VAST Activities: Game Design
VAST is proud to introduce the exciting new Game Design activity this semester! One of the facilitators, Luke Gehorsam, tells us more:
In the Game Design activity, VAST Scholars can play, design, and share their games with one another using an educational games website called Gamestar Mechanic.
As the facilitators of this activity, our role involves guiding the scholars through the game design process, introducing basic principles and concepts to them with the help of Gamestar Mechanic.
As the scholars play through the games offered by our program, we discuss important questions in game design such as what makes a game fun, and how games can be used to teach people about topics and model real world problems. They are becoming comfortable with general Game Design concepts, beginning to construct their own games, and will engage in the collaborative process of constructively critiquing each other’s games. By leveraging their natural enthusiasm for games, we hope to provide students with a creative outlet that is both fun and educational. It’s been very fun so far, and I’m consistently impressed with the scholars’ work in this activity!
