Vak: Serious Game Design credits: 5

Content 

With a growing interest in the world for "Games to Grow", "Edugames" and other initiatives, the field of Serious Gaming is growing, and there is a need for well-thought-out games which teach technical and critical thinking skills developed by professionals. This Elective will dive into how "Learning Mechanics" translate to "Game Mechanics" and how games can be designed and facilitated with the purpose of solving local problems for a student-defined audience. 

By experiencing and analyzing various Serious Games, students will comprehend the effectiveness and utility of games as solutions for complex problems. Through research and testing, students will define a problem statement for a self-chosen target audience. They will then test a prototype to determine its effectiveness and analyze the results. To complete the serious game cycle, students will create a facilitation manual that accompanies their serious game. 

Assignment 

The student works on an assignment from a real-world client. They make a Serious Game Solution prototype and accompanying Facilitation Manual. 

The Prototype needs to be based on research on and understanding of the target audience for the case. It also needs to be tested and experienced by the target audience and client as well as addressing the problem statement. 

The Facilitation Manual follows the CMGT dresscode and is easy to comprehend. It needs to include the learning goals for the target audience and explains how the Serious Game Solution helps achieve those goals. The Facilitation Manual also has explanatory notes on the development of the game and explains how the game needs to be set up and played / experienced. It describes the roles and tasks of the facilitator before, during and after the Serious Game experience. 

Objective: 

The student will research, prototype, and test a serious game solution to a problem for a specific target audience. The student will write a Facilitation manual and prototype. 

Description of the Assessment task 

During the course, the student learns the process for designing a serious game solution to a self-chosen problem. The student conducts research into the problem, defines learning goals which are used to inform the design requirements of the Serious Game solution. The design requirements inform the game mechanics used in the serious game. The student hands in a Serious Game prototype and accompanying Facilitation Manual. In it, they explain how the prototype is run AND how to maximise results during the reflection exercise afterwards. 

The student hands in a Serious Game Prototype and the accompanying Facilitation Manual through blackboard. This prototype can be either digital or physical. The Facilitation Manual needs to be delivered in PDF format.