Games are a playground
In response to The Mechanic is the Message: How to Communicate Values in Games through the Mechanics of User Action and System Response by Chris Swain, USC Games Institute and USC School of Cinematic Arts
This paper resonated with me because I have always been a “learn by doing” type of person. I learned how to shoot a basketball by watching and practicing with my dad. I learned how to play the guitar by buying one with my first paycheck and playing along with tutorials on Youtube. Games are a powerful medium because they are a playground.
Humans learn through play.
Unlike linear mediums such as print or television, games let players understand, learn, and more deeply internalize a message. We learn from our choices. For better or for worse, our choices stick with us.
“Games are a series of interesting choices.” -Sid Meier
The player-action system-response loop in games allow users to learn through rapid experimentation and exploration, a fancy way of saying players do the things, so they understand the things. Games are a perfect medium for teaching more nuanced concepts… enter, serious games. However it’s all in what the player does. It’s all about the mechanics. Here are some of Chris Swain’s best practices for designing meaningful mechanics.
1. Find experts on the topic
The answer to the question “What does the player do?” is the same as the answer to this question about the topic in real life.
I was reminded of times when I’ve tried to teach or explain something to someone, only to realize I don’t really understand it myself. Designing a serious game is not to be underestimated: take a concept and transform it into simple, tangible, interlocking parts that resonate with the player. This requires first and foremost a complete understanding of the concept. If you don’t understand it in real life, you won’t be able to design a system that represents it. In other words, if you’re not a master you better go find one.
2. Identify & prioritize learning objectives
What are the skills users need to develop? What are the concepts they need to understand? Now translate those into learning objectives: what should the user be able to do after completing the game?
This was something I struggled with on my first CS 377G game, Rhythm-O-Round. The game was originally intended to “teach rhythm”, but that quickly expanded into many different learning objectives.
Did I want to see players understand formal musical concepts? Read notation? How about understanding tempo? What’s more important, the physical coordination or the mental stamina of playing drums? At some point I decided I just wanted to see them improve their “rhythmic intuition”, but that was vague and hard to measure because every person has a different natural sense of rhythm.
After playing the game, should users be able to drum along to a song, or be comfortable enough to create their own beats? That touched on listening and collaborative skills versus creative and expressive skills as well as the absorption/imitation phase of learning versus synthesis/internalization.
Though I identified many aspects of learning rhythm, I think prioritizing them and honoring them would have given direction to my design process and made me a more effective game designer.
3. Embrace playcentric design
Playcentric design means placing the player at the center of the design process.
Rapid prototyping, early playtesting, iterate, rinse, repeat. We hear these words over and over again but I think what’s underneath it all is humility. We have a way of getting too attached to our ideas and our pride doesn’t let us pivot when we should. We must put our players over our pride.
4. Learn how to learn
Learning can in fact, be learned!
Robert Gagne’s “events of instruction”:
- gain learner’s attention
- give learner an objective
- let learner practice
Dr. Richard Clark’s “guided experiential learning” model:
- authentic problems
- illustrations of solutions
- practice & feedback
- connections to prior knowledge
“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” -Elvis Costello
The case study games in Swain’s paper all break ground because they have custom-designed mechanics to convey a message. This means creating something new, which means diving into the unknown, which means playtest, playtest, playtest. Let the players guide the mechanics and ultimately, just go for it.
Humans learn through play.
Serious games are young and experimental, but the effectiveness of experiential learning is undeniable. Go hit the playground.
