how to
What’s in a Game? – Debriefing Learning Games
Many have discovered that learning games and playful activities are effective for learning if you are required to use ‘online’, rather than a classroom setting. […]
Player Experience
Ideas
The Play Personality for Gamification – Alyea Sandovar
Alyea Sandovar sent us this video looking at how she uses Play Personalities (Dr. Stuart Brown, at the Institute for Play) in her gamification work. […]
Ideas
Puzlkind – the Healing Potential of Jigsaws
When a film curator wrote me a letter describing how said puzzle helped her through chemotherapy I was thrilled. I began to make mini-puzzles […]
Ideas
What is Player Agency in Games?
Player agency is about giving our players the time, space, and resources to make decisions in games. But is that is the only thing that agency gives to players? […]
Ideas
Playing games with the next generation
What will people want to play in 2040? As a futurist, I rely heavily on a skill called Scanning. Scanning is how we start to know the future and begin to expand our time horizon. […]
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Observing how games teach players to think and plan ahead
I have always subscribed to the idea that almost every game has something to teach you as you play it. Whether it is sharing a philosophical world view with games like ‘Spec Ops: The Line’(YAGER […]
Ideas
Beyond Engagement: Competition and Exploration in Serious Games Using Digital Narrative
The following is a chapter from an upcoming book by David Chandross, whom many of you will know from his fascinating posts on LinkedIn, and others from his academic publications. David is a big-hitter in […]
Ideas
Beer and Trippples – Games as Cybernetic Systems
Nowadays, when most people hear the term ‘Cybernetics’ they will tend to associate it with computer technology, possibly in a sci-fi or futuristic context. However, the term existed well before the age of digital computing. […]
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Worldbuilding in Game-based Learning Environments – A System and a Tool
The Fun Paradox While playing videogames, children seem to reach immersion levels not found anywhere else. They go to sleep thinking about how soon they can be awake again so they can keep playing. While […]
Ideas
Engagement and Learning as Emergent Properties of Systems Modelling: What we can Learn from Crusader Kings III
Your mileage may vary, but I remember history at school as long, boring lists of kings and queens. I had no interest in it. My sole motivation in showing up to any of the lessons […]
design process
Why game design matters to me – Part II
One of Ludogogy’s (very) regular contributors, Thomas Ackland wrote an article for this issue, way back in March, before it was postponed. He then developed his thoughts over the intervening months, and sent us another […]
Ideas
Unlearn what play should be
Until I was 17 years old, I was a hardened gamer. Platformers, strategy, beat’em up, FPS… I loved them all. But one day, without really knowing why, I got bored of video games and ended […]
Ideas
2048 – Making Failure Motivating
This article is part of a series I wrote some time ago when I was in the process of designing a business sustainability boardgame and was documenting the design process. A couple of days ago […]
design process
Including only what is needed – Lessons from Castle Dice
This article is part of a series I wrote some time ago when I was in the process of designing a business sustainability boardgame and was documenting the design process. At the moment, my absolute […]
how to
Communicating through games
The more work I do with teams and groups, the more it becomes apparent that communication is the absolute foundation to everything that goes around it. You can’t build trust without talking. You can’t explore […]