Time for
- Plan: 5 min
- Implementation: 30 min
Type(s) of Essential(s):
Social & Emotional Growth
Critical Review
- Social & Emotional Growth
- Critical Review
Prerequisite:
- Is a prerequisite: Yes
- Has a prerequisite: Yes
Overview
Learners brainstorm with their peers to quickly generate ideas for games.
Goals and Outcomes
Goal: Learners are comfortable collaborating with peers to produce ideas for games and familiar with components for games.
Outcomes: Learners engage in design thinking with a specific focus on the ideation phase of a game and develop their creativity and knowledge about components of game design (i.e., mechanics, themes, audience, resources, etc.). The learners also share their game ideas with peers, giving them the chance to practice presenting an idea they generated to an audience.
Materials
20-sided dice (or multiple 6-sided die); Game Sprints sheet; Optional: writing instrument
Preparation
Prerequisite: Activities to complete before this activity - Board Game Review, Overview of Transformational Design Framework, Transformation Stories
Duplicates of Game Sprints sheet (enough for each learner)
Implementation and Completion
Tell learners that game developers often participate in short activities where they quickly form several game ideas to support their creativity and utilize different game mechanics. Ask learners to select partners to collaborate with and distribute the Game Sprints template and a 20-sided dice or multiple 6-sided die. If the Game Sprints sheet is print, distribute writing instruments to learners. Read the instructions on the sheet that describes how they will choose a theme and mechanic. Demonstrate an example of how the learners will use the dice or die to select three 3 themes and three 3 game mechanics and reduce them to one theme and one game mechanic.
After showing this example, review the Game Sprints sheet and discuss the details they will need to describe for their game. The description includes the goal, player changes, rules, game ends/ player wins, & additional info (i.e., resources, obstacles, characters, story).
Tell learners they will have a short amount of time to complete the sprint (e.g., 15-20 minutes). When they complete this activity, ask each group to describe the game idea they generated.
Depending on the time allotted for this activity, learners may conduct a second game sprint.