What is it about?
The game ChemCraft targets the niche field of games for higher education, specifically IB Higher Level Organic Chemistry, to investigate to what extent the rules of chemistry may be translated into the rules of a game. The project asks not ‘What does a chemistry game look like’ but instead: ‘How can chemistry be a game?’
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Why is it important?
Current design models for educational games struggle to balance the element of fun with the educational value of the game. This paper applies a more unconventional approach for educational game design, 'gaming literacy', which views the real world as opportunities for play. The design of the proposed game, ChemCraft, translates the rules of chemistry into digital game rules: gameplay mechanics follow chemical reactions, game objects represent chemical compounds, and game object properties reference real chemistry data values. A pilot study shows positive results concerning the experience of fun and the learning outcomes of the proposed game.
Perspectives
Personally, I become very invested in the games I play - I need to know the details, the possibilities for gameplay, etc. I wanted to redirect some of this passion for learning fictional content into learning real-world content, in this case by translating educational outcomes into the rules of play. I hope that this work shows just one of many possibilities in enabling players to seamlessly learn while simply familiarizing themselves with the game world and the game rules.
Jihae Han
Associatie KU Leuven
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: ChemCraft: A Ludic Approach to Educational Game Design, May 2021, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3411763.3451854.
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