduction to games
▪ Games in museum contexts
▪ Start game prototypes
▪ Afternoon break
▪ Finish game prototypes
▪ Playtest

4. “
▪ The game industry generates more than $30.4
billion in revenue.
▪ More than 150 million Americans play video games.
▪ The average gamer is 35 years old.
▪ Women age 18 and older represent 31% of video
game-playing population, while boys under age 18
represent 18%.
▪ 67% of parents play video games with their child at
least once weekly.
2017 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry,
Entertainment Software Association,
http://www.theesa.com/about-esa/industry-facts/

5. What is
a game?
“A game is a system in which
players engage in an artificial
conflict, defined by rules,
that results in a quantifiable
outcome.”
Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals,
Salen and Zimmerman, 2004, p. 96

6. What is
a game?
A game is where “different
outcomes are assigned
different values, the player
[can] influence [and] feels
attached to the outcome,
and the consequences [...]
are optional and negotiable.”
The game, the player, the world: Looking
for a heart of gameness, Juul, 2003

7. Formal
game elements
Players
Single/multiplayer, player vs.
environment, player vs. player, etc.
Rules/Mechanics
Setup (things you do at the
beginning), progression (what
happens during the game; what
players can/cannot do), & resolution
(how the outcome is determined).
Objectives/Goals
Capture, solve, collect, build,
chase/race, etc.
Resources
Time, lives, currency, health,
actions, inventory, etc.

8. Formal elements of
Pac-Man
▪ Players
▪ Objectives/Goals
▪ Rules/Mechanics
▪ Resources

9. Dramatic
game elements
Story
Premise, objective, characters
Mechanics
Play
Design
Aesthetics, technology

10. Dramatic elements of
Fortnite
▪ Story
▪ Aesthetics
▪ Technology

11. What is the
game development process*?
Concept
Game ideas & design.
Full Release
Prototype
Create & playtest
paper/digital experiments.
Production
Development using coding &
game-making tools (e.g., Unity),
and creation of assets.
Debug
Fix bugs, change/add
final features, & polish.
Beta Test
Playtest for bugs &
to improve gameplay.
* Game development is an iterative process of designing, building, and testing.

12. Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story
License to Krill game
https://vimeo.com/208492607 & https://www.bluecadet.com/work/blue-whale/

13. Challenge of Mining game &
responsible mining in Minecraft
https://www.rom.on.ca/en/blog/minecraft-and-museums-together-at-the-rom

14. ROM Game Jam
event & programs
https://www.rom.on.ca/en/blog/game-jam

15. ROM Game Jam
school visits

16. ROM Game Jam games
& Hack the ROM program
https://www.rom.on.ca/en/learn/activities/games

17. NISE Network
gallery games
Strategies
Social: Designs that foster positive
social interactions
Multigenerational: Challenges that are
fun for all ages
Familiar: Games with simple rules to
quickly and easily engage participants
Aligned: Mechanics of game should
align with learning objectives

18. NISE Network
Get in Order / Powers of Ten
http://www.nisenet.org/catalog/programs/exploring_size_-_powers_ten_game_nanodays_2011_2012_2014

19. NISE Network
Ready, Set, Self-Assemble!
http://www.nisenet.org/catalog/programs/exploring_fabrication_-_self-assembly_nanodays_10

20. NISE Network
Nano Around the World / You Decide!
http://www.nisenet.org/catalog/programs/exploring_nano_society_-_you_decide

21. NISE Network
Your Mission to Space
http://www.nisenet.org/catalog/sun-earth-universe-exhibition

22. NISE Network
Rover Run
http://www.nisenet.org/catalog/exploring-solar-system-mars-rovers-2018

23. NISE Network
Atoms to Atoms
http://www.nisenet.org/chemistry-kit

24. ASU / NISE Network
Frankenstein200
http://www.nisenet.org/frankensteinkit

25. Game prototyping
activity
▪ Paper prototype:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x48qOA2Z_xQ
▪ Select one exhibition label & design a game for that
exhibition
▪ Game must be playable by 4:00

26. Game prototyping
tools
▪ Packets with exhibition labels
▪ Worksheets (game structure, tetrad, storyboard)
▪ Basic prototyping supplies
▪ Deck of Lenses
(Also available for free on the App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-art-of-game-design-a-deck-of-lens
es/id385531319?mt=8)

27. Game prototyping
tools (optional!)

28. Game prototyping
schedule
▪ 2:00 - 2:45
Start game prototypes
▪ 2:45 - 3:15
Afternoon break & small group feedback
▪ 3:15 - 4:00
Finish game prototypes
▪ 4:00 - 4:30
Playtest & large group share out

29. Thank
you
Rae Ostman
Associate Research Professor
Arizona State University
rostman@asu.edu
@RaeOstman
Sarah Chu
Digital Learning Specialist
Royal Ontario Museum
sarahc@rom.on.ca
@sairc

30. The Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network was supported by the National Science Foundation under award numbers 0532536 and
0940143. ChemAttitudes is supported by the National Science Foundation under award number 1612482. Increasing Learning and Efficacy
is supported by the National Science Foundation under award number 1516684. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this presentation are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
Space and Earth Informal STEM Education is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement number NNX16AC67A. Any opinions,
findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
ROM Game Jam photos © Stacey Lee Kerr.
Hack the ROM initiative generously supported by: