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As stated earlier, Game Development is probably the most controversial way to integrate videogames into the composition classroom. The basic problem is that the work that goes into making these games isn't seen as a legitimate form of communication in this context. I've spoken to colleagues about this who've said more or less, "But that won't help the students write essays." I don't necessarily believe this, but let's just explore some of the problems in a little more detail:
Lack of Teacher Expertise
This is probably the largest problem across all fronts. As most composition instructors are from the English Department, they will likely feel more comfortable with the other methods that look at videogames as an existent text that only needs to be analyzed or played or discussed. If asked to make a game, most composition instructors wouldn't even know where to start, let alone how to teach such a thing. The question has to become: should they know this? I'm conflicted on this problem: while I think that the development of videogames can be beneficial to students studying them (can you imagine reading essays without ever trying to write one?), I also recognize the limited time and resources available in most cases. This is why, throughout the game development section, I've suggested supportive tools and technologies that can lower the technological knowledge necessary to develop games.
But there is another criticism alone the same lines that is leveled by Lewis Pulsipher in "Teaching Game Design: The Problems." Specifically, he says that game design is a complex field and that it requires a lot of experience to teach correctly (Pulsipher). What's more, he isn't even leveling this criticism at composition instructors, but rather at computer science instructors who have experience with coding, but not specifically with games. Pulsipher suggests an alternative starting curriculum where, instead of beginning with both designing and programming games at the same time, teachers walk students through creating a board game to simplify some of the theory of effective design. For me, this raises serious questions about whether we can have students actually create games of any depth. Surely we don't have the time to teach enough effective game design strategies as well (though we might create some analytic assignments to critique these very things). Once again, this is the source of my simplified suggestions for how to teach game development in class. Rather than creating full fledged games, students can see the projects as developing literacy through action.
Time Constraints
The question of "how do we even fit these lessons into our packed schedule?" Once again, this isn't an easy question to answer. For any of these methods to be worthwhile, considerable classroom time will have to be dedicated to the lessons. The key is likely to think of these as a method of flipping the classroom, where students might read about creating texts outside of class while actual class time is devoted to developing the games to improve students' ability to critically analyze digital media. This will require investment and responsibility from the students, but part of the goal is to get them engaged so that they want to put in more work. The development of the games can then also be tied into a larger curriculum that primarily focuses on composing effective communication (through multimodal means, including but not limited to traditional written texts). Whether or not there is truly time for this type of work will obviously vary from location to location and by curriculum standards.
Someone Else's Work
This is related to the problem of a lack of expertise. Developing games might be seen as the work of another field--in other words, something outside of our purview as English teachers. This, however, might be short-sighted and somewhat blind to past work within the English Departments. Film studies hasn't always (or perhaps still isn't) a part of the English Department in all institutions. This hasn't stopped composition teachers from stressing a multimodal perspective and even creating assignments where students create short videos. In a more widespread manner, rhetoric has been a part of communications departments for a long time, but this certainly doesn't mean that composition classes avoid rhetorical analyses. Yes, we will never be able to teach game development in the same depth as a Computer Science or Game Design program, but that isn't an excuse for avoiding one of the most prevalent forms of digital media.
A possible solution that reaches across all these problems (and likewise lies outside of individual teacher control) is the creation of collaborative composition classrooms that seek to introduce and engage students in the creation of texts across many forms of media. The ultimate goal of such a class would have to be the development of strategies for approaching new forms of composition as well as the ability to form cross-media analyses
Works Cited
Pulsipher, Lewis. “Teaching Game Design: The Problems.” Gamasutra. 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2012.
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