Category: Serious Game Ideas

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Week 6 Simulation – Discussion Response

Thoughts on Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Playing Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes in class was a really interesting example of simulation through communication and cognitive task management. Since I played as the person with the bomb manual rather than the person in VR, the experience focused heavily on interpretation, translation of instructions, and clear communication under pressure.

What stood out most is how the game simulates real-world high-stress teamwork. The person with the manual has access to the information needed to solve the problem, but cannot see the bomb itself. Meanwhile, the VR player can see the bomb but does not understand how to solve it. The challenge becomes less about technical skill and more about how effectively players can communicate complex information quickly and accurately. Based on the complexity alone, I knew Mason was not winning.

This is similar to real-world professions where people must coordinate under pressure, such as emergency response, aviation, or medical teams. The game forces players to develop shared language and strategies quickly. Miscommunication becomes the biggest threat, which highlights how important clear instructions and teamwork are in high-stakes environments.

The game also reflects ideas discussed in Cognitive Task Analysis because players must break down complicated tasks into smaller steps and communicate those steps clearly. Even though it feels like a party game, it actually models real cognitive processes involved in teamwork, problem-solving, and stress management.

Five Simulation Game Ideas

1. Astrology Systems Simulation ; Cosmic Blueprint

Players generate a birth chart (roll dice to generate) that determines personality traits, emotional tendencies, and life timing cycles.

Planetary alignments influence how characters react to events like career opportunities, relationships, or stress. For example:

  • Strong Mars placements make bold decisions easier but increase conflict.
  • Heavy Saturn placements create early obstacles but stronger long-term rewards.

Players navigate life events while learning how their astrological placements shape different outcomes.

Simulation focus: identity systems and symbolic frameworks.

2. Cozy Living Simulation ; Slow Days

Inspired by IdleLife and Paralives, this simulation focuses on slow living and cozy daily routines rather than productivity or wealth.

Players manage a small life centered around comfort, creativity, and balance. Instead of chasing success metrics, the goal is maintaining a peaceful lifestyle.

Players spend time doing activities like:

  • Gardening
  • Cooking simple meals
  • Decorating their home
  • Reading, journaling, or crafting
  • Spending time with friends or neighbors

Time moves slowly and seasons change. Overworking, social burnout, or ignoring rest will disrupt the cozy balance.

Simulation focus: emotional wellbeing, rest culture, and slow living.

3. Off-Grid Living Simulation ; Cabin in the Woods

Players move to a remote cabin and attempt to live sustainably without modern infrastructure.

Players must learn to manage:

  • Water collection and purification
  • Growing food and preserving harvests
  • Wood chopping and fire maintenance
  • Solar energy management
  • Weather and seasonal survival

Unexpected events like storms, wildlife encounters, or crop failures require adaptation.

The game emphasizes patience, resilience, and learning practical skills rather than constant progression.

Simulation focus: self-sufficiency and sustainable living.

4. Memory Preservation Simulation ; Archive of the Ordinary

Players act as archivists trying to preserve everyday human memories before they disappear.

Instead of famous events, the memories are small personal moments:

  • A voicemail from a loved one
  • A handwritten recipe
  • A childhood playground
  • A favorite diner booth

Players choose which memories to record and preserve before they fade away.

If too many memories disappear, entire parts of the world slowly vanish.

Simulation focus: cultural memory and the importance of ordinary moments.

5. Algorithm Life Simulation ; The Feed

Players live in a world controlled by invisible recommendation algorithms.

Every choice—videos watched, articles read, posts liked—changes what information appears next.

Over time, the algorithm begins narrowing the player’s worldview. News, friends, and opportunities become filtered through the system’s predictions.

Players must deliberately break their patterns to escape the algorithm’s control.

Simulation focus: digital culture and algorithmic influence on identity and belief.

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Week 6 Questions

5 Simulation Games

  1. Workplace Bias Simulator

Players take on the role of a hiring manager reviewing resumes. Subtle differences (names, schools, gaps in employment) influence candidate perception.
Goal: Reveal unconscious bias and show how structural inequality affects hiring decisions.

  1. Living Paycheck to Paycheck

A month-long budgeting simulation where players manage rent, food, transportation, medical bills, and surprise emergencies.
Goal: Show how poverty isn’t about “bad choices” but limited options and systemic barriers.

  1. Social Media & Identity Simulation

Players create a profile and make posts while managing peer approval, family expectations, and professional consequences.
Goal: Explore speech communities, identity performance, and social pressure (ties nicely to your sociology themes).

  1. Immigration Journey Experience

Players navigate paperwork, language barriers, job searching, and cultural adaptation in a new country.
Goal: Build empathy for immigrants and demonstrate structural challenges beyond individual effort.

  1. Campus Power & Privilege Game

Players experience college life from different perspectives (first-gen student, wealthy legacy student, working parent, etc.). Access to internships, networking, and free time varies.
Goal: Show how opportunity is shaped by social capital, not just motivation.

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Spoon Buffet

Players: 2–5
Time: 15–20 minutes
Goal: Manage your daily energy (“spoons”) wisely and finish the game with the most spoons preserved, without burning out.

Theme: What Are “Spoons”?

Spoons represent mental, emotional, and physical energy.
You start each day with a limited number. Some things cost spoons, others restore them—and ignoring your limits has consequences.

Card Types

  • Task Cards
    Work, School, Chores
     → Cost spoons to complete
  • Self-Care Cards
    Sleep, Exercise, Mindfulness
     → Restore spoons
  • Support Cards
    Friends, Therapy, Family
     → Protect spoons or help counter Stress
  • Stress Cards
    Anxiety, Overcommitment, Unexpected Events
     → Drain spoons unless managed

Setup

  1. Shuffle the full deck.
  2. Each player starts with:
    • 10 spoons (use tokens, paper, or a tracker).
  3. Deal:
    • 2–3 players: 7 cards each
    • 4–5 players: 8 cards each
  4. Keep spoons visible to everyone.

Gameplay (Drafting Rounds)

Each round represents one day.

  1. Choose One Card
    • Look at your hand.
    • Secretly choose one card to play face-down.
  2. Reveal & Resolve
    • All players reveal cards simultaneously.
    • Apply effects immediately:
      • Pay spoon costs
      • Gain spoons
      • Trigger stress effects
  3. Pass the Hand
    • Pass remaining cards:
      • Left on odd-numbered rounds
      • Right on even-numbered rounds
  4. Repeat until all cards in hand are played.

Card Effects

Task Cards

  • Cost 1–3 spoons
  • Worth points only if you can afford them
  • If you cannot pay → take Spoon Debt (see below)

Self-Care Cards

  • Restore 1–3 spoons
  • Cannot raise you above your starting max (10 spoons)
  • Multiple self-care cards stack

Support Cards

  • Protect against Stress cards
  • May:
    • Reduce spoon loss
    • Cancel a Stress card
    • Be shared with another player (card text specifies)

Stress Cards

  • Force spoon loss unless countered
  • Some require another player’s involvement:
    • Example: Overcommitment → another player must give you a Support card or you lose extra spoons
  • If no help is given, consequences increase

Spoon Debt (Burnout Mechanic)

If you ever drop below 0 spoons:

  • Take 1 Spoon Debt token
  • Immediately reset to 0 spoons
  • Each Spoon Debt = –2 points at the end of the game

Message: You can push through… but it costs you later.

End of Game & Scoring

When all drafting rounds are complete:

  1. +1 point for each spoon you have left
  2. –2 points for each Spoon Debt token
  3. Bonus points (optional):
    • +2 points for balanced play (at least one Task, Self-Care, and Support card played)

Highest score wins.

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Week 6 Mason Tosadori

  1. What made the experience fun or not? KEEP TALKING AND NO ONE EXPLODES

The experience was fun whenever you actually completed a part of the puzzle, but other than that it can be a little frustrating. Since I was the one in the goggles and not giving the instructions, I felt annoyed by waiting to be told what to do, and especcially annoyed when the information they give me is wrong. It seems really simple to me cause I just listen to the instructions, I don’t have to think.

  1. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?

The motivating factor is to try and succeed to defuse the bomb within the time limit. The players want to keep trying after failing. The instructions become more clear with the more practice you get with the game, which makes you feel like your getting closer to winning with every attempt.

  1. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?

I don’t think the game is trying to be persuasive, it seems more like a rage game or party game where its supposed to induce chaos and frustration. Maybe it’s trying to get people better at listening as well as better at giving instructions.

  1. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?

The games metaphor has to do with working with a partner. Maybe it means that working with others can be difficult, but sometimes its needed. The mechanic that standsout is the fact that you need to have someone else to play. The game is multiplayer but not in the typical sense where you share a screen and play together, this game has someone playing the game, and someone reading the book.

  1. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?

The gameplay can make everyone feel frustarated. The player gets upset because they arent getting the right directions, and the book reader gets upset because they have a book with difficult instructions that are hard to understand, especially since you can’t see the bomb. The game makes empathy for people who work understress and people who have issues with communication.

  1. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?

I don’t think it is. If anything maybe its for having people understand the stress that bomb squads go through, but I think that’s a stretch.

  1. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku

you have 5 minutes, work with your teammate or else, you will blow up too

5 simulation idea

  1. A game where you take a test in class but you have to cheat to try and pass
  2. A game where you are an emergency responder and have to dispatch help
  3. A farming simulator where you have to go around and feed livestock and take care of plants
  4. an inventory managment game where you have to look at patterns and keep your store stocked, (supply and demand)
  5. A firewatch game where you sit in a tower and have to make radio calls and prevent fires/put them out

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Game Design 2 Simulation ideas

Pet Adoption Simulation

You volunteer at an overcrowded animal shelter.

VR Mechanics:

  • Feed, groom, and medically assess animals
  • Learn each pet’s personality traits
  • Match them with adopters based on compatibility

  • Physically kneel to comfort scared animals
  • Hand-feed or gently brush fur using motion controls
  • Heartbeat audio when animals feel safe

Horror Vr Game Abandon Hospital

VR Mechanics:

  • You explore a condemned hospital overnight.
  • Ghosts are tied to unresolved stories.
  • You piece together what happened through environmental clues.
  • Instead of fighting ghosts, you calm them by uncovering truth.

Coral Reef Simulation

VR Mechanics:
You’re restoring a dying reef ecosystem.

  • Plant coral fragments
  • Remove invasive species
  • Monitor water temperature & pollution
  • Protect reef from storms

Space simulation vr game

VR Mechanics:

  • Exit the airlock
  • You’re a space station repair technician orbiting Earth.
  • Tether yourself
  • Repair satellites and station panels
  • Monitor oxygen and suit integrity
  • Full 360° zero-gravity movement
  • you push off surfaces to move.

Collaborative Baking Game

VR Mechanics:

  • Ingredients float away if not secured
  • One player stabilizes gravity controls
  • One mixes
  • One bakes
  • Timed customer orders
  • Flour clouds float everywhere. Someone always drops the cake.

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5 new Simulation Ideas

1. The “Burnout” Triage

  • Core Idea: You’re a moderator of a highly stressful online crisis community.
  • The Challenge: You have to categorize incoming DMs as crises, emotional dumping, or trolling.
  • The Goal: Help others while constantly maintaining your own “Battery Life” to avoid burnout.
  • Main Takeaway: A simulation of the heavy emotional labor involved in digital support work.

2. The “Side Hustle.”

  • Core Idea: You’re running an ethical “slow fashion” business in a “fast fashion” world.
  • The Challenge: You have to source your materials ethically, like using deadstock fabric, and deal with shipping delays.
  • The Goal: Survive social media “cancel culture” from delays and high prices.
  • Main Takeaway: It shows the difficulty of prioritizing ethics over profit in a global economy.

3. The “Guerrilla” Urbanist

  • Core Idea: You’re a secret community activist working on improving your neighborhood without permission.
  • The Challenge: “Illegally” install things like a DIY bike lane, seed bombs, and unauthorized benches.
  • The Goal: Improve the neighborhood by lowering the “neighborhood temperature” while avoiding the authorities.
  • Main Takeaway: A simulation of community-led activism outside of the slow, top-down government bureaucracy.

4. The “Ghosted” Remote Op

  • Core Idea: A two-player commentary on the state of remote work.
    • Player 1 (“New Hire”): Stuck in a broken, surreal VR corporate training experience with weird glitches.
    • Player 2 (“IT Support”): Has to fix the connection using an outdated, 10-year-old manual.
  • The Goal: Player 2 has to guide Player 1 out of the experience before they get “fired” (disconnected).
  • Main Takeaway: A commentary on the isolation and weird lack of human connection in corporate remote communication.

5. The “Rage-Bait” Architect

  • Core Idea: A game about you, the “Engagement Hacker,” making viral videos for a video creator agency.
  • The Mechanic: Cut your videos to be as “Rage-Bait” as possible to exploit the algorithm and go viral.
  • The Goal: Reach 1 Million followers.
  • The Twist: Your success fills the “Global Anxiety” bar, and you start to see the negative effects of your content in the in-game news.
  • Main Takeaway: A simulation of digital complicity and the cost of going viral.

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Game Ideas around Empathy

  1. Impairment: Each player either can’t 1 – see 2 – hear – 3 touch normally 4 – talk and you play a simple game (like Uno or something) and then reflect on the experience and switch “impairments” to feel what they other person goes through
  2. Similar to the above game but specifically finding empathy for people who have a hard time with too many stimuli (autism, adhd, etc) Each player adds or takes away a noise/distraction each turn as well as playing the game and can give or take “relief” from the chaos to understand the need for sensory rooms or quiet spaces
  3. A game that has to do with learning to be empathetic for language differences – I feel like especially in the U.S. people immediately form opinions about people based on their accent/language difference. Creating a game where people have to live in that reality and deal with those differences would be really intriguing – i have ideas like a card game but everyone has different sets of words with part English/part foreign language and they have to play with those differences
  4. Dealing with Grief – card game where players work through people dealing with any sort of sadness – the cards reveal scenarios for each player and each player must give correct responses and learn to interact with grieving people “correctly” and empathetically
  5. Interactive/Physical Game – being understanding towards elderly people is the message the game is meant imply – basically a relay game except players are assigned ages which inhibit how fast or slow they can walk/run/move to the goal and how they interact with other players
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Game Design 2

(2.12) Serious Games

Discussion: Train, Crosser & La Migra, Ludoztil, Oregon Trail, Last Resort

Train (Brenda Romero)

Train is impactful because it keeps its context hidden until the end. The mechanics are straightforward and focus on moving pieces efficiently, but the reveal reframes the entire experience. It demonstrates how games can involve players directly in systems rather than simply explaining them. The lesson is conveyed through participation instead of dialogue, and that discomfort becomes the central learning experience.

Crosser & La Migra

Both games simulate border crossing and the pressures of immigration. What stands out is how procedural rules express vulnerability. Randomness, restricted movement, and pursuit mechanics create tension and stress. Rather than explaining immigration systems abstractly, these games simulate constraint and risk, allowing players to feel instability and fear firsthand.

Ludoztil

Ludoztil critiques the manipulation embedded in gamification systems. By satirizing reward structures, it reveals how points and incentives shape behavior even when players are aware they are being influenced. This connects directly to Bogost’s argument that gamification often prioritizes shallow motivation over meaningful engagement.

Oregon Trail

Oregon Trail remains one of the earliest examples of serious gaming. It teaches through consequence, using disease, weather, and scarcity to illustrate the realities of westward expansion. The learning model relies heavily on repetition and feedback, reinforcing behaviorist learning principles through trial and error.

Last Resort

Last Resort addresses homelessness and economic instability. What makes it effective is the absence of easy solutions. It highlights systemic barriers rather than individual failure, showing how serious games can expose structural issues instead of reinforcing personal blame.

Overall Reflection

Across all of these examples, systems communicate meaning more effectively than lectures. Players learn by experiencing constraint, uncertainty, and moral tension.

Play Reflection: Crossing the Bridge and Observance

Crossing the Bridge

This game centers on ethical decision making. It does not reward efficiency or optimization. Instead, it forces players to confront the consequences of their choices. The discomfort created by those decisions becomes the learning moment. Reflection occurs after action rather than during gameplay optimization.

Observance

Observance relies on ambiguity and environmental interpretation. It encourages attentiveness and emotional awareness rather than traditional goal completion. Without clear objectives, the experience feels less like a challenge and more like an immersive reflection.

Combined Takeaway

Both games demonstrate that serious games prioritize reflection over reward systems. The emotional or intellectual impact often happens after the play session ends.

Prototype Concept: The Last Hunt

Core Concept

The Last Hunt is a survival-focused serious game inspired by Appalachian folklore. A small hunting party becomes stranded after signs of a Wendigo attack during winter. As resources diminish, the main threat becomes fear, mistrust, and the decisions players make to keep the group alive.

Player Role

The player acts as the group’s decision-maker, balancing survival needs with social stability.

Prototype Mechanics (Paper Version)

Players track four core resources:

  • Food
  • Warmth
  • Trust
  • Fear

Each round includes:

  1. Resource Phase — supplies decrease and environmental conditions worsen.
  2. Event Phase — cards introduce challenges such as storms, disappearances, or strange tracks.
  3. Decision Phase — players choose responses like rationing food, holding a campfire talk, hiding bad news, or honoring the dead.
  4. Consequence Phase — decisions create long-term effects on group trust and fear.

Deaths are significant and introduce ethical choices around corpse management, such as burial, abandonment, or using resources for survival. These choices affect morale and trust.

Learning Objectives

The game explores:

  • Group decision making under stress
  • Survival ethics and scarcity
  • Fear and social cohesion
  • How leadership choices shape group dynamics

The Wendigo serves as both a folkloric threat and a symbolic pressure that reflects the group’s psychological state.

The Last Shift
A simulation of emergency room triage focused on ethical resource allocation and time pressure.

Witness Reports
Players analyze conflicting cryptid sightings to explore misinformation, bias, and evidence evaluation.

Signal in the Pines
A narrative game in which players respond to rural distress signals and must decide how to act under uncertainty.

Cryptid Conservation Agency
Players manage environmental preservation efforts for endangered mythical creatures, balancing public perception and ecological sustainability.

Archive of the Unseen
Players curate fading folklore and decide which cultural stories are preserved or forgotten, exploring how history is shaped.

Each concept uses systems to examine themes such as ethics, media literacy, environmental stewardship, and cultural memory.

Reading Responses

Learning Games and Learning Theory

Oregon Trail aligns with behaviorism because players learn through reinforcement and repeated feedback loops of success and failure.

Minecraft Education Edition reflects constructivism since players build, experiment, and discover solutions through exploration.

Collaborative simulation games align with social constructivism because knowledge develops through communication and shared problem solving.

Among these, constructivist approaches feel the most effective because players actively construct understanding instead of responding to rewards.

Is Gamification Bullshit

Bogost argues that gamification reduces games to points, badges, and superficial incentives, stripping away depth and transforming engagement into manipulation.

I partially agree. Gamification can encourage short term behavior, but without meaningful systems it becomes shallow.

Examples outside class include fitness apps that track streaks, corporate training platforms that award badges, and productivity tools that gamify tasks. These systems often lose effectiveness once novelty fades because they lack intrinsic motivation.

What Is a Serious Game and Why It Is Not Chocolate Covered Broccoli

A serious game is designed primarily for learning, awareness, or reflection, using gameplay mechanics to communicate meaning.

Farber argues that serious games are not chocolate covered broccoli because the learning is embedded within the mechanics. Players do not pause the game for instruction. Instead, the interaction itself creates understanding. When designed well, the system becomes the lesson.

Final Reflection

This week reinforced that serious games rely on systems, constraints, and player agency to generate meaningful learning. The strongest examples do not preach. They simulate. My revised prototype, Cryptid Commune, applies this approach by using folklore aesthetics to explore leadership, belief, and social influence through interactive systems.

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Serious Game Ideas Week 4

  1. Mind Matters (Monopoly-Style Mental Health Game)
  • Goal: Stay mentally balanced, not rich
  • Win/Lose: Cooperative win if players avoid burnout; group loss if too many burn out
  • Money – Energy Points: Used for all actions
  • Properties – Life Areas: School, Work, Friends, Sleep, Hobbies
  • Railroads – Support Systems: Therapy, Family, Friends
  • Utilities – Coping Skills: Exercise, Mindfulness, Journaling
  • Houses/Hotels – Habits & Routines: Help energy, overbuilding causes burnout
  • Chance/Community Chest – Stressors & Support
  • Jail – Burnout: Pause, rest, or accept help to recover
  • Message: Balance matters, burnout is real, and asking for help is part of the game
  1. Panic Attack! (Exploding Kittens-Style Mental Health Card Game)
  • Type: Fast party card game (2-6 players, 10-15 min)
  • Goal: Avoid panic spirals and survive the deck
  • Panic Cards: Knock you out unless defused
  • Coping Cards: Breathing, Grounding, Text a Friend (cancel Panic)
  • Stress Cards: Force draws, skips, shuffles
  • Avoidance Cards: Skip, See the Future, Shuffle
  • Twist:
    • Coping cards are limited
    • Some Panic cards require help from another player
  • Win: Last player standing or cooperative survival
  • Message: Panic is sudden, coping takes effort, support matters
  1. Unhelpful Advice – (Based on Bad Thearapist but better bc that game is not good)
  • Type: Party card game | 3-8 players | 15-20 minutes
  • Goal: Win rounds by matching the worst advice to serious mental health prompts
  • Prompt Cards: Real struggles (anxiety, burnout, imposter syndrome, loneliness)
  • Advice Cards: Wildly unhelpful, tone-deaf, or cliché responses
  • Judge Role: One player picks the “most realistically awful” advice
  • Scoring: Judge awards a point to the winning advice
  • Twist:
    • Occasional Reality Check Cards pause the game to share what actual helpful support looks like
    • Optional debrief at the end of rounds
  • Tone: Dark humor with boundaries (no slurs, no glamorizing harm)
  • Message: Bad advice is common, listening matters, and mental health isn’t one-size-fits-all
  1. Dear Me – Therapy Edition (Journaling Mental Health Game)
  • Setting: Individual or group therapy, school counseling
  • Players: 1–6 or solo
  • Goal: Guided self-reflection and emotional regulation
  • Levels:
    • Grounding – identify emotions and body sensations
    • Reflection – explore patterns and self-talk
    • Growth – values, strengths, future goals
  • Journaling:
    • Timed writing (2-5 minutes per prompt)
    • Writing required, sharing optional
    • Skipping is allowed without explanation
  • Therapist Cards:
    • Pause (breathing/grounding)
    • Reframe (thought challenges)
    • Strengths (coping skills)
  • Win Condition: None
  • Message: Self-awareness, consent, and healing over performance
  1. Spoon Buffet (Sushi Go – Style Mental Health Game)
  • Type: Drafting/set-building card game | 2-5 players | 15-20 min
  • Goal: Manage your “spoons” (energy) each day and avoid burnout
  • Card Types:
    • Task Cards – Work, School, Chores (cost spoons)
    • Self-Care Cards – Sleep, Exercise, Mindfulness (restore spoons)
    • Support Cards – Friends, Therapy, Family (protect or boost spoons)
    • Stress Cards – Anxiety, Overcommitment, Unexpected Events (drain spoons unless countered)
  • Mechanics:
    • Draft one card per round, pass the rest (like Sushi Go!)
    • Plan to avoid running out of spoons
    • Some Stress cards require help from other players
  • Scoring / Win:
    • Points for ending with the most spoons preserved
    • Penalties for “spoon debt” (overexertion)
    • Optional cooperative mode: group wins by balancing total spoons
  • Message:
    • Mental health is finite; energy management matters
    • Self-care restores energy; support prevents burnout
    • Recognizing limits is key; overextending has consequences
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Mason Tosadori Week 4

Observance

  1. What made the experience fun or not?
    • The game was decently fun but there are a few tweaks I would change. The game is very chance based. I believe the americans are really strong and its super easy to catch the people on team MEX. The mex need to reveal themselves to find the churches, which easily gets them caught, and then they have 2 chances to find the green card, if they dont find it they have to send their people to actually stand on the A row and search space by space. If they miss they reveal their location and will easily get caught, so you hav to find it really early on.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?
    • The factor is to go and find the green card and save all your immigrants, or on the other hand stop all the immigrants from getting into america.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?
    • The game is trying to get players to look at and understand whats going on at the border. Aliens want to sneak into America to get a better life while Americans are trying to keep the Aliens out. It shows what both parties have to go through, sneaking in and also trying to keep these people out.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?
    • The games metaphor is symbolic of trying to get a better life while others try to keep them away from it. It resembles battle ship in game mechanics but the fact that your pieces directly interact with your opponents pieces is a different mechanic.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?
    • The game makes me feel empathy for the immigrants trying to get into the country, but I understand how people can also have empathy for the workers who are doing their job and trying to keep people from sneaking into the states instead of coming in legally.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?
    • I think the game is an activist game advocating for immagrants trying to get into the US. It shows their struggles and how dangerous and difficult it is just to try and be more successful in life.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku
    • Team MEX tries to sneak, the americans catch them, away from better life

LAST RESORT

  1. What made the experience fun or not?
    • The game was fun, its a mix of chess but theres a whole new aspect with the civilians and having multiple ways to win. It gives room for alot of strategy while also having a message about 2 sides of war and how it effects innocent people.
  2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?
    • The motivation is to beat your opponent in battle while also keeping civilians safe in the crossfire. Its a 1v1 competitive game so that makes the competiton alot more direct compared to group played games.
  3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?
    • The game is persuasive in the sense of giving the players a deeper perspective of war. It shows how it can effect civilians and how people can get caught in the cross fire. It also gives the perspective of how civilians arent just on the sidelines, but a direct strategy that each side has to take into account.
  4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?
    • The games metaphor is symbolic, almost directly, of the perspective of innocent civilians in wars. The game mechanics focus on this by letting you kill and capture the civilians, giving the game a whole other loop off strategy and ways to win the game involvining civilians insetad of just killing your enemies pieces.
  5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?
    • I like the gameplay alot, theres alot of strategy and different moves to make, and because there are multiple win conditions you never know what your opponents goal might be. It is empathetic towards people effected by war who arent directly involved. It shows troops moving around them and even taking thei lives, showing the effects war has on people other than troops.
  6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?
    • The game seems like an antiwar kind of game. It shows the taking of lives with troops, but also being able to set of smaller bombs and a nuke which can take out most of the board shows the losses and spoils of war.
  7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku
    • 2 sides of a war, civilians in the way, decide how you win

What learning games have you played? Which learning theory do they fit? Which worked best?
I have played games like Kahoot and Duolingo. Kahoot and Duolingo mostly use rewards like points and streaks, which fits behaviorism because you get rewarded for correct answers. The games are competitive and have leader boards. Kahoot worked for me because it shows the whole class if you got the answer wrong, making me work harder to not embarss myself.

Is gamification “bullshit”? What is Bogost’s argument? Do you agree? Where have you seen it?
Ian Bogost says gamification is “bullshit” because it just adds points and badges to boring tasks. He thinks this does not make something truly fun or meaningful. It only tries to push people to work harder without changing the task itself. I have seen gamification in fitness apps and store rewards programs. It can be motivating at first, but it usually does not last, so I mostly agree with him.

What is a serious game, and why aren’t they “chocolate-covered broccoli”?
A serious game is a game made to teach or explore real-world topics. It is not just a boring lesson covered up to look fun. Learning happens through playing and making choices. This makes the experience feel more real and engaging.

5 Ideas for a serious game.

1. Student money manager
You play as a student who has to budget money for rent, food, and bills. You learn how to save and avoid debt.

2. Save the earth
You run a city and make choices about pollution and clean energy. Your decisions affect the environment and the people.

3. Fake New
You read news stories and decide if they are true or false. The game teaches how to spot fake news.

4. Stop the Virus
You try to control a disease in a town. You choose rules to keep people safe while keeping businesses open.

5. Life Choices
You play as someone facing challenges like poverty or disability. Your choices show how hard daily life can be.

I choose the game Gamer Girl for the podcast.

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Week 4 Questions

Observance

What made the experience fun or not?

The experience was fun because if you are the immigrants, you don’t know where your opponents players are and its the mystery of where the green card and the churches are. The game gets a lot easier once you find the green card so you can escape. If you are the boarder patrol, you get to choose where the green card is and the churches. You also have the opportunity to block the immigrants and do search formats that will help sweep them from the board.

What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing?

The motivating factor for the immigrants is to find the green card to escape. The motivating factor for the search patrol is to find where the immigrants are and wipe them off the board.
Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game?

Yes the game is persuasive because it is subtly trying to show you what the boarder is like in real life and is trying to influence your beliefs and social understandings.
What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?

It compares immigration to the game battleship. The mechanic that stands out is the search and hide characteristic of the game that reinforces the cat and mouse dynamic at the boarder.
How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for?

The gameplay can feel uncomfortable and strategic rather than playful. It often creates empathy for immigrants because they are positioned as vulnerable and constantly under threat of being “found.” Depending on the role you play, it can also make you reflect on the system itself rather than just one side.
Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for?

Yes it can be considered an activist or persuasive game. It advocates for critical reflection on U.S. border politics and immigration enforcement by exposing how the system reduces complex human experiences into tactical operations.
Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku.

Observance is a board game modeled after Battleship that explores immigration and border patrol. One player hides as immigrants while the other searches as border enforcement, creating a tense strategy gameplay. Through simple mechanics, the game critiques how border systems treat human movement like a tactical game.

5 new ideas:

  1. Concept:
    A workplace simulation game where players navigate a corporate environment over 10 in-game years.

Gameplay:
Players choose a character (with gender identity affecting how systems respond to them) and make decisions about speaking up in meetings, negotiating salary, reporting harassment, or balancing family expectations. The same choices produce different outcomes depending on the character’s gender.

Serious Purpose:
The game demonstrates wage gaps, bias in performance reviews, emotional labor expectations, and the “double bind” women often face (too assertive vs. not assertive enough).

Core Message:
Sexism is systemic, not just individual.

2. Concept:
A life-simulation game where players are randomly assigned a socioeconomic status at birth.

Gameplay:
Players make decisions about education, healthcare, housing, and employment, but available choices vary depending on starting income. Random events (medical emergencies, job loss, inheritance, networking opportunities) dramatically affect trajectories.

Serious Purpose:
Shows how structural inequality shapes life outcomes beyond “working hard.”

Core Mechanic:
Two players can play side by side and compare how different their opportunities are.

3. Concept:
A narrative-driven decision game about navigating everyday spaces (school, stores, job interviews, police encounters).

Gameplay:
Players experience branching storylines where microaggressions, profiling, or cultural assumptions affect outcomes. Dialogue choices influence trust, safety, and social standing.

Serious Purpose:
Encourages empathy by demonstrating how race shapes daily interactions in subtle and overt ways.

Core Message:
Bias operates both structurally and interpersonally.

4. Concept:
A strategy game where players run for local office in a politically divided town.

Gameplay:
Players must balance campaign promises, donor influence, public opinion, and personal values. Decisions affect approval ratings, media coverage, and policy outcomes.

Twist:
Accepting corporate donations may help you win but limits the policies you can realistically pass.

Serious Purpose:
Explores political compromise, corruption, and voter polarization.

Core Message:
Political systems shape what leaders can actually accomplish.

5. Concept:
A time-management and survival simulation about being a nontraditional adult college student.

Gameplay:
Players juggle coursework, a job, childcare, financial stress, and social isolation. Energy and time are limited resources. Unexpected events (sick child, overtime shifts, tuition hikes) force difficult trade-offs.

Serious Purpose:
Highlights barriers adult learners face that traditional students may not.

Core Message:
Higher education is not equally accessible for everyone.

Reading Questions:

what learning games have you played? can you categorize them by the theory of learning types: behaviorism, constructivism, constructivism or social nature? if you played more than one which was the most effective?

Behaviorism:

Duolingo – Uses streaks, points, levels, and instant feedback to reinforce correct answers.

Constructivism:

Minecraft – Players learn by building, experimenting, and solving spatial or logic problems.

Social Nature:

Among Us – Encourages communication, deduction, and social reasoning.

is gamification bullshit, what is ian bogost’s argument and do you agree? where have you encountered it outside of class and what was your experience?

Ian Bogost argues that gamification is “bullshit” because it often reduces games to superficial elements like points, badges, and leaderboards without capturing what actually makes games meaningful. He says companies use gamification as a marketing tool to manipulate behavior rather than create genuine engagement.

I partially agree because many gamified systems feel shallow and rely on extrinsic rewards, which can lose effectiveness over time. However, when thoughtfully designed, gamified systems can motivate participation, and they just shouldn’t replace meaningful design.

Ive encountered it in apps that aren’t game but have a point system like Starbucks or Sheetz.

What is a serious game and why aren’t they chocolate covered broccoli?

A serious game is a game designed primarily for education, training, activism, or social impact rather than pure entertainment. Examples include military simulations, health training games, and persuasive games like Observance. They are not “chocolate covered broccoli” when the gameplay itself meaningfully connects to the message. The phrase suggests disguising boring education with fun elements, but strong serious games integrate learning into the mechanics so that playing the game is the learning and not just sugar on top of a lecture.

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Game design 2 week 4 Game ideas

Aleah Dudek

  1. Theme: Climate justice
    Mechanic: Economic simulation

Every player benefits from pollution at first, but emissions secretly accumulate and trigger disasters that hit the poorest players hardest.

2. Theme: Housing insecurity
Mechanic: Tile laying survival

Pets move through temporary homes as buildings disappear. You don’t control the world, only how long your animal can remain safe.

3. Theme: Forgotten deaths and systemic erasure
Mechanic: Hidden information and area control

Players move through a city where invisible ghosts represent unrecorded victims. Only by standing still can you see them, but doing so makes you vulnerable.

4. Theme: Climate change
Mechanic: Cooperative survival

The dragon’s fire represents rising heat and disasters. Players can fight it, but every attack makes it burn hotter.

5. Theme: Climate refugees
Mechanic: Tile erosion and migration

Rising tides wake the Kraken. Each round, parts of the ocean map sink, forcing fleets to flee while the monster grows.

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5 Serious game ideas

Flight or death-

A card game where everybody has a role to keep the plane operational while some have to sabotage the plane

Balance of Rha-

5 different roles with different ways for each player to win. Nobody knows your role but the player secrelty has to push their ideal to the public without grabbing too much attention.

Build That City-

You collect cards to build infrastructures based off what the game gave you. You can trade with other players to achieve your goal faster, but trade at your own risk.

To Ciph or Deciph

You get a random set up numbers and colors based off the card you drew and the player gets to ask questions to try to decipher your code.

KaBlooey

A random player has a bomb and they have to reach the goal before anyone else does. After every set of turns, and event card comes out which could either help you or screw you over.