1. Playful Learning
Drew Davidson

2. Playful Learning (?)
Drew Davidson

3. A Little About Me

4. Playful Learning?

5. Playful Learning?

6. Playful Learning?

7. Playful Learning?

8. Playful Learning?

9. Games Learning
! Anyone who tries to make a distinction between
education and entertainment doesn’t know the first
thing about either.

10. Games Learning
! Anyone who tries to make a distinction between
education and entertainment doesn’t know the first
thing about either.

11. Games Learning
! Anyone who tries to make a distinction between
education and entertainment doesn’t know the first
thing about either.

12. Games Learning
! Anyone who tries to make a distinction between
education and entertainment doesn’t know the first
thing about either.

13. Learning Games
! Games Teach us how to Play
! Rhythmic, Repeating Structures
! Master Gameplay Mechanics
! Give us Agency
! Impact beyond Game

14. Games Make Learning Fun!
! Covert Learning
! So Much Fun
! Don’t Even Realize You’re Learning
! Gamification - Rewards Achievements

15. Really?

16. It’s Hard
! Games are HARD

17. Really Hard
! Games are HARD
! Learning is HARD

18. Challenge Is Good
! Games aren’t just Fun
! Difficult Challenges
! Fun has a Half-Life
! Pleasantly Frustrating

19. Pleasantly Frustrating
! The Challenge
! of Games Learning

20. Pleasantly Frustrating
! Not too Simple

21. Pleasantly Frustrating
! Not too Simple
! Not too Hard

22. Flow Failure
! Rewarding Challenges
! Difficulty Mastery
! Develop Learning Literacy

23. Challenge Is Engaging
! Meet them at their Mastery
! Engage through Challenges
! Give them Agency
! Failure, Doubt, Curiosity

24. Failure
! Learn from our Mistakes, Develop Grit
! Fail Faster, Experiment, Explore
! Rapid Prototyping
! Iterate toward Solutions
! Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better.

25. Doubt
! Question Answers
! Challenge Assumptions
! Work to Understand
! Open to Changing Your Mind
! To be Uncertain is to be Uncomfortable,
but to be Certain is to be Ridiculous.

26. Curiosity
! Ask Questions Engage
! Lifelong Learning How Stuff Works
! Problem Solving Cheating?
! Story Telling Model Making
! Curiosity was Framed, Ignorance killed the Cat.

27. Learning Literacy
! How to Learn
! Challenge Yourself
! Create on Your Own
! Life-Long Skill

28. Learning Literacy
! How to Learn
! Challenge Yourself
! Create on Your Own
! Life-Long Skill

29. Both Learning Games
! Learning: Beginning Intermediate Advanced

30. Both Learning Games
! Games: Noob Casual Hardcore

31. Both Learning Games
! Difficulty: Easy Medium Hard
! Learning: Beginning Intermediate Advanced
! Games: Noob Casual Hardcore

32. Hard Truth
! Things Go Wrong
! Common Mistakes
! Unfortunate Misconceptions

33. All Eggs In One Basket
! Just Make One Game
! Or That One Game Solves All

34. Fun, Fun, Fun
! It’s All About Making It Fun
! Or Fun Is Just Something To Include

35. No Testing
! Not Playtesting Early And Often
! Not Iterating Design Ideas

36. Feature Creep
! Include All Ideas
! Include All Feedback

37. Excluding Team
! Not Including Game Designers Throughout
! Not Including Learning Specialists Throughout

38. Gamify!
! Just Add Badges
! To Track And Reward Learning

39. All Done!
! Finished When You Release
! No PR, Distribution or Support Plan

40. Opposite Day
! It’s Easy And Quick
! It’s Inexpensive

41. Just Add...
! Just Add Some Fun To Learning
! Just Add Some Learning To Fun

42. Do It All On Your Own
! T-Shaped Expertise
! Interdisciplinary Collaboration

43. Anyone Can Do It
! Academic Fallacy
! Not Everyone Is A Designer

44. Be Careful
! Creepy Treehouse
! Whiff of Educational
! Kids can Tell Stay Away
! Bad Learning Games = Suckn

45. For Instance

46. For Instance

47. Making Magic
! Design Process
! Learning Goals
! In order to attain the impossible,
one must attempt the absurd.

48. Games For Impact
! Academic Consortium
! Best Practices
http://gamesforimpact.com

49. World’s Best Playground
! With an Electric Fence
! Learning needs Challenges
! Success needs Failures
! Creativity needs Constraints
! Extraordinary needs Boundaries

50. Less Talk, More Rock

51. Less Talk, More Rock

52. Less Talk, More Rock

53. Transformational Games
! Games for Impact
! Beyond Transference
! Knowledge through Gameplay
! Applicable Outside of Game
! Changes in Daily Lives

54. Transformational Game Design
! Goals
! Challenges
! Rewards

55. Transformational Game Design
! Goals
! Challenges
! Rewards
! Motivations
! Assessments
! Transformations

56. Difficulty By Design
! They Know Fun, Ask More Let Them Try
! Provide Context
! Shape Challenges
! Show Connections
! Mastery to Literacy

57. Good Learning, Good Games
! Explicit Goals
! Involved Engagement
! Scaffolded Difficulty
! Failure, Doubt, Curiosity
! Accomplishment, Mastery, Literacy

58. Not Just About Fun
! Can’t Gamify Learning
! Motivate through Difficulty
! Reward through Mastery
! Learning Literacy
! Exceed Expectations

59. Hard Fun
! Pleasantly Frustrating, Engagingly Compelling
! Difficulty Mastery
! Agency Literacy
! Transformational
! Playing Learning Creating
! A Child’s Work is Play

60. Thanks!
! Questions?
! drdrew@cmu.edu

61. Thanks!
! Questions?
! drdrew@cmu.edu
! waxebb.com/cookies