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Reflection is a critical aspect of the learning process. However, educational games tend to focus on supporting learning concepts rather than supporting reflection. While reflection occurs in educational games, the educational game design and research community can benefit from more knowledge of how to facilitate player reflection through game design. In this paper, we examine educational programming games and analyze how reflection is currently supported. We find that current approaches prioritize accuracy over the individual learning process and often only support reflection post-gameplay. Our analysis identifies common reflective features, and we develop a set of open areas for future work. We discuss these promising directions towards engaging the community in developing more mechanics for reflection in educational games.
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Level Design Patterns in 2D Games
Videogame designers use tips and tricks and tools of the trade to design levels. Some of these tips are based on their gut feeling and others have been known in the game industry for the last 30 years. In this work, we discuss six of common level design patterns present in 2D videogames. The patterns under discussion are the product of an exploratory analysis of over thirty 2D games. We choose to focus on patterns that are both common and impactful for the overall player experience. We discuss in detail the rationale for and advantages of each pattern, showing examples of games that make use of such. We conclude with a discussion of the usage and understanding of these patterns from the perspective of level design and how other technical approaches can benefit from them.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1717324
- PAR ID:
- 10132604
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2019 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 8
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Reflection is a critical aspect of the learning process. However, educational games tend to focus on supporting learning concepts rather than supporting reflection. While reflection occurs in educational games, the educational game design and research community can benefit from more knowledge of how to facilitate player reflection through game design. In this paper, we examine educational programming games and analyze how reflection is currently supported. We find that current approaches prioritize accuracy over the individual learning process and often only support reflection post-gameplay. Our analysis identifies common reflective features, and we develop a set of open areas for future work. We discuss these promising directions towards engaging the community in developing more mechanics for reflection in educational games.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/CIG.2019.8847953
