Today we have a guest post by Lt Col James “Pigeon” Fielder, USAF, Associate Professor of Political Science at The U.S. Air Force Academy. He can be reached at http://www.jdfielder.com.
Interested in designing a classroom game, but have no idea where to start? Being a fan of classroom games, I developed this checklist to help me think through my own designs. The only checklist items that I think are absolutely necessary are the objective and win conditions, as both are crucial for identifying the concepts you are measuring and providing students with clear and achievable goals. Other checklist items are dependent on your design. For example, if your game is not map-based, then a map and scale are not required, but a game with many pieces likely needs a detailed inventory. Game on!
- Win Conditions: how the game ends. Can be competitive (zero-sum) or cooperative (non-zero sum). Games in which all teams can win are still challenging.
- Objective: what is the specific goal of your game?
- Number of Players: helps the designer conceptualize the game size and boundaries.
- Level of Detail: abstract to elaborate setting. Increased detail improves conceptual accuracy, but requires significantly more time to develop and play. Not that abstract games are necessarily easier to design!
- Inventory: all required pieces and parts to play the game. Be exhaustive, even down to number of spare rulebooks and pencils.
- Map or Board: visual display of the gameplay area.
- Scale: if the game requires length and volume measurement. Example: each hex or square equals 1/6 of a mile.
- Course of Play: every step for running a game from start to finish. This will be the most detailed portion of the game.
- Combat Resolution: determining outcome of players cooperating or conflicting during the course of play.
- Rewards and Punishments: mechanisms for players to advance or regress based on performance.
- Measurement: scoring the game. Can be qualitative (e.g. area of controlled space) or quantitative (number of points).
- Arbitration: handling rule and player disputes.
- Feedback: discussing game outcomes and recommended game improvements.
- Glossary: define key terms.
Recommended Reading:
Asal, Victor. “Playing Games with International Relations,” International Studies Perspectives, Vol. 6, No. 3 (2006): 359-373.
Dunnigan, James. Wargames Handbook, Third Edition: How to Play and Design Commercial and Professional Wargames. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2000.
Macklin, Colleen, and John Sharp. Games, Design and Play: A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2016.
Sabin, Philip. Simulating War: Studying Conflict through Simulation Games. New York, Continuum, 2012.