Poster PlayTrack MMochocki 2017.pdf

2021

Game Design is one of those skillsets that are difficult to clearly define, and it can feel like – and is often described as – an inherent part of human nature. We all play games in one form or another, and even when we play universally recognizable games we often make rule changes to said games to fit the type of experience we want to have. Local variations of playground games, and house-rules to popular board games, bear witness to the fact that game design is a practice that people participate in, without necessarily thinking of it as game design. Even though design is something natural, it still needs to be honed and developed further for those who would like to pursue game design as a more formal profession. This presents a challenge for game education: how do we identify and describe the knowledge and skills that many people already use inadvertently as amateurs, in order to help students see what they need to hone and practice to become expert game designers? This report will...

IntechOpen in Game Design and Intelligent Interaction, 2019

Educational games have become a highly prominent tool in schools to deliver an exciting learning experience. A large amount of literature discusses the importance of how educational games are designed has been highlighted that delivering learning through educational games design and how the game designers require crucial skills to design. Educational game design requires elements that are considered during the designing process. Looking at the projection of “Game designing or the process of game design is a complex task, and it is still being investigated”. Therefore, this chapter intends to discuss recent and prominent proposed game design elements that demonstrate their important characteristics in designing educational games. Consequently, two highly significant game design theorists with established fundamental elements of games are discussed. With critically understanding the elements, this chapter provides categorizing various existing game elements into established fundamental elements. Henceforth, it demonstrates a clearer overview of how game design elements can be categorized and applied. Future recommendations are also discussed.

Proceedings of the 8th …, 2008

This interactive session presents early research findings resulting from a game simulation currently called Gamestar Mechanic through which 70 middle and high school-age players learn to design video games. Gamestar Mechanic is an RPG (Role-Playing Game) style online game through which players "take on" the behaviors characteristic of professional game designers (e.g., designing games, accounting for variability change within a game's system, critiquing games). Reflecting on and practicing design can lead, we believe, to skills that are crucial for success in the modern, high-tech, global world. Game design is but a start in learning to think of complex interactions among variables, people, and technology, but it is also a domain that can help others reflect on complex interactions among systems. Early findings are showing that the pedagogical design of Gamestar Mechanic has the potential to help participants develop understanding of technical concepts particular to game design, systems-thinking skills, and other behaviors associated with the domain.

2017

It has been nearly twenty years since the first undergraduate degree program in computer game development was established in 1998. Since that time, the number and size of programs in game design and development have grown at a rapid pace. While there were early efforts to establish curricular guidelines for the field, these face a number of challenges given the diverse range of academic homes for game-related programs. This panel will address the history of curricular development in the field, both in individual programs and across institutions. It will also explore the potential risks and rewards of developing curricular and/or accreditation guidelines for the field.

Social, Education, and Psychological Issues, 2014

Play has been an informal approach to teach young ones the skills of survival for centuries. With advancements in computing technology, many researchers believe that computer games1 can be used as a viable teaching and learning tool to enhance a student’s learning. It is important that the educational content of these games is well designed with meaningful game-play based on pedagogically sound theories to ensure constructive learning. This chapter features theoretical aspects of game design from a pedagogical perspective. It serves as a useful guide for educational game designers to design better educational games for use in game-based learning. The chapter provides a brief overview of educational games and game-based learning before highlighting theories of learning that are relevant to educational games. Selected theories of learning are then integrated into conventional game design practices to produce a set of guidelines for educational games design.

American Journal of Business Education, 2010

To create professionals for the future, who will be innovative and internationally competitive, we need to change the learning environment. The current traditional delivery systems of education do not develop the necessary interpersonal, analytical and creative skills to deal with the new knowledge economy. Baer (2005), in calling for a new model of learning, says this will require collaboration between educators and game designers to research how games are best aligned with the targeted learning environment and needs. The incorporation of games will require realistic assessment of the current structure of education so that "students' ability to participate in complex social practices; learn new knowledge and perform well in novel, changing situations needs to be considered valuable learning" (Squire and Jenkins, 2004, p.31). When games and simulations are combined with technology they can generate the environment within higher education that can produce the highly-skilled professionals which are required.

Games: Purpose and Potential in Education, 2008

Serious games" are emerging as an important outgrowth of the video gaming industry. Entertaining games, such as Flight Simulator and SimCity, are already in use in schools and universities across the country, and the number of serious games designed specifically for training and education is also on the rise. Advances in video game production, however, are far outpacing research on its design and effectiveness. Relatively little is still known about methods for optimizing the game design process or game-based learning.

2016

This case uses a worked or ‘working example ’ model (Gee, 2010), documenting the implementation of a novel game design curriculum in the United States. Created by an Instructional Technology Administrator (ITA) and two classroom teachers, it was subsequently offered to high school students. With an aim of providing in-depth understanding of conditions necessary to bring game design experiences to classrooms, the research describes the context while revealing processes and instructor perceptions of the experience. Data collection and analysis in this working example include observation, teacher interviews, student surveys, and artifacts intended to make thinking and practices overt while inviting scholarly conversation around the curriculum’s successes and failures. Drawing on a previous case focused on initial course planning and early implementation (Herro, 2013), this paper advances insight regarding the process of moving game design into schooling and concludes with a discussion ...

2014

The main goal of this paper is to present 'SADDIE', the methodology for designing educational games that was developed at the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana and defines indikative phases for serious game design project that is implemented as a two-semester project in the course "Application of ICT in education". The methodology is carefully designed and its application has various positive outcomes. Serious game as a final product is just a side effect of the more important goal, i.e. achieving competences that are crucial for teachers. Such competences include the ability to determine learning objectives that are consistent with the curriculum, the selection of appropriate teaching approaches and their implementation in the learning process, preparation of feedback for students, evaluation of acquired knowledge and evaluation of the learning process.

Academia Biology, 2023

This article reviews the mechanical bidomain model, a mathematical description of how the extracellular matrix and intracellular cytoskeleton of cardiac tissue are coupled by integrin membrane proteins. The fundamental hypothesis is that the difference between the intracellular and extracellular displacements drives mechanotransduction. A one-dimensional example illustrates the model, which is then extended to two or three dimensions. In a few cases, the bidomain equations can be solved analytically, demonstrating how tissue motion can be divided into two parts: monodomain displacements that are the same in both spaces and therefore do not contribute to mechanotransduction, and bidomain displacements that cause mechanotransduction. The model contains a length constant that depends on the intracellular and extracellular shear moduli and the integrin spring constant. Bidomain effects often occur within a few length constants of the tissue edge. Unequal anisotropy ratios in the intra- and extracellular spaces can modulate mechanotransduction. Insight into model predictions is supplied by simple analytical examples, such as the shearing of a slab of cardiac tissue or the contraction of a tissue sheet. Computational methods for solving the model equations are described, and precursors to the model are reviewed. Potential applications are discussed, such as predicting growth and remodeling in the diseased heart, analyzing stretch-induced arrhythmias, modeling shear forces in a vessel caused by blood flow, examining the role of mechanical forces in engineered sheets of tissue, studying differentiation in colonies of stem cells, and characterizing the response to localized forces applied to nanoparticles.