Workshop at the Serious Play Conference in Montreal July 10-12 2019 seriousplay-montreal.com UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL /UNIVERSITY OF QUEBEC IN MONTREAL

1. Eva den Heijer & Imara Felkers
How to design in inner play in a study narrative?
workshop
speakers
Academic Counseling & Tutoring using game principles
University of the Arts Utrecht
HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, the Netherlands

2. ‣HKU Academic counseling & tutoring
Writing a Personal Development Plan
Problem: students experience these models as flat, 1 dimensional, role confirming
Articulating learning goals

3. ‣HKU Philosophy
Substantial: a functional approach:
- Conceived as anatomical atlas;
- Man is body: limited, substance,
isolable, thing, instrumental,
mechanical, categories;
- Normative: good, fat, stupid;
- Materialistic and dualistic images of
man
Relational:
- Connected to the world;
- Etre au monde (Merleau-Ponty)
‘bundle of contradictions called “man”;
- DaSein (Heidegger);
- Commitment to the world;
- Expresses itself in verbs: talking,
walking, sleeping, being;
- realization of meaning relations;
Images of man: anthropological presumptions
because we are not 1 dimensional beings…
…and the reality is ambiguous.

4. ‣Homo Ludens
Johan Huizinga
“All Art derives from Play”
…so we depart from the perspective
that we are the playing human being.
And if all Art derives from Play,
then as an Art Academy we should
focus on Play and how we can Play

5. ‣HKU Academic counseling &tutoring
Writing a Personal Development Plan
Idea: describing goals and ‘smart’ rules sounds like game design to me
Articulating learning goals

6. ‣Assumption: Play comes closer to reality than reality itself
‣Helping students how to transform their plans
into a system they can play
‣Helping students to give insight in their pluriformity
In this method we focus on two aspects:

7. ‣Helping students to give insight in their pluriformity:

8. Draw your Hero Draw your sidekick
Drive
Rules of Play
design your Player Profile
Aesthetics
Name……
Attributes
Step 1: Collect attributes to build your hero
Step 2: Draw your hero and name it
Step 3: Draw your sidekick in a yin-yang-style of your
hero and name it
Interests, hobbies, games
Rituals
Things you do
Things you do but
shouldn’t do
Animal
features
Inner mantra in your mind
Gender
Strengths, capacities
& Weaknesses
Competition
Chance
Mimicry, roleplay
Vertigo, Ilynx
1.
2. 3.
5.
6.
1.
Collective Goal
Step 4: What is your collective goal?
Step 5: Think of aesthetics matching your hero and sidekick
Step 6: What is your drive? Ask yourself why you do what
you do, what are your values in life?
4.
hku
Name……
Four Categories of
Play by Roger
Callois mentioned
as aesthetics
daily rituals
habits
inner voices
(Marcus Aurelius)

9. Inner mantra in your mind
through Marcus Aurelius Stoa

10. What is stoa?
through Marcus Aurelius StoaThe experience of looking at the stars…

11. Your inner voice is a guide
Active relation between
Cosmic determinism
and human freedom
Sumpatheia

12. through Marcus Aurelius Stoa
Cosmos
an immensely living creature in which all are interconnected
with sumpatheia.
Connected: All one alone

13. Book 2 Marcus Aurelius
Diary
“Begin the morning by saying to thyself,
I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful,
arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things
happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is
good and evil.”

14. Hey ho
let’s go
Poop

16. NO
YES

17. Little game
Qualities
2-5 players
- Each player takes 5 cards from the deck
- Taking turns everybody passes the quality
that suits you least to your left player
- Grab another card of the deck
- Go on until you have found your 5 qualities
In 3 minutes!!!
Collecting attributes
Weaknesses
2-5 players
- Each player takes 5 cards from the deck
- Taking turns everybody passes the
weakness that suits you least to your left
player
- Grab another card of the deck
- Go on until you have found your 5
weaknesses
In 3 minutes!!!

18. ‣Collect 5 qualities

19. ‣Collect 5 weaknesses

20. ‣fill out the rest of the attributes and draw your hero

21. ‣fill out the rest of the attributes and draw your sidekick

22. ‣Helping students how to transform their plans
into a system they can play:

23. What is your Challenge?
Personal Narrative
Game Design Canvas 2.0
ResourcesPlay Aim
Responsibility
Professional goal
Drive
Feedback
What is it you’ll have to learn?
Describe your
What is it you want to become?
Describe your
Describe the goal of your game
and the rules in your game in order
to achieve your learning goal and
professional goal
What are your responsibilities in the game?
In what way do you stay
motivated to play your game?
How do you know if you’re
playing it right? Who or what gives you
feedback in how you play?
What is your drive? Ask yourself why you do what you do, what are your values in life?
What kind of perks
can help you?
(check your player
profile)
Can you use a
helpdesk?
People who can
help? (e.g.
stakeholders)
Can you cheat?
Take shortcuts?
etc.
Context
Describe the context you’re in:
e.g. education, subjects, teachers, etc.
Boundary Conditions
Describe your known limitations.
For e.g. paying rent/mortgage,
need money to buy food etc.
Actions
Learning goal
Motivators
2.
hku

24. What is your Challenge?
Personal Narrative
Game Design Canvas 2.0
ResourcesPlay Aim
Responsibility
Professional goal
Drive
Feedback
What is it you’ll have to learn?
Describe your
What is it you want to become?
Describe your
Describe the goal of your game
and the rules in your game in order
to achieve your learning goal and
professional goal
What are your responsibilities in the game?
In what way do you stay
motivated to play your game?
How do you know if you’re
playing it right? Who or what gives you
feedback in how you play?
What is your drive? Ask yourself why you do what you do, what are your values in life?
What kind of perks
can help you?
(check your player
profile)
Can you use a
helpdesk?
People who can
help? (e.g.
stakeholders)
Can you cheat?
Take shortcuts?
etc.
Context
Describe the context you’re in:
e.g. education, subjects, teachers, etc.
Boundary Conditions
Describe your known limitations.
For e.g. paying rent/mortgage,
need money to buy food etc.
Actions
Learning goal
Motivators
2.
hku
“I would like to reconnect with
my childhood creativity”
EXAMPLE
“I’m not feeling creative
anymore”
“The purpose of the game is to be more in touch
with the child within us,
who is more wise than we
could ever know -
and in some circumstances
wiser than we are now. ”
“Responsible for playing”
“Whatever feelings arrive from play
are all correct ones,
as there is no wrong way to feel or think in this game.
When the player is mindful,
they will also be aware of when the feedback their
mind gives them feels good or not.
”
“When curiosity feels infinite,
then I’m playing it right”

25. player
profileThe player of this game is the child trapped inside the adult
body. Self-consciousness and the societal expectation to "be
an adult", to be "the adult", is recognized by the player (and
accepted as being okay) but not allowed to be the driver of
play. The player is an adult with bills to pay who in this
very moment's only obligation is pure play. Accepting we are
adults, with fears and worries that make us cynical, yet
playing in spite of this is what makes a true player of this
game.
‣Example

26. Player's Guide
1. purpose of the game
The purpose of the game is to be more in touch with the child within us, who is more wise than we could
ever know - and in some circumstances wiser than we are now. From when we are born we see the world
with "fresh eyes"; and this allows us to experience life, and not just to float through it on autopilot.
Through playing this game the player can experience something again once thought forgotten, and
engage in mindfulness to not only boost mood, but encourage acceptance of what we feel in our bodies
and minds.
2. The Rules of the Game
To not compete with children at the park. To not compare yourself to anyone else at the park. To
not go on your phone, except to take one photo of your experience at the park (to remember and
savor). To try to be mindful, in the "here and now". To play for as long as you want. To play in every
park you see. To play with whatever however you like. To forget that germs exist. To keep playing
even if you are self conscious.
3. Feedback System of the Game
Often when we try to be mindful, or meditate, with a certain expectation in mind, it often has the
opposite effect because it defeats the purpose of being mindful. Therefore, the feedback system of
this game is simply a photo of the play. This can be a photo of a leaf, of the player playing, of the
park. Whatever feelings arrive from play are all correct ones, as there is no wrong way to feel or
think in this game. When the player is mindful, they will also be aware of when the feedback their mind
gives them feels good or not.
4. The role of flow
The role of flow in the game is connected to the feedback system, as when the player is truly
mindful - no matter how they are feeling - they will experience flow, in the sense that their
curiosity in the moment will be infinite. Time will pass differently, just like how children can play
for hours and not realize. Colours may look different and the player might feel properly "alive" for
the first time in a while.
5. Cheating in the Game
The only way to cheat in this game is to sit on the bench and go on your phone. The game is
designed to be as less restrictive as possible, so that players avoid the feeling that they are
not playing "well", or that they are not "good" at play. In this sense, the play becomes theirs.
6. Safety in the Game
The safety in the game is a childlike sense of safety. Often children who are in flow build on their
flow, by trying something, and each time becoming more daring and more daring. This same approach can
be taken in the game so that while fear may be there (when jumping/climbing/running), it is not at the
foreground of the play. Often children who break their arm when playing were not scared, or even aware
of breaking an arm prior; therefore each minute becomes a new minute to dare to explore.

27. ‣Another example

28. Thank you
eva.denheijer@hku.nl
imara.felkers@hku.nl
evert.hoogendoorn@hku.nl