Designing a game… where to start??

When we are designing a mini-game for the iyus site (or other Hul’q’umi’num sites), we need to consider several things:

  • Who it is for: is it for children? How old are the children? Can they use a mouse? etc.
  • The learning objectives: For iyus games ideally there is some language learning objective
  • The content: Can we bring in a story, or concept from the community? Language immersion?
    • Cultural significance: What do we need to highlight or emphasize that’s culturally important?
    • Can the concepts translate from H->E or E->H? Do the words or concepts exist? 
    • Are there language considerations or constraints? 
  • Reusability: Mini-games should ideally be versatile enough in design that the the content can be swapped out.
  • The scope: We are a small team so is the design too big for us to accomplish? 
  • The art, audio: Where is it from or who is providing it? 

The Design Process

We begin the design process with research, review, and brainstorming. 

1. Research Games

Look at existing games. These might be:

  • Websites that have age-targeted or learning objective games such as: 
    • PBS kids
    • Sesame Street
    • Starfall
    • Peep and the Big Wide World
  • Popular mobile phone apps that kids might play:
    • Toca apps
    • Lego apps

2. Review Content

Review existing Hul’q’umi’num content:

  • Stories, characters
  • Vocabulary, phrases
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Text
  • Art
  • Existing learning objectives (such as lesson plans)

We are aiming to build the games around these assets if possible. 

3. Brainstorming

We will discuss, whiteboard, and create a flow chart for an idea, aiming to clarify our goals:

  • There is a clear age range
  • There are learning objectives
  • We’ve included existing content
  • The game is reusable, scalable, or reskinable
  • The game is scoped in such a way we can build it
  • We have the art or a plan for art
  • We have audio or a plan for audio

Remember: no ideas are bad ideas! 

Age Range & Learning Levels

With Iyus games we have the particular challenge of designing games that might be played by a range of ages (including adults) but also a range of learning levels. This makes the design of the game especially challenging. 

Gameplay

Essentially, we are aiming to match what are called game mechanics (what you do) with game dynamics (why you do it) but in mini-game form, so perhaps only a few or one mechanic will be designed into each game. For each game we identify:

  • What actions the player takes
  • What decisions the player gets to make
  • The consequences of those actions: what happens when they are correct, or wrong.
  • At points will they need help? And how can we best help them?
  • What do we need to teach the player?

The answers to these questions allow us to further refine the game idea to the point where the game is buildable in a very rough form (a prototype) that can be played without art. As we start adding art and text we can further refine the player experience. 

Iterative Design

The game is still not completely designed but at this point we have a good idea as to what we want to make. Using iterative design we work on the idea over and over to make it better. We might change the design to overcome technical challenges or to make the learning objectives clearer. 

Four Frogs Example

Here is an example of our game Four Frogs on a Log: Fly Catching Game and how we improved the game through iteration.

Version 1:

Version 2:

We took feedback from the community to split the game into two types of play: endless and challenge, which has a clear end condition and gets harder over time. 

Version 3:

Further feedback indicted to us that the word “endless” was not clear enough. The level does not have scoring and allows the player to click then hear the number, the opposite of the “challenge” level. By changing the button word to “practice” it better describes the game mode. We also added further feedback to indicate that one must select a mode before they can hit “play”.