Powerpoint accompanying a guest lecture I did at Loyola Marymount University about creating a learning game.

1. Loyola Marymount University Presentation
David Mullich
Game Production Instructor, Los Angeles Film School
March 11, 2014

2. Career Highlights

3. Elements of a Game
 Theme
 Rules
 Resources
 Conflict
 Goals
 Game Loop

4. Theme
 Setting
 Characters
 Story
 Helps players become engaged
 Makes game easier to learn
 Tells a compelling story

5. Rules
 Easily Understood
 Consistent with
Game Theme
 Setup
 Progression
 Resolution
Rule Categories
 Rules
 Mechanics
 Systems
Rule Groupings

6. Complexity
The greater the
complexity, the
harder it is to
learn how to
play the game.
The number of rules or the number of elements
with which the player interacts.

7. Depth
The greater the
depth, the harder
it is master the
game.
The ability to find enjoyment in a game as one’s
skill improves.

8. Depth
 Tic-Tac-Toe has few decisions, but it also
has few rules
 Chess has more rules and elements, but it
has many interesting decisions
 Monopoly has even more rules and
elements, but relatively few meaningful
decisions
Depth is directly related to the number of
interesting decisions the player can make.

9. Game Mechanics
 Avoid unkillable
objects
 Instant death
 Game repeats until
you die
 Remember an
increasing number of
things
 Repeat pattern
 Forced constant
movement
 Block puzzles
 Game keeps getting
harder until you die
 Uncountable number
of possible paths
 Big gains for you can
be big gains for your
enemy
 Block path
 Information Overload
 Disinformation
 Switch modes
 Push mole down, mole
pops up
 Cut off one head, two
grow back
 Bouncing object
 Gravity
 Mouse dexterity
 Spinning plates
 Teleports
 Squad
 Race
 Chase
 Collecting
 Interrupt Action
 Squad
 Scarce Resource
 Jumping
 Hidden image/
Where’s Waldo?
 Timed
 Protect a target
 Undirected
exploration
 Bullet Hell
 Buy Low, Sell High
 Brawling
 Dialog Tree
 Building
 Crafting

10. Resources
 Currency
 Building Materials
 Energy
 Health
 Combat Units
 Inventory Items
 Time
 Turns
 Moves
 Territory
 Power-Ups
 Information
Anything the player must gather or
protect to help in achieving the game’s
goals.

11. Conflict
Anything that makes achieving the game’s
goals difficult.
 Enemies
 Puzzles
 Time Limits
 Resource Management
 Hidden Resources or Obstacles
 Randomness

12. Difficulty
 How easy or hard it is for a player to
complete a game objective.

13. Games should be easy to learn, but hard to
master.

14. Difficult vs. Punishing
 Rules should be consistent
 Players need to be given enough
information to make decisions
 The player’s choices should be meaningful
 Players should be able to obtain enough
resources to meet goals

15. Goals
Achievement milestones that advance
progress in a game.
 Elementary (Minor) Goals
 Intermediate (Level) Goals
 Primary (Win/Loss) Goals

16. Types of Goals
STRATEGIC
(Mental)
REFLEX
(Physical)
CHANCE
(Random)

17. Examples of Goals
 Score
 Capture/Destro
y
 Collection
 Solve
 Chase/Race/Es
cape
 Beat the Clock
 Spatial Alignment
 Build
 Explore
 Advance the Story

18. What Makes Goals Engaging
 Worthy of Obtaining
 Challenging to Reach
 Obtainable
 New Goals Replace
Old Goals

19. Game Loop
The set of rules that a game follows during
each game turn.
All game’s have turns, even if they appear to
be continuously be running. This is because
most modern video games don’t stop and
wait for player input.

20. Ideas
All games start out as
ideas. Some games come
from one powerful idea, but
most are formed by
combining many ideas to
create a unique whole. It’s
very possible that initial
ideas will be (or should be)
abandoned, and lots of
new ideas will be
considered during the
process.

21. Brainstorming
A group creativity technique
to find a conclusion to a
specific problem by
gathering a list of ideas
spontaneously contributed
by its members. In games,
brainstorming is used to
generate a large number of
ideas about game's concept,
mechanics, setting,
characters, etc.

22. Brainstorming
Osborn’s method of
brainstorming has four
general rules:
 Focus on quantity
 Withhold criticism
 Welcome unusual ideas
 Combine and improve
ideasAlex F. Osborn

23.  Break into groups.
 Receive 3 game mechanics from your speaker.
 Brainstorm a learning game using at least one of
these mechanics.
 Present your game concept, including:
 Theme (or Learning Topic)
 Resources
 Obstacles
 Goals (Both Game Goals and Learning Goals)

24. Boy Scout Game Examples

25. Minecraft
Four ways to learn with Minecraft:
 Build writing skills by having writing a Minecraft blog
 Encourage reading by crating a structure or scene from
a book
 Teach Math Literacy by building structures to
demonstrate understanding of mathematical principals
such as ratios, integers, quadrants, area and volume.
 Practice Digital Citizenship and Online Social Skills
 Learn Javascript programming by having students
create mods

26. MinecraftEDU
The official version of the game specifically tailored
for teachers and students. It features simplified
technical issues such as setting up servers,
managing account privileges, configuration scripts,
and defining the limits of player space and options.
MinecraftEDU creator Joel Levin says sessions are
most productive--and fun--when “teachers to talk to
the kids about the meaning, purpose, rules, and how
the world for the given project should operate.”

27. Minecraft Resources
 The Minecraft Wiki: the definitive guide to
all things Minecraft
 Massively Minecraft: an online learning
community for kids age 4-16 and their
parents.

28. SimCityEdu
Six missions, all related to the theme of managing energy and
environmental issues in an urban setting. Each mission consists
of two types of activities:
 In-game: Modify a pre-built city to meet an objective;
 Concept maps: Complete a cause-and-effect flowchart that
shows how variables affect outcomes. (This is all done in a
web browser; there is no gameplay.)
The developers say it covers 5 Common Core literacy standards
for grades 6-8 around identifying and citing textual evidence to
support analysis and conclusions, along with Next Generation
Science Standards around “Human Impacts on Earth Systems”
and “Systems Thinking.”

29. SimCity Resources
 SimCityEdu Lesson Plans