PBL in Design of Game Design course, TLU

Course overview

Goal of the course is to provide examples and generate ideas for designing gameplay and core mechanics. Course will provide knowledge and skills in designing game logics, rules and interactions. More information https://ois2.tlu.ee/tluois/subject/IFI7178.DT

Participants in piloting 

This course belongs into Digital Learning Games (DLG) master’s programme and is scheduled on the second part of the first semester (November – December).

In 2019 the number of participants was 36. Most of them (27) were masters students from the DLG program. 7 Educational Technology (ET) master’s students and 2 Erasmus exchange students.

In 2020 the number of students was 16, 11 DLG students, 3 ET students and 2 Erasmus students.

Timeframe

November – December 2019

November – December 2020

Use of ALIEN services and tools

This course follows the flipped classroom and project-based learning strategies. Students are asked to get familiar with the theoretical materials individually at home. Contact classes are used for analyzing the logic of existing games and implementing the theoretical knowledge in small teams (2).

Every topic is supported by following learning activities:

  1. Home reading assignments before every next class.
  2. Tests for checking the home reading results in the beginning of every class.
  3. Analytical and design-based team (pair) assignments.
  4. Student presentations of analytical or design assignment outcomes.
  5. Short additional presentations from the teacher.

The course will end with the exam. Exam is organized in the format of game-fest. Students are asked to play each other games and provide feedback.

      

In 2020 the entire curse was provided online via Google Classroom, Kahoot and Google Meet. Students used different tools and platforms (Roll20, Figma, Google Dicumnts) for presenting their game prototypes:

  1. Human Pill: https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/9204772/humanpill
  2. Who is Grandpa? http://www.tlu.ee/~martins/WhoIsGranpaWeb/
  3. Stranded in Antarctica https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MHPdXU8jGLIz5Br1v2V8uaXvU1HqEv7GftRHOz_HuhI/edit?usp=sharing
  4. Bird-catcher https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kikIDJmWORUts1ODOXlRYC34jj2d43-8BQwv0CtpVAM/edit?usp=sharing
  5. Sudoku for Horses https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gKPiq3oECHWZ9_zSiNRUSFhMraaY61uzoIGMHXtgznE/edit
  6. Metro https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SeNmJnfqRBamzuBXpFfM1czp15WqaGUr/view
  7. Japanese Learning Game https://www.figma.com/proto/TOmMG8QWx0NDPaqxiFr8PN/japanese-learning-game?node-id=27%3A0&scaling=scale-down