Game Design for Training Lecture

I was recently invited to speak at a “Game-based Learning” session at US Gaming Arena, the same location we host our Game Developer Meetup. Since I used to have a business (sort of) that did a bit of game-based training, I jumped at the chance. I have some very strong feelings about how to integrate game design and training. Maybe I could help these people learn from my mistakes.

The gut reaction for training and games is, “Make your training into a game!” but that’s oversimplified. Plus this approach is often costly, time-consuming and lacks flexibility.

The point I tried to make is this, “If want to get the attention games get, you need to understand why people play games.” Many people think games are a waste of time, and to some extent they are right, but understanding why people play games is incredibly valuable.

I tried should how training can easily and inexpensively leverage player compulsions (e.g. completion, collection, etc.) to make training more “game-like.”

I would post my Powerpoint but its pretty useless without all my yammering over it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *