Game design

Lesson 1


Introduction to game design

Introduction

Throughout this week you will learn how video games are made, what makes them popular and how to judge a good game. You will use Makecode Arcade to create your own themed video game and share it with your target audience.

  • Watch the video for an introduction to Lesson 1.

Lesson overview

Duration 2:00

Understanding the tasks

Rating the tasks

This lesson contains a few activities. Each activity will have one or more tasks. These tasks have been given a rating.

Some of the tasks in this lesson are must do. These are important to help you understand the introductory ideas or skills.

Have a go at the should do tasks and reach out to your friends or teacher if you need some advice. These will usually take a bit longer to complete than must do tasks.

Could do tasks will probably take you some extra time and might need you to get creative or problem solve. We strongly encourage you to try these.

Activity 1 - What makes a good video game?

Note: While we have linked to videos in the interactive presentations in this activity, any other pages or linked material beyond these videos is not endorsed by the department.

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Task 1 - The first video games

Move through the interactive presentation to learn about some of the oldest and most popular video games in history.

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Task 2 - Attributes of good video games

Work through the interactive presentation to learn about five criteria used to evaluate video games and analyse two of the most successful video games of all time, Tetris and Minecraft.

Activity 2 - Audience

Note: While we have linked to videos in the interactive presentations in this activity, any other pages or linked material beyond these videos is not endorsed by the department.

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Task 1 - Who plays video games?

Complete the interactive quiz to find out about player demographics in Australia. Statistics from Digital Australia 2022.

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Task 2 - Game classification

Why do we have ratings on the games we buy?

Did you know that some games are rated in such a way that shops won’t sell them to people under 15 years old – why do you think this is?

Work through the 'Game classification' interactive presentation to learn about Australian classification ratings.

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Task 3 - A closer look at games for kids

  1. Read the 'Video games for kids' Google Slides below.

  1. Based on what you have learned about audience, ratings and the look and feel of games, explain which audience Minecraft is best suited for. Use the interactive PEEL activity to script your answer.

  • Click on the question mark symbols inside the interactive to see specific instructions for each section.

  • When you have finished writing your paragraph, use the blue Copy button to extract the text and paste it into a Word or Google Doc, ready to share with your teacher.


Games for kids

Activity 3 - Eat the fruit

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Task 1 - Using MakeCode Arcade

  1. Watch the video showing how to log into MakeCode Arcade and play Eat the fruit. You can follow along with this process by pausing the video.

  2. Log into MakeCode Arcade using your NSW Department of Education email and play Eat the fruit so it is added to your projects.

MakeCode Arcade

Duration 2:57

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Task 2 - It is time to play

  1. Play Eat the fruit for 5-10 minutes.

  2. Evaluate the game against the criteria explored in Activity 1 Task 2.

  3. Use the Eat the fruit evaluation Google Slides template to complete this activity.

  • Click on the image to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.

  • Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.

Image link to Eat the fruit evaluation Google Slides template
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Task 3 - Create an Eat the fruit audience profile

  1. After playing Eat the fruit, determine who the target audience is and create an example of an audience persona which outlines characteristic such as their interests, likes and dislikes.

  2. Use the Eat the fruit audience profile Google Slides template to complete this task.

  • Click on the image to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.

  • Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.

image link to Eat the fruit audience profile Google Slides template

Handing in your work

Don't forget to hand in the work you completed today!

  • Your teacher will have told you to do one of the following:

    • Upload any digital documents you created and any photos you took of your written work to your Learning Management system (MS Teams, Google Classroom for example).

    • Email any digital documents you created and any photos you took of your written work to your teacher.

Make sure you keep any handwritten work you did in your exercise book or folder as your teacher may need to see these when you are back in class.