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A game design workshop to support the
elaboration of game ideas
Christos Sintoris, Nikoleta Yiannoutsou and Nikolaos Avouris
University of Patras, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rion
Patras, Greece
{sintoris, nyiannoutsou, avouris}@upatras.gr
Abstract In this paper we present a set of game design workshops in the
context of which we investigate design practices and elaboration of game
ideas. The workshops aimed at engaging participants in crafting designs
for location-based mobile games. We analyse the rationale underlying
the workshops and describe their structure and the involved material.
Next we outline the characteristics of six cases where these workshops
were implemented and finally we present a representative set of games
produced by the participants.
1 Introduction
In this paper we describe a game design workshop for creating conceptual designs
for multiplayer, hybrid reality, location based mobile games supporting informal
learning in cultural heritage sites. The workshop was implemented in six different
cases with different participants in each case who produced 32 conceptual designs
for the site of Pompeii. Multi-player location-based mobile games for learning are
a multifaceted field of study. Modern mobile technology and the accompanying
infrastructure that is weaved in our surroundings are becoming a new reality that
needs to be studied and understood. The theoretical base of how to transform
this technological potential into a form that can support playful learning can be
considered nascent. In part this stems from a lack of common ground as to what
elements of this hybrid space, the result of merging the digital and the physical,
can contribute to learning. Of particular interest is the possibility to employ the
motivational potential of games in this endeavour [3]. In the past decade there
has been increased interest on how to tap on this potential of technology as a
platform for location-based gaming activities with regard to learning [10, 13].
Hybrid reality location-based mobile games are playful mobile activities sit-
uated in real-world contexts. They are believed to be conductive to learning,
that may lead to acquisition of skills like critical thinking, curiosity, creativity,
collaboration, consideration of multiple perspectives, social awareness, respon-
sibility and media fluency [14]. These games are mobile, in the sense that they
require that the players move in the physical domain as part of the gameplay and
not that the players ‘carry’ the game on them as in ‘games for mobile devices’.
The underlying idea is that with these games the players interact with the real
world and perform physical activities situated in it. From a learning perspective,
location based mobile games focus on generating knowledge in relation to their
surroundings , especially in sites with cultural interest like historic city centres
and/or archaeological sites. As noted in a survey of location-based games [4],
these games are conceived as tools that employ the fun of a game, so that the
players can be engaged with a specific location.
The design and construction of such games can be a challenge in engineering,
a challenge of balancing between playing and learning, of integrating the physical
context in a meaningful way, of engaging the players, of highlighting aspects
related to the importance of the site etc. It thus becomes apparent that we
are confronted with a complex problem which can be approached at a social,
cognitive, media-theoretic, interaction or game theoretic level. This complexity
is a barrier for the wider use of games in education [9, 15].
The work presented here describes the structure of a game design workshop
and investigates its value as a methodological instrument /tool for designing
hybrid reality location based games supporting informal learning. We mentioned
earlier that the workshop was implemented in six different occasions. Designers
with different backgrounds (e.g. game-based learning, engineering, management
of cultural heritage, education etc.) worked in groups of 3-5 persons to create
a game concepts for a hypothetical location-based mobile multi-player game
for the site of ancient Pompeii. The game design task that was devised for the
workshops was comprised of a fixed procedure and accompanied by material and
information related to the archaeological site. During the workshops, we asked
each design team to use the provided materials and to generate a game concept
for the site.
2 Background
Game design workshops are not an uncommon approach in regard to investi-
gating game design [6, 12]. They possess a number of characteristics that make
them a suitable research tool [12]: a) they are a focused, low-cost practice that
can involve a large number of participants, b) they can generate rich data for
analysis and they can function as empirical tools to study the production of game
designs and they do, in fact, produce new designs, and c) they can be studied
rather easily (in contrast to other methods such as for example observing game
designers in their workplace).
The theoretical framework on which the structure of the game design work-
shop was based involved a) interaction modalities with the real world, b) an
understanding of game mechanics as “the various actions, behaviors and control
mechanisms afforded to the player within a game context” [8], c) the learning
dimension of the cultural experience [7] [5], d) the role of technology in enriching
this dimension of cultural experience [16].
Table 1. An overview of the game design workshops that have been analysed. In the
third column is shown the number game concepts that were generated.
Participant characteristics in each case Game
concepts
1 2011, HCI Class in xxxxx, xxxxx
Engineering students, 8th semester, programming experience, lit-
tle or no game design experience
5
2 2011, PAKE training class in xxxxx, xxxxx
Education specialists, partly members of design teams for ICT in
education, experience in ICT in education
4
3 2011, DEG Workshop – “Involving End Users and Domain Ex-
perts in the Design of Educational Games” in Torre Cane, Italy
Postgraduate students, professional designers, experts in educa-
tional technology, experts in design science
2
4 2011, GBL Summer School in Autrans, France
Game based learning professionals and academics, partly experts
in mobile games and mobile learning
13
5 2012, HCI Class 2 in xxxxx, xxxxx
Engineering students, 8th semester, programming experience, lit-
tle or no game design experience
3
6 2013, CHM Summer School in P´ecs, Hungary
Postgraduate students in engineering, cultural management
5
3 Research setting
Partipants. The designers who participated in the workshops had varying back-
grounds. They were recruited on six different occasions (Table 1): a) 8th semester
engineering students who participated in the workshops as part of a on human-
computer interaction class (cases 1 and 5), b) researchers and professional de-
signers who participated in workshops related to game based learning and/or
cultural heritage management (cases 3, 4 and 6), c) public education specialists
who were training as instructors for the application of ICT in education (case
2). The participants cover a range of professional backgrounds that is expected
to provide a varying perspective, while at the same time the profiles cover typi-
cal backgrounds for multidisciplinary design teams for location-based games for
learning: Cases 3 and 4 are comprised of more experienced interaction and game
designers, while cases 2 and 6 cover expertise leaning more towards educational
and cultural heritage experts.
Workshop layout. The design process is based on unpacking mobile games
into their components, each of which is addressed separately but also in relation
to the other components. This approach is grounded in a framework of design
principles for location-based games defined by [2] and it partially draws elements
from the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics framework (hereafter MDA) by [8]. In
the workshops, the designers form teams of 3–5 members and attempt to sketch
out a game design in two phases (Figure 1). During each phase the teams use
the available tools (which are described below) to generate their conceptual
design. At the end of both phases, all teams present their conceptual designs.
The two phases are similar, with the difference that there is more time available
for the second phase. The rationale for this is to use the first phase in order
to get acquainted with the process and the tools and the second phase in order
to work out and describe more thoroughly the game idea. At the end of each
phase, each team specifies its concept by filling out a worksheet. One of the
team members takes the role of the rapporteur, who presents the team’s design.
During the presentations the designers are allowed to comment and appropriate
the presented ideas in their own designs. After the first phase, the process is
repeated and the workshop session ends after the second round of presentations.
The duration of the workshop is between 1 and a half and 2 hours.
Figure 1. The structure of a game design workshop. The workshop runs in two similar
phases. First a familiarization phase and then the main design phase. The total duration
of a workshop session is 1:30 to 2:00 hours.
Workshop material. The material created for the game design workshop
concerned the archaeological site of ancient Pompeii. It contains descriptions of
selected landmarks, main ideas or concepts (from the economy and everyday
life in Pompeii) and a map of the archaeological site. At the beginning of the
workshop session the participants receive the following material: a) a worksheet
with the main components of the conceptual design (see worksheet
components) which are expected to be specified by the designers in
order to create the design of a specific game, b) a map of the archaeological
site of Pompeii (Figure 2), c) a description of interesting sites in ancient Pompeii,
d) concept cards that describe aspects of the live in the ancient city and e) an
instruction card (the material is available at censored).
Figure 2. This map of Pompeii, with the locations of six landmarks, is one of the
workshop materials.
Worksheet components. The teams use worksheets to describe their game
concepts. Each worksheet contains a number of items that are to be described or
specified by the participants, on which they can contemplate and use as fill-ins
to describe their game concept:
–The title of the game: The title can be something funny, curious, strange
and/or representative of what the game is about.
–The goal of the game: The goal of the game involves what the players need
to do in order to win.
–The rules of the game: The rules delineate the behaviour of the players and
define the ways in which they can interact with the (real-world or digital)
objects of the game with their co-players or with their opponents.
–Use of technological means and tools: Location-based mobile games employ
technology in various ways: as information screens, as communication media,
as barcode scanners, as GPS devices, as map displays etc.
–Mechanisms: The mechanisms of the game involve mainly the pacing of the
game and the type of interaction between players.
–Behaviours and aesthetic result: This item involves how the game will evolve
over time and what is the envisaged player experience.
Design task and data collection. The workshops were realized in six dif-
ferent occasions (Table 1). The profiles of the participants varied in most of the
cases. While the design task was kept constant, the resulting designs reflected the
profiles of the designers. In two occasions 8th semester engineering students par-
ticipated in the workshop sessions, another two sessions were conducted during
summer schools, one during an international workshop on game design and one
were the participants were education professionals. The most productive session
took place during the Game Based Learning Summer School (case 4, Table 1)
where the participants had a variety of profiles (both academic and industrial)
and were strongly related to a game studies background.
Each workshop session started with a brief presentation of the design task,
the materials and context about Pompeii. The design scenario prescribed that
the participants are impersonating game designers with the task of designing a
game for visitors of the archaeological site of Pompeii. The game should thus
have the characteristics of a location-based mobile game, adapted for this site.
The participants were asked to design a game that can be played in a “physical
space” by multiple players, who will use mobile devices or smartphones as inter-
action tools. They were also asked to make use of pervasive computing technol-
ogy in their game, in any manner they can envisage, such as physical hyperlinks
(e.g. QR or NFC tags), unrestricted wireless communication, location-sensing,
augmented reality etc., without constraints. Finally the designers were asked to
engage the players in learning about the specific site — i.e. ancient Pompeii.
In all, the design task involved sketching out a game concept by describing its
main components: the rules, the mechanics, the typical player behaviours , the
available technology and the way it should be used. The requirements for this
task were to create a game supporting interaction with a place of high informa-
tion density, achieving any kind of learning outcome and taking into account the
profiles of prospective players. The designers were allowed to assume that they
have unlimited resources for their game concept. These “ideal designers” had
thus to cope with a number of issues such as a) to specify how the technological
means will be used in their game concept, b) how to connect the domains of the
digital and the real world and c)how to employ playful interaction in the game
concept.
4 Conceptual game designs
In this section we discuss the output of these workshops. We present in detail
one example and we offer an overview of the main characteristics of the total
32 designs that were generated. Data was collected mainly by digitizing the
generated worksheets. During some of the workshops it was possible to keep
audio or video recordings of the discussions (cases 2, 3, 4, 5). The game concepts
were subsequently analysed by employing a content analysis approach. Content
analysis is not a singular method but rather a set of methods in the social
sciences that are used to analyse communication and texts. Content analysis
offer a number of methodological means. We employed ethnographic content
analysis [11, p. 16, 21] [1], a data-driven content analysis method. Next, we will
describe the specific approach with more detail.
Figure 3. A team contemplating on their design, during the 2011 Game Based Learning
Summer School in Autrans, France.
A total of 32 game concepts were produced by the design teams (one design
in case 3 was not documented in the final worksheets).
Table 2: The titles of the conceptual game designs that were pro-
duced in the workshops. The contents of these concepts have been
posted at censored
Game title
1 HCI Class in xxxxx, xxxxx
1.1 Fauns agains Vetti
1.2 A day in Pompeii
1.3 Pandora’s Box
1.4 I was in Pompeii too: Fire and Lava (episode I)
1.5 Find Pompeii’s Secret
2 PAKE training class in xxxxx, xxxxx
2.1 Searching in Pompeii
2.2 Touring Pompeii
2.3 Mortuus Pompeiis
2.4 I live my place some place else
3 DEG Workshop in Torre Cane, Italy
3.1 The Day of the Eruption
3.2 Reveal the Story
4 GBL Summer School in Autrans, France
4.1 No Panic in Pompeii
4.2 Inspector Peritus
4.3 Pompeii Apocalypse
4.4 Last Party under the Volcano
4.5 Pompeii Total War
4.6 Swap and Survive
4.7 Bloody Pompeii
4.8 Roads of Lava
4.9 Back to the Future: Back to Pompeii
4.10 Murder Mystery Pompeii
4.11 The Volcano Strikes Back
4.12 Dionysos’ Wild Party or Vesuvio’s God
4.13 The Mystery of Pompeii
5 HCI Class 2 in xxxxx, xxxxx
5.1 Murder in Pompeii
5.2 Hunting in Pompeii
5.3 Murder at Faun’s
6 CHM Summer School in P´ecs, Hungary
6.1 Dionysus Puzzle
6.2 Soul of Pompeii
6.3 Legendary Game
6.4 Treasure Hunting in Pompeii
6.5 The Golden Treasure of Pompeii
4.1 An example :“Pompeii Total War”
“Pompeii Total War” is one of the concepts from the workshop at the Game
Based Learning Summer School in 2011. Below follows the complete document
that the participants delivered after the 1.30 hour session. The designers are
clearly inspired by the “Total War” series of video games and have modelled
their design accordingly. The language of the original design has been preserved.
The aim. Conquer and protect flag of/from every team (other players).
Your devices assist you: You can see buildings and NPCs through it. It also
features a dynamic map of your camp flags and conquered flags. NPCs will
give you hints and help you to solve puzzles and enigmas through a dialogue
interface. Beware, you will often need to gather several clues to solve puzzle
in the same time in different places. So split the team and use the simplified
com-system to stay in touch
The rules. You must protect and conquer flags by answering puzzles:
- a foreign flag can be captured when resolving the puzzle that an NPC
guard gave to the team. - you can recapture your own captured flags by
answering a new enigma to the NPC guardian - you can recapture a lost
flag by answering again to the guard (another enigma of course). You have
2 hours for the contest.
Use of means and tools. Tablets/smartphones with GPS (location),
camera (augmented reality) dynamic map of Pompeii with list of team flags
(conquered) network connection to a ?? (–unintelligible) (Real time changes
on the world).
Game mechanics. - RTS, capture the flags - several located enigmas -
time challenge (capture the most flags) - collaborative resolution (ubiquitous
problems for teams) - building strategies with several roles in the team -
communication with legendary known NPCs (gods, generals, famous).
Some enigmas: on the same flags there are several possible enigmas. They
are asked in a progressive way: the easier first, the harder last. Puzzle: the
mosaic with Alexander and find the place where the mosaic is. A non playing
character asks the players to find a picture in the pool. But to see the pic,
the pool must be full. So they have to split into 2 groups. One must stay
near the pool, the other has to find the valve. Once the valve is found, they
open it and tell the others to look at the pool. Attention, the valve must be
shut down whether the other teams can find it. Then all players have to go
back to the NPC and explain who is on the pic and his role in the mythology
(Dionysos, god of wine). If they are wrong, the NPC explains them but they
loose the flag.
Player behaviour and aesthetic result. - competition and pressure –
discovery of amazing [places — people (NPCs)] - self efficacy improvement
when a cooperative problem is solved - fun! - Learning a lot about past
Pompeii.
5 Final remarks
The workshop presented here is based on an understanding of location-based
mobile games as complex entities that can be synthesized in a component-based
manner. The workshop functioned as tool for contemplation and it allowed the
participating designers to elaborate on game concepts for location-based mobile
games. The analysis of the game concepts that were produced highlighted com-
mon design practices such as drawing elements from known games or genres,
or employing narrative as a gameplay element. Finally, the design documents
allowed us to extract a set of design patterns which could be used as building
blocks for creating new games.
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