1. Dust Diaries
How Things Can Go Wrong
Drew Davidson

2. a little bit about me

3. Games & Learning
Anyone who tries to make a distinction
between education and entertainment doesn’t
know the first thing about either.

4. Games & Learning
Anyone who tries to make a distinction
between education and entertainment doesn’t
know the first thing about either.

5. Games & Learning
Anyone who tries to make a distinction
between education and entertainment doesn’t
know the first thing about either.

6. Dust Happens
Things Go Wrong
Common Mistakes
Unfortunate Misconceptions

7. All Eggs In One Basket
Just Make One Game
Or That One Game Solves All

8. Fun, Fun, Fun
It’s All About Making It Fun
Or Fun Is Just Something To Include

9. No Testing
Not Playtesting Early And Often
Not Iterating Design Ideas

10. Feature Creep
Include All Ideas
Include All Feedback

11. Excluding Team
Not Including Game Designers Throughout
Not Including Learning Specialists Throughout

12. Gamify!
Just Add Badges
To Track And Reward Learning

13. All Done!
Finished When You Release
No PR Or Distribution Plan

14. Opposite Day
It’s Easy And Quick
And Cheap To Make

15. Just Add...
Just Add Some Fun To Learning
Just Add Some Learning To Fun

16. Anyone Can Do It
Academic Fallacy
Not Everyone Is A Designer

17. Creepy Treehouse
Fake Fun, Smells Like Education
Bad Learning Games = Suckn

18. For Instance

19. Making Magic
Design Process
Learning Goals
In order to attain the impossible,
one must attempt the absurd.

20. Less Talk, More Rock

21. Less Talk, More Rock

22. Less Talk, More Rock

23. It’s Hard
Games are HARD

24. Really Hard
Games are HARD
Learning is HARD

25. Challenge is Good
In Games and Learning
Scaffolding Challenges
Pleasantly Frustrating

26. Pleasantly Frustrating
Not too Simple

27. Pleasantly Frustrating
Not too Simple
Not too Hard

28. Flow & Failure
Rewarding Challenges
Difficulty & Mastery
Agency & Literacy

29. Failure
Learn from our Mistakes, Develop Grit
Fail Faster, Experiment, Explore
Rapid Prototyping
Iterate toward Solutions
Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better.

30. Doubt
Question Answers
Challenge Assumptions
Work to Understand
Open to Changing Your Mind
To be Uncertain is to be Uncomfortable,
but to be Certain is to be Ridiculous.

31. Curiosity
Ask Questions & Engage
Lifelong Learning & How Stuff Works
Problem Solving & Cheating (?)
Story Telling & Model Making
Curiosity was Framed, Ignorance killed the Cat.

32. Curiosity Literacy
How to Learn
Challenge Yourself
Create on Your Own
Life-Long Skill

33. Curiosity Literacy
How to Learn
Challenge Yourself
Create on Your Own
Life-Long Skill

34. World’s Best Playground
With an Electric Fence
Learning needs Challenges
Success needs Failures
Creativity needs Constraints
Extraordinary needs Boundaries
Magic needs Dust

35. Transformational Games
Games for Impact
Beyond Transference
Learning, Playing, Creating
Changes in Daily Lives

36. A Little Magic
DragonBox+
Gorogoa

37. Games For Impact
Academic Consortium
Best Practices
http://gamesforimpact.com

38. Thanks!
Questions?
drdrew@cmu.edu

39. Thanks!
Questions?
drdrew@cmu.edu
waxebb.com/cookies