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Alex Games: The Social Nature of Game Design

Filed at 2:05 pm on July 23, 2007 in Games • Leave a comment

For this post, I would like to discuss another aspect that has been particularly evident to us during the Wisconsin workshop sessions: the social nature of game design. This is especially exemplified in two aspects of GameStar Mechanic. The first aspect that the kids like very much is the idea of having other people see and give them feedback on their games. This feedback usually takes the form of blog postings that enable a conversation between those in our New York site and Wisconsin. It seems that almost every session there is a request by the participants to see if new postings have been made on their minigames.

The Motivating Power of Peer Feedback

At the same time, these messages can be powerful motivators for design within GameStar Mechanic dynamic. Few times have I seen our participants more excited than when a review of their game was an unexpected one. The case of Sebastian (a pseudonym) illustrates this point nicely. Early in our sessions, Sebastian designed a simple platform game were jumping from block to block over a pit full of enemies was the central dynamic. He posted his game online and the next day he had received a number of reviews from kids in New York. Several people told him his game was great and a lot of fun. He was so excited about this he went on to make three different variations on the game and post them online for others to see. This also got other students excited. In fact, one of the students even expressed his dismay when one of the reviews was unfavorable. The next session, all he wanted to do was to work on his game to make it “better.”

The Participatory Design Process

But the social nature of design goes beyond just reviews and feedback. Regarding the second aspect, the girls in particular preferred to design their games as a group instead of individually.  Our preliminary findings in this area indicate that girls seem to thrive on the participatory design process; they criticize, elaborate and give feedback on each other’s contributions to the overall design as it was being produced.

This process proved to be especially beneficial for those participants who had limitations or needed to go slower than others. A participant, whom I will call Edith, has a visual impairment that requires her to read text very close up to her face. As a consequence, during one of the sessions where I gave them an individual design task, I could see how much she was struggling trying to catch up with everyone else, since GameStar Mechanic presents players with a number of design resources with a substantial amount of text. And even though she was quite a trooper and did not complain or even show any sign that she was upset, I still felt bad for her because in some way others were able to compare their progress to hers. As a consequence, I decided the next task I give them should be in teams. I was really pleasantly surprised at how this exercise turned out, because the girls seemed to take into collaboration in a very natural way. They began by developing a story and each contributed to what the story behind the game would be. This plot became the cornerstone against all of the girls’ arguments would be justified when it came to proposing an implementing design decisions in the game. I believe this process was not only more fun to Edith, but was also a more fair assessment of what she can do as a designer. In the end, I believe she came out feeling that she had contributed in a meaningful way to the game.

By engaging in discussions about the design of games either during or after the process of design itself, our participants are developing certain attitudes which involve such skills as tolerance of criticism and respect for other’s views that may be very beneficial for their academic and professional lives.

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