Level 5: Developing Games

Developing games in a composition classroom can take several possible forms. It could focus on game design, programming, interactive fiction, or some combination of the others. Each of these is likely to cause a considerable amount of criticism within the field. I will address the potential problems in more depth in the Criticism section. For now, it should be enough to say that this is the least explored method of integrating videogames into the composition classroom because it is both difficult and largely divergent from traditional composition classroom activities.

First, let me give a brief description of what I mean by each of the focuses above:

• • Game Design is the process of imagining and developing an actual functioning game. This is more about building an enjoyable and engaging experience than it is about programming. A composition classroom focusing on game design would probably first interrogate existing games to see how they succeed or fail. In order to determine what exactly constitutes good game design in the first place, students could both compare good games to bad ones and read texts about game design. One possibility is to use works by Gee to point toward elements of good games.

  • Programming is the process of actually writing the processes that underlie most computer programs. This will usually be done in some form of code such as javascript or python (though the example to the right is html--the language of websites). A composition classroom focusing on programming would be opening up to multiple literacies including languages outside of standard written English. The goal of using this method in a composition classroom would not be to actually help all the students to become experts at writing code, but rather to help them explore the underlying structure of digital artifacts as well as to allow them to compare the syntax and style of a coding language to that of a English.

  • Interactive Narrative is the process of creating pseudo-games where procedural features are present. This is often done using tool-kits or simplified game building software. The goal here is to remove some of the difficulty of creating video games and also limit the problems of game design. Ultimately, students would be creating short narratives to explore the affordances of different media on the content of composed works. A further possibility here is to have the content structured around the material for the class (according to theme or rhetorical practices).

As it should be clear, the common focus throughout all of these methods is to engage students in the co-creation of the content. And the question has to ultimately be, is it worth it? Unfortunately, this hasn't been investigated sufficiently at the college level. We might, however, still look at two studies done with elementary and high school students.

Studies on Game Development in the Classroom

Owston et al. worked with 4th grade students on developing a series of games that used information from their social studies courses. The students didn't design the actual games, but rather inputted information in the form of questions that were used in the playing of the games. The designs themselves were based off of traditional family games like snakes and ladders and tictactoe (Owston 981). Owston et al. made two pertinent findings for our discussion: 1) the students who created games primarily improved in creating complex logical sentences (as opposed to the students in the control groups), and 2) "the game development activities engaged students over an extended period and motivated some to continue working on the game project at home and to develop additional games not related to the curriculum unit" (Owston 987). In other words, the students developed a specific linguistic strength through the recognition of the logical form of the game construction, and the method engaged them enough to continue learning outside of class--we could only hope for as much with college students.

Carbano et al. worked with high school students to develop interactive fictions. They supported the students through the Aurora toolkit (which comes with Neverwinter Nights) and their own scripting program, ScriptEase, which was designed to make some of the complex character interactions of the tool easier to design. The authors suggest that the study helped students to develop self-reflection about their work and to give students empowered agency in implementing their ideas (Carbano 705). While the focus was on creative forms of writing rather than extended argumentation or analysis, the study still suggests the benefits from moving traditional written texts into an interactive digital format. Ultimately, one of the more striking findings is that, in certain cases, students who struggled with written texts excelled at creating these interactive fictions (Carbano 703). This study helps to show that engaging students in the development of video games can offer new opportunities in our endeavor to recognize and develop multiple literacies.

Obviously, more work needs to be done to see if this is a reasonable option in College Composition classes, but there are already many teachers striving to include digital authoring in the form of websites or wikis. This would be just one (giant) step further.

To see how Game Development might be integrated into a Composition Lesson Plan, take a look at my Rhetoric and L.A. Noire Lesson.

Works Cited

Carbonaro, Mike et al. “Interactive Story Authoring: A Viable Form of Creative Expression for the Classroom.” Computers & Education 51.2 (2008): 687–707. Web. 8 Dec. 2012.

Owston, Ron et al. “Computer Game Development as a Literacy Activity.” Computers & Education 53.3 (2009): 977–989. Web. 8 Dec. 2012.