Playfulness-based design in educational games: a perspective on an evolutionary contest game

Abstract

Playfulness steering is an emerging approach in educational game design and play. The integration of arithmetical computation, game strategy, and teamwork into one game allows players to interactively “steer” the playfulness and enhance learning. In this paper an evolutionary contest game was designed and implemented to examine the influencial factors. Using action research, focus groups and hermeneutic methods, this study suggest that the playfulness design of an evolutionary game is influenced by the degree of uncertainty and flexibility in decision-making, the level of challenge, equal conditions for fair play, opportunities to compete/cooperate, and the level of interactivity.

Keywords:

• playfulness-based design
• educational games
• evolutionary contest game

Acknowledgements

This research was sponsored by the National Science Council of Taiwan. Besides financial support, we are very pleased to thank two elementary schools, Jin-Hwa and Pu-Chien, whose students and teachers participated in this research.