ISLT 7384: Goals, Rules, and Mechanics of an Analog Game

This reflection aligns with the Ludology attribute of the WSSG (Why So Serious Games) Academy.

In Level 3 of ISLT 7384, we’re designing an analog tabletop game prototype using game mechanics of our Mentor games (you might recall mine are Zoombinis and Portal). In the Goals, Rules, and Mechanics activity, we sought build our game prototype’s system as well as consider how to embed learning in our game design.

Goals

My tabletop game prototype (currently untitled) idea comes from the complexity of curating a quality instructional content collection. These resources must align with the learning outcomes, and it often takes collaboration between the instructional designer (ID), subject matter expert (SME), and librarian to find the best resources for the learner’s needs.

After reflecting on the provided series of questions, I determined the learning goal to be: 

• Players must collaborate as a team to curate the best instructional resources for a given scenario.

Similarly, the game goal is:

• Players win after they earn the most points while collaborating as a team to curate the best instructional resources for a given scenario.  

As designers, we should consider how the game goals and learning goals work together as well as separately to support the player and their gameplay experience.

Rules 

Every game includes own “quirks, vocabulary, and gameplay,” but designers can follow some patterns when thinking of how to design rules (Fairway 3 Games, 2015). Rules provide the structure of challenge as players seek to complete the game’s goals. 

According to Salen & Zimmerman (2003), rules can be categorized as operational (how the player acts in the game), constitutive (the game’s boundaries), and implicit (rules players agree upon). In my untitled game prototype, players must choose and act by a role’s attributes and abilities (ID, SME, or librarian). Additional rules create boundaries—such as how the teams must complete their turn within 5 minutes, and each play requires drawing X cards, and X cards may (or perhaps must) be discarded. Finally, players must agree with how they interpret the plays. Teams must justify their card choices, and the other team(s) may challenge the choices.

Mechanics 

A game’s mechanics work with its rules to provide the game’s experience. Player’s actions within a game act as the mechanic. While all might not be present in a game, designers work with four categories of mechanics: control, progression, uncertainty, and resource management (Zubek, 2020).

Since we chose mechanics from our Mentor games, I started by thinking of the similarities of within designing instructional content. I knew from the beginning of this project I would like to design a game which featured elements of the instructional design environment (such as content curation, open educational resources (OER), universal design (UD) and universal design for learning (UDL), etc). This backwards design process helped me to identify my final topic (content curation) as well as what game mechanics work well with the process of curating an instructional content collection (research, resource gathering, sorting and matching, collaboration, etc.).

Final Thoughts

As a designer, I’m always fascinated by the overlaps of the design process across different fields—and thinking about design in new ways aids us as we grow as designers. The Start Here! section of the Goals, Rules, and Mechanics activity discussed the parallels of the instructional and game design processes. While not every part aligns perfectly, it’s interesting to consider the similarities while we prototype our analog games. 

References

Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2003). Rules of play: Game design fundamentals. The MIT Press.

Writing game rules – a recipe. (2015, December 3). Fairway 3 Games.

Zubek, R. (2020). Game Mechanics. In Elements of Game Design. The MIT Press.