Teaching Students How to Make Games for Research-Creation/Meaningful Impact: (Is Hard)

Abstract

There are multiple courses in higher education today that expose students to elements of game studies, development, design, and associated research methods, but far fewer explore using games directly as a method for research creation. There are emerging themes in the field around curricular efforts that consider the role of games as a method to (1) advance research (broadly defined) through the act of making games; (2) use games as tools for doing research; and (3) creatively present research topics and findings through games. This paper presents a post-mortem analysis of two courses that were designed, developed, and offered to graduate students at separate universities with these topics in mind, describing their success, failure, and lessons learned. One of these universities is largely focused on doctoral students in game studies, while the other is focused on MFA students in game design, and both offer game-centric MA programs, and also opened these courses to other graduate students in related fields. By examining the design, development, and evaluation of these courses as a comparative case study, the authors provide a practical narrative of best practice in the emerging area of games as research creation tools and associated curriculum.