As the writing team and teaching team are finishing up the dialogue and learning objectives respectively, the question turns to how to implement within the confines of the game engine. In other words, how will the game actually play? What mechanics will pair with what objectives? What story outcomes will be based off of which in-game assessments? The topic for today’s post is creating a cohesive game across the learning objectives, game mechanics, and story or narrative.
Learning Objectives
Backwards design is the construction of a learning activity by starting with the goals or learning objectives. While this is an abbreviated definition, it is, in essence, the design method used in the game “Stories of a GeoFarmer” for the first iteration. However, in the second version, the learning objectives drastically changed to the point where the initial design is no longer valuable to the new learning objectives. So, how do we approach game design when starting with new learning objectives and an initial iteration that is unrelated? The approach thus far has been a pseudo-backwards design style of creating a game that pulls assets and mechanics from the initial iteration while shaping the game in its entirety around the new learning objectives. Starting from this point while trying to make the game feel cohesive (and not just a string of loosely connected events) will take some finesse!
Mechanics
The mechanics have some limitations to them strictly based on the game engine’s features. The engine used for this game is RPG Maker MV and it comes with a suite of traditional turn-based RPG mechanics “baked in” to the system. The majority of the default mechanics, however, will not be used. Instead, most of the mechanics will be created using the game engine’s robust scripting system. If there are mechanics that require additional work to function, the game engine also supports JavaScript and provides some documentation on how to interface with the system. Regardless of the way the mechanics are created within the system, they will need to support the learning objectives in both activity and assessment throughout the game. In this current iteration of the game, we will not know if the mechanics and the game as a whole were appropriately designed to achieve the learning objectives until after the fact. Future iterations may include some type of adjusting feedback system in order to adapt based on in-game assessments tailored to the individual learner, but that is out of scope for this project.
Story
The story is based off of a real-life event that illustrates many of the learning objectives. This story has been previously used to teach these objectives in the course this game is being played in. Hypothetically, this means the story of the game should line up well with the learning objectives. A direct translation from a text to a game does not always yield the best results and the added variable of game mechanics creates another layer of complication. This leads to the need for alignment checks.
Alignment
At each major stage of the game, a check for alignment between learning objectives, game mechanics, and overall narrative is needed. These checks will ensure that the game feels cohesive within the stage of the game. For example, if the learning objective is to be able to recall the organizations involved in forestry and conservation in Malaysia, but the game mechanic is to pick three different kinds of berries and return them to a non-playable character, then there is something clearly out of alignment. Along with alignment within the sections, the game must scaffold and build upon what has happened previously. As the game development progresses, the checks of alignment should include a portion to check with the previous sections learning objectives, game mechanics, and story.