One of the preliminary steps in our game design process was conducting an analysis of existing games intended to teach some aspect of computer science or another STEM topic. We started with a set of computer science-related games that we had identified for an earlier analysis (Harteveld et al., 2014) and added other games through an online search. (By the way, there are a growing number of websites that compile and review educational games; see the Playful Learning website and its list of other resources.) We included games that were not explicitly educational, but that have been used for educational purposes, such as Portal.

We compiled a list of 46 games to analyze, using a set of items that the team developed to assess the nature of story and story context (if any) in each game.  In addition to differentiating among games with story, story context alone, or neither, we examined more specific story elements, such as the nature of the games’ protagonists, the type of setting, and how well story or story context seemed to be aligned with the content or skills that players were intended to learn. We also collected more general information about the games’ genre, gameplay mechanics, how well the mechanics were integrated with the learning objectives, and additional descriptive data.

We spent a considerable amount of time coming to agreement on how to characterize some of the story elements. For example, we differentiated among several different ways that a protagonist functioned in games (if there was one):

• Context-based– The player’s character serves as a shell or skin, but doesn’t actually perform the actions that character would imply (i.e. Reader Rabbit, who does not actually act like a rabbit and the fact he is rabbit does not inform the mechanics of the game)
• Role-based – The player assumes a role of some kind (e.g. a scientist or a child) but does not control an avatar/character (i.e. Cooking Mama, where it is implied that you are a chef but you are not a specific character)
• Character-based – The player takes control of a character in the game.

Our hope was to find numerous examples of games with full stories (remember our definition – a story has a series of events, or plot, caused or experienced by actors). However, in the sample of games we analyzed, very few games met this definition.  Some of these games were:

Gamestar Mechanic – An online game that teaches game design and systems thinking as the player takes on the identity of an apprentice game mechanic

Citizen Science –  An online game that teaches argumentation and principles of water ecology as players identify the origins of the pollution of a local lake

Caduceus – An online game that teaches scientific reasoning by engaging players in finding a cure for a deadly virus

There were many more games with just a story context, or fictional setting. Obviously, creating a meaningful story and integrating it with game mechanics is more challenging than locating game mechanics in a context or creating games with neither story or context. The question remains – how important is story to how engaged players are with the game, and what they learn? Is creating a meaningful story worth the time and effort?

We are continuing to analyze these games as we move forward with the development of our own games. We’ll be posting more on these topics in our upcoming posts!

References

Harteveld, C., Smith, G.S., Carmichael, G., Gee, E., & Stewart, C.  (2014). A Design-Focused Analysis of Games Teaching Computer Science. In Proceedings of Games, Learning and Society Conference 10.