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2013 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

The Core Mechanic in Battlefood: A Design Journey

Author : Josh Whitkin

Published in: Games for Health

Publisher: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

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Abstract

This research aims to improve the practice of designing educational video games (“learning games”). Specifically, this paper aims to demonstrate need to improve Shelton’s theory of activity-goal alignment, which focuses on the relationship between a player’s activity and the designer’s intended learning goal in any learning game. Using the research method of autoethnography, the data is an account of the evolution of the core mechanic in Battlefood, a learning game research project. While Shelton’s prior findings, that activity-goal alignment theory meets an important need in learning game design practice, are largely confirmed, this research draws two main conclusions: the literature’s typical modality (primarily lengthy text-based discussions) is not a good fit for practising designers, and Shelton’s theory could be more useful if it were made more accessible to practicing designers.

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previous chapter Designing Games for Children with Cerebral Palsy
next chapter Using Vitruvius as a Framework for Applied Game Design
Footnotes
1
The game Battlefood itself has been submitted as a creative work separately for the Games for Health Europe conference by Mathieu Allaert, a colleague of mine.
 
2
While this research applies reasonably well to a variety of serious games, including game-based learning and some gamification projects, I use Klopfer et al’s term “learning game” throughout this research. Their definition follows: “Learning Games are differentiated from Games for Training in that they target the acquisition of knowledge as its own end and foster habits of mind and understanding that are generally useful or useful within an academic context.” They cited several examples easily located the literature including Lure of the Labyrinth, Immune Attack, Civilization, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and SimCity.” [2, p. 21]
 
3
The term "activity" relates closely to, but is not identical to, the concept of "game mechanic" from the game design literature [9]. A good definition of "activity" is available in [1].
 
Literature
1.
B. E. Shelton, “Designing educational games for activity-goal alignment,” 2007.
2.
B. Winn and C. Heeter, “The design, play, and experience framework,” Handb. Res. Eff. Electron. Gaming Educ. , vol. 3, pp. 1010–1024, 2008.CrossRef
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T. W. Malone, “Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction,” Cogn. Sci. , vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 333–369, 1981.CrossRef
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E. Klopfer, S. Osterweil, and K. Salen, “Moving Learning Games Forward, ” The Education Arcade , MIT, 2009.
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J. P. Gee, “Video Games : Do they have educational value?,” CQ Researcher, vol. 16, no. 40, pp. 937–960, 10-Nov –2006.
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K. Devlin, “How to design video games that support good math learning: Level 5 « profkeithdevlin,” profkeithdevlin, 30-Mar –2012.
8.
J. P. Gee, “Deep Learning Properties of Good Digital Games,” Serious Games Mech. Eff. , p. 67, 2009.
9.
D. Cook, “What are game mechanics?,” Lost Garden, Oct –2006.
10.
J. Piaget, “Science of education and the psychology of the child. Trans. D. Coltman.,” 1970.
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A. L. Alexander, T. Brunyé, J. Sidman, and S. A. Weil, “From gaming to training: A review of studies on fidelity, immersion, presence, and buy-in and their effects on transfer in pc-based simulations and games,” in The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), NTSA, Orlando, Florida, 2005.
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I. Bogost, “Gamification is Bullshit,” Ian Bogost’s Blog, 08-Aug –2011.
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R. J. Vallerand, L. G. Pelletier, M. R. Blais, N. M. Briere, C. Senecal, and E. F. Vallieres, “On the assessment of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in education: Evidence on the concurrent and construct validity of the Academic Motivation Scale,” Educ. Psychol. Meas. , vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 159–172, 1993.CrossRef
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T. Kelley and J. Littman, The art of innovation: lessons in creativity from IDEO, America’s leading design firm, vol. 10. Crown Business, 2001.
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L. Frankel, “Communicating Design Research Knowledge: A Role for Ethnographic Writing,” 2009.
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L. Anderson, “Analytic Autoethnography,” J. Contemp. Ethnogr. , vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 373–395, Aug. 2006.CrossRef
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B. Tedlock, “The Observation of Participation and the Emergence of Public Ethnography,” in The Sage handbook of qualitative research, Sage Publications, Inc, 2005.
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H. Chang, Autoethnography as method. Left Coast Press Walnut Creek, CA, 2008.
19.
M. Duncan, “Autoethnography: Critical appreciation of an emerging art,” Int. J. Qual. Methods, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 28–39, 2008.
20.
J. Schell, The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses. Morgan Kaufmann, 2008.
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R. Koster, A Theory Of Fun In Game Design. pdf. Paraglyph press, 2005.
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T. T. Baldwin and J. K. Ford, “Transfer of training: A review and directions for future research,” Pers. Psychol. , vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 63–105, 1988.CrossRef
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L. Chwif, M. R. P. Barretto, and R. J. Paul, “On simulation model complexity,” in Simulation Conference Proceedings, 2000. Winter, 2000, vol. 1, pp. 449–455.
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A. W. Kruglanski, “The endogenous-exogenous partition in attribution theory.,” Psychol. Rev. , vol. 82, no. 6, p. 387, 1975.
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E. Adams, Fundamentals of Game Design. New Riders, 2010. A. Murcott, “Talking of good food: An empirical study of women’s conceptualizations,” Food Foodways, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 305–318, Apr. 1993.CrossRef
Metadata
Title
The Core Mechanic in Battlefood: A Design Journey
Author
Josh Whitkin
Copyright Year
2013
Publisher
Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
Book
Games for Health

Print ISBN: 978-3-658-02896-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-658-02897-8

Copyright Year: 2013

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-02897-8_9

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