ABOUT

OBJECTIVE
To teach anyone the basics of game design, the power of designing games for learning, and the confidence that they can be awesome game designers in little time-provided they break free from their game histories, and explore new (surprising) combinations of game elements. You can use the card deck in whatever way you wish to make this happen. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

CREATOR:
I am Dr. Caroline Archambault, an Anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Development at Leiden University College in The Netherlands. I work on issues of social justice, social protection, and the production of knowledge with a regional focus on East Africa and the Netherlands. And I LOVE games.

LICENSE
This is a Creative Commons license. Everyone is welcome to access, use it, and share it. It can not be used for commercial purposes. All rights of design, content, and copyright belong to Dr. Caroline Archambault, Leiden University (c.archambault@luc.leidenuniv.nl)

CREDITS
I would like to recognize and express my great appreciation to the following people who helped me bring the Game of Games to life:
Willem Hanhart for training me in game design.
Daniela van den Brink and Edde Jansen for helping me build the first prototype.
David Ehrhardt for being my stellar work partner throughout.

RULES

THE ALPHABET

Pile Sorting:
Players are given the deck of mechanic cards and tasked with sorting them into categories:

  • Any kind of category counts.
  • Find a category for every mechanic.
  • Make sure no mechanic is on its own.

Matching:
Using any of the decks (mechanics, settings, components, learning objectives, and tricks), try to match the elements with a real game.

Working in groups against other groups and enforcing a time limit can really help you learn this alphabet.

CONCEPT GENERATOR

Players are assigned/choose elements from the different decks, for example:

  • 1 learning objective
  • 1 setting
  • 2 components
  • 3 mechanics
  • 1 learning trick

They are tasked with coming up with a unique game concept that must include (but is not limited to) all those elements. Players fill out the game concept form and their concepts are assessed.

Working in groups on the same conditions and adding a best concept wins adds excitement. Assessing by vote (not on your own) is also fun and insightful.

CONCEPT EVOLUTION

Players need to get used to the experience of receiving feedback on creative concepts and incorporating feedback into new design.

A quirky human trait of ours is to overvalue the things we build overselves. Getting critical feedback on our ideas is tough. Taking it in and really working with it is a skill most of us could work on. Here are two ways to make this easier and fun:

Sabotage: Take away and/or insert new elements into a players’/groups’ initial design.

Co-creation: Rotate designs to other players to build on and make improvements.

DECKS
Game of Games - Learning Goals

What do you want players to learn in your game?

View Print

Game of Games - Settings

Where will this game actually be played?

View Print

Game of Games - Components

What items need to be part of your game?

View Print

Game of Games - Mechanics

What rules will your game be built from?

View Print

Game of Games - Learning Tricks

What insights from the Science of Learning will you include?

View Print

PLAYS

How to learn recognition, empathy, and out-reach?

Full Story

How to learn tough French words in the car?

Full Story

How to build confidence at the student bar?

Full Story

How to add drama to learning the traffic rules?

Full Story

CONTACT

If you have any feedback or questions, please reach out to me at c.archambault@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
I appreciate your input!

Website design by Freelance Web Designer

Scroll to Top

Struggle in the City

Struggle in the City (SITC)

Struggle in the City is a project where students at Leiden University College (LUC) teach Recognition, Empathy, and Outreach through games/simulations.

Setting
I, Caroline Archambault, run a project (Struggle in the City) where students from LUC spend a semester learning about a struggle in the city of The Hague. To learn more here is the website link. The final product of the course is to contribute a Game/Simulation concept and tested prototype to the project with the aim of teaching Recognition, Empathy, and Out-Reach. The Game of Games was originally developed for these students. I use it to unlock their creativity and give them the confidence that they can produce innovative games.

Players
A class of undergraduate students at LUC, an honors Liberal Arts and Sciences College in the Netherlands. The students come from a diversity of backgrounds and are pursuing interdisciplinary studies.

Rules
I devote a whole lesson to playing the game (1hr30min) so that I can play all 3 versions of the GoG.

The Alphabet game I have them do in teams with a time limit. I give each team a full deck of mechanics. They struggle a lot with finding ways to categorize them and it really makes them pay attention to the mechanics.

Concept Generator I have them play in their teams and I make it competitive. I often throw in their least favourite mechanics from the Alphabet game for an extra challenge. When appropriate I also suggest that we play the winning concept. It is also fun to have them pick out the cards blindly that they have to work with. I usually make the teams work on the same constellation of elements to show how you can come up with very different concepts with the same elements.

Concept Evolution is really important for my students because they don’t like negative feedback on their original ideas. Both sabotage, by having other teams replacing mechanics that they have to incorporate, and co-creation, where they build on other teams ideas, work really well.

Showcase
The Alphabet: My favourite classification that these students regularly come up with is Mechanics I like, Mechanics I don’t like. This gives me the opportunity to explain to them that like Letters in the Alphabet, there is no good reason to not like a letter. It is the combination of letters into a game that you might not enjoy.

Concepts Generated: I have so many I could showcase because they end up making really fun concepts. Here is one example:

With the following elements:
Learning Goal: Making friends
Setting: Library
Components: Pen and Paper
Mechanics: Deduction, Acting, Scenario-Driven

The winning concept had a game master write notes inviting people at the University library to take a break from their studies/reading and join them for a round of silent charades. The note gave a scenario and a hint to the secret location of the game. Once players assembled they played a few rounds of charades based on categories like “My favourite book” or “what I am studying now.” We wanted to actually go and play it but never managed to find time.

French Is Hard

Setting
My daughter just started middle school and has French as a subject for the first time. She finds it really difficult. She needs to study lots of vocabulary and feels that the words just don’t stick.

Players
We were on a day trip with an hour long drive. We were 4 in the car: my two daughters (10 and 12 years old), myself (mom), and my boyfriend (who was driving).

Rules
We played Concept Generator. We had the same Learning Objectives (French vocabulary words), Setting (family car trip), and Components (none). We each had 2 different Mechanics. We had 5 minutes to think of a game that we could actually play in the car. We would then each pitch the game and my daughter who had to learn the French words chose her favourite.

Showcase
Mika’s Game: J’adore les crepes! A role play

The game master is the student that needs to learn the vocabulary. They set-up the game. They identify the vocabulary words they find most difficult and they give each player a set of 7 vocab words with their translation on a sticky note. They assign roles to each of the players. Since we played with 3 players there were 3 roles:

1 – The client of a restaurant
2 – The waitress in the restaurant
3 – The manager/host of the restaurant

The idea was to have a conversation where you used as many of your words that you could. The first person that uses all their words successfully wins.

The game master learns the vocabulary by writing down the words for all the players.
They also learn the words during play, both by trying to use their own words but also by hearing other players use their words.

Confidence At The Bar

Setting
LUC offers Experience Days for prospective students. LUC staff provide sample classes to showcase what and how we teach at the College. I gave a demonstration on Game of Games and how I use it in my course Struggle in the City.

Players
These are 17-19 year-old international prospective college students. I had two rounds of playing with 4 teams of approximately 4 students per team in each round.

Rules
They played The Alphabet and Concept Generator. They were given the following elements:

Learning Objective-build confidence
Setting-student bar
Components-blocks, cups, and a spongy food item (like a Burrito).
Mechanics-trading, memory, scenario-driven

They had 12 minutes to fill out the Concept Form. Each team had to present their game concept in a 2-minute pitch. We then voted for best concept (you couldn’t vote for your own).

Showcase
Team Green Kikkers with the Game: A Block’s Story

1. At the student bar everyone picks 3 Blocks. The blocks represent an Action (embarrassing situation), a Place (a foreign country), and a Persona (spontaneous).
2. Trading round: Everyone gets to trade their blocks but without knowing what they are receiving in return.
3. Socialise and share stories. You have to remember one.
4. Pitch the stories your remember.
5. Person who remembers the most wins a Burrito.

Players build confidence around talking to and sharing ideas with strangers.

Learn The Traffic Rules

Setting
Student support officers from international high schools were visiting Leiden University College to learn about the program. I was invited to share with them our Global Citizenship program and teaching innovation. I gave them a brief demonstration on Game of Games and how I use it in my course Struggle in the City.

Players
These were high school support staff from all over the world: Europe, North and South America, and Asia. They were 16 in total so I split them in 4 groups of 4.

Rules
They played Concept Generator. They were given the following elements:

Learning Objective-learn the traffic rules
Setting-classroom
Components-cards, jelly beans.
Mechanics-acting, route builder, player elimination, and roll/spin to move

They had 10 minutes to fill out the Concept Form. Each team had to present their game concept in a 2-minute pitch. We then voted for best concept (you couldn’t vote for your own).

Showcase
Team Road Rules with the Game: Dramatic Drive

1. Students at a driving school are split into 2 teams competing against each other
2. The team that crosses the finish line first wins.
3. Every advance is made by placing one jelly bean down on the route.
4. Jelly beans are earned by guessing the charade correctly.
5. Someone from your team has to charade the traffic rule on the card.
6. The person charading is determined by a spinning pointer.
7. If the team does not guess the rule correctly in time, the charading player is eliminated.
8. The traffic rules get harder and harder the farther along on the route you are. There are 5 levels of difficulty.

Designers learn the traffic rules by figuring out which rules can be charade and how to organize rules by level of difficulty. What are more complex rules?

Submit Your Play