Educational

Frame · Genre genre

Learning through play – knowledge or skills are built up without it feeling like a lesson.

Design question – Your game should teach something. What exactly – and how do you ensure the learning happens through the play, not despite it?

Reference example – Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?: learning geography while chasing a master thief. Scattergories: vocabulary and general knowledge under time pressure. Duolingo: learning languages in short lessons with points and streaks.

Associations

• Typical Activities – Experimenting, Practicing, Solving, Reflecting

Coherence

Core expectations: learning goal, intrinsic motivation, progress measurement, transfer (the learned knowledge is useful outside the game). Mechanisms: Adaptive Difficulty, Feedback Loop (immediate feedback), Scaffolding (increasing complexity), Quiz/Assessment. Activities: Experimenting, Practicing, Solving, Reflecting. Ludic Temporal Structure: level-based (rising difficulty), curriculum structure, short sessions. Ludic Social Structure: solo (individual learning), co-op (learning together), team vs. team (competition motivates).