These videos were already shared in previous posts from my game design club series, but I wanted to get them in them one place. (I compiled some related interviews in this post.)
My goal with these videos was to concisely state three tips that would help students start making game. I use them to make board and card games, but they will help with digital games too. In fact, they form the basis of design thinking in any area.
Tip 1: Learn and play many games. But don't play mindlessly!
Tip 2: Keep a design notebook. Besides writing down ideas, use it to flesh your ideas out too.
Tip 3: Start playing right away. This includes some tips for making rough prototypes.
I already shared three of these four short videos in other posts, but I wanted to collect them in one. The past two months I ran a virtual game design club for middle school students and I interviewed two of my friends. (All posts in this series can be found here.)
Without any prep, they echoed the basic tips I had already shared with the group. (I'll soon gather those tips in a single post as well.)
The first interview is with Stephen Glenn. Several of his board and card games have been published worldwide. He addresses the following in the two-part interview.
Why he still makes games
How he gets ideas
Playtesting
Advice for young designers
The second interview is with Dominic Crapuchettes, of North Star Games. Dominic is probably the most successful game designer I can claim as a friend. I admire his dedication and approach to game design.
Similar to Stephen's interview, Dominic talked about:
This week I posted my final game design tip to the club and I posted a couple game design activities. I also recently finished up the second part of my interview with game designer, Stephen Glenn.
The Video
In this video about Tip #3 I talk about the importance of making a prototype and playing the game right away. It also talks a little about the vital practice of playtesting.
The tip as shown in the video lends itself toward board and card games, though I have read the same advice given to designers of digital games. This quick move to a rough prototype was something I started doing years ago. Recently I've heard it offered as good advice from many respected sources.
Here's the second part of the interview with Stephen, which supports much of what I said about playtesting in Tip #3.
For the non-digital game, I had asked students to learn a simple dice game, then consider how they would change it to create their own game. The directions can be found in this document.
Participation in the club was waning, so I made a simple activity for this week that asked students to play some digital games created in Scratch and answer some questions about them. It was meant to help them practice my Tip #1 (play and learn about as many games as possible). It also gives them a good idea what type of things they could program using Scratch.
I also finished up the first part of a second game designer interview this week. I'm really excited to share this one here and in the club.
It's with my friend Dominic Crapuchettes. As I say in the interview, he is definitely one of the most talented, dedicated and successful game designers I know. His experience and skill is invaluable and I was so grateful he took the time to help us this way. Please watch the video and share it with anyone interested in the hobby of creating games.
In Part 1 of the interview, Dominic talks about why he's still making games and he shares three "templates" that he has used to create new, original games.
I plan to share the second part of this interview next week.
Last week I started a badge system and listed some achievements. This post explains how I make the badges and share them with students. As an example, the image at the right is a badge students can earn by telling me a few games they learned about after practicing Tip #1.
If we were meeting face to face I'd be playing new and unique games with them to help them expand their knowledge. As it is, I have to encourage research. I created this document to get them started. Some of those game suggestions came from designers I've been contacting. More information on my work with them will come in later posts.
I should add that it's been a big challenge to have to teach kids about games through reading and watching videos. I have not been effective at it so far, so I'm working on ways to improve that.
Finally, I introduced the Tip #2 video and asked them a few questions about it. The tip is to start keeping game ideas in a notebook. Not all designers do that, but it has been a practice of mine from the start and I find it invaluable. Here's the video.
And later this week I will post this video. It's the first part of an interview with Stephen Glenn, a friend and successful game designer who started taking the hobby seriously right about when I did. He's had several more games published over the past two decades than I have and I appreciated his willingness to share it with me and the club.
In this first four-minute interview he talks about why he still makes games (it's not for the money!) and he gives a little insight into how he gets ideas for games. We had some issues with video in our Google Meet, so most of the visuals in the interview are just slides summing up his points.
I recently wrote about the virtual game design club I'm running for students in grades 5 - 8. I'll regularly post my resources so you can do the same or a similar program with your students.
This week I posted the following video to teach them a good first step toward becoming a game designer. If you want the short version, Tip #1 is to learn about as many games as possible.
I also used this image to promote the club on our school's social media.
And coming up soon in the club:
I'll post an activity later this week that will help them get started with the habit of learning about many games.
I just finished my first game designer interview this week with a friend. I hope to have that edited soon.
In Michigan our students will be out of school from March 13 through the end of summer. In an effort to inspire students to create and learn during this time, I revisited my idea of running a virtual game design club. Here's how I've started and a little about what I've learned.
I have big plans for the club, including:
A short series of tips for being a game designer.
Interviews through Google Meet with my friends who have made games.
Helping students publish their games online, whether they make digital or non-digital games.
Sharing everything we learn here on the blog, so students know there's a platform for the work we're doing.
First, I made a survey in Google Forms to check for interest. I asked our middle school teachers (grades 5 - 8) to post the survey in their Google Classrooms. The survey asked students about their favorite games, what types of games they'd like to make and what they hoped to get out of the club. In our school of about 360 students, I had 30 complete the survey. Most of those students were in grades 5 and 7. That's not many, but it was enough to get started.
I then created a class in Google Classroom. That's where we're managing all the classes at our secondary level. I invited the students who took the survey and I posted the introductory video below. I had a few goals with the video:
I wanted to let students know the club is meant to encourage them to create rather than just consume entertainment.
Of course a lot of the students are focused on making computer games. I normally design only board and card games. Programming can take a long time and be a challenge. I anticipate those being even more difficult obstacles as we work remotely. So I used this video to point out the huge number of games many people haven't discovered yet.
I wanted to pose the "big question": Do they want to make games badly enough to do the work required.
I made this video quickly, just talking as a clicked through a Google Slides presentation. (I started upping my game quickly for videos that I'll share soon.)
After watching the video, students were asked to complete another short Google Form. I asked the "big question" I referred to in the video. I also checked on their interest about making computer games versus board and card games.
Here are some things I've learned so far from this:
As we knew already, it is a challenge to encourage engagement when grades and credit are removed from the equation. That's what they're used to and now the rules have changed. The open ended questions I asked were sometimes answered with just a word or short phrase. That's not uncommon even during normal school, but I expected a little more enthusiasm for the topic of games and game design. Some of them did answer with thought and excitement behind it, of course.
Making engaging content is good practice for me. I hope to learn some tricks that helps me encourage the teachers I work with. It takes time and I wonder if what I'm putting into this club idea (not required for my job in any way) is sustainable. I completed the next video (which I'll write about in my next blog post). It was half as long and it took me probably four times longer to create.
Students are open to creating simple board and card games, but most interest still is leaning toward computer games. I'm hopeful I can keep their attention on non-digital games, since I think those are faster to go from idea to playable game (at least before one knows how to program). I'm hoping that faster cycle will keep them excited enough to continue learning.
Up next, we'll look at my first tip for aspiring game designers. If you're interested in following along with this, please let me know in the comments or by email. Follow me on Twitter for updates too.
