Henry Been-Lirn Duh
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a design approach to build casual games by children for children. Children understand game narratives with previously acquired schemata that is different from adults. Hence, integrating narrative developed by children themselves into game design may serve the children well. Using a narrative approach to game design based on informant design methods, the proposed approach aims to maximize the contribution of both children informants and adult designers. It comprises of three major phases, namely Narrative Design, Game Design and Design Moderation. A mobile phone game was developed based on this approach. User testing revealed that the children generally enjoyed the game and that the proposed approach has promising potential in empowering the child designers. Future work will focus on further evaluation of the approach for refinement.
Supplemental Material
- Allmer, M. 2009. The 13 basic principles of gameplay design. Retrieved 2010-1-15 from Gamasutra at http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3949/the_13_basic_principles_of_.php?page=4Google Scholar
- Bekker, M., Beusmans, J., Keyson, D., AND Lloyd, P. 2003. Kidreporter: a user requirements gathering technique for designing with children. Interacting with Computers, The interdisciplinary Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 15(3), 187--202.Google Scholar
- Crawford, C. 2003. Chris Crawford on game design. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Dickenson, D., AND Tabors, P. 1991. Early literacy: Linkages between home, school, and literacy achievement at age five. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 6, 30--46.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Druin, A. 1999. Cooperative inquiry: Developing new technologies for children with children. Proceedings of Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI '99, Pittsburg, PA, 223--230. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Druin, A. 2002. The role of children in the design of new technology. Behaviour and Information Technology (BIT), 21,1, 1--25.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Druin, A., Bederson, B., Rose, A., AND Weeks, A. 2009. From New Zealand to Mongolia: Co-designing and deploying a digital library for the world's children. In Special issue of Children, Youth and Environments: Children in Technological Environments: Interaction, Development, and Design, University of Colorado at Boulder.Google Scholar
- Zasfern, E. F. 2001. Advanced focus group research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGA.Google Scholar
- Fullerton, T., Swain, C., AND Hoffman, S. 2004. Game design workshop: Designing, prototyping, and playtesting games. CMP Books. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Gee, J. P. 2003. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hennesy, E. AND Heary, C. 2004. Exploring children's views through focus groups, In: Green, S. M. & Hogan, D. M. (Eds). Researching Children's Experiences: Approaches and Methods, SAGA, 13, 236--252.Google Scholar
- Howland, K., Good, J. AND Robertson, J. 2007. A learner-centred design approach to developing a visual language for interactive storytelling. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC '07, Aalborg, Germany, 45--52. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lindley, A. 2005. Story and narrative structures in computer games. In Developing interactive narrative Content (ed. Bushof, B.), High Text Verlag: München.Google Scholar
- Madej, K. 2008. Early narrative experience: positive segue to narrative gameplay. Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology. ACE' 06, Hollywood, California. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nousiainen, T. 2009. Children's involvement in the design of game-based learning environments: Cases Talarius and Virtual Peatland. In Kankaanranta, M. & Neittaanmaki, P. (Eds.), Design and Use of Serious Game, Netherlands: Springer, 49--66.Google Scholar
- Npd Group. 2009. Among American kids ages 2--17, 82 percent report they are gamers. Press Release (December 2), Port Washington, New York.Google Scholar
- Read, J. C. AND Macfarlane, S. 2006. Using the fun toolkit and other survey methods to gather opinions in child computer interaction. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC'06, Tampere, Finland, 84--88. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Robertson, J. AND Good, J. 2004. Children's narrative development through computer game authoring. Proceedings of the 2004 conference on Interaction Design and Children: Building a Community, Maryland, USA, 57--64 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Scaife, M., Rogers, Y., Aldrich, F. AND Davies, M. 1997. Designing for or designing with? Informant design for interactive learning environments. Proceedings of Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI'97, San Jose, CA, 343--350. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Scaife, M. AND Rogers, Y. 1999. Kids as Informants: Telling us what we didn't know or confirming what we knew already. In Druin, A. (Ed.), The design of children's technology, San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 27--50. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tikka, S., Nousiainen, T. AND Kankaanranta, M. 2006. Creative learning by designing digital board games: Practicisng deep reading skills through game creation process. In Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Narrative and Interactive Learning Environments, Edinburgh, Scotland, 58--63.Google Scholar
- Walsh, G., Druin, A., Guha, M. L., Foss, B., Golub, E., Hatley, L., Bonsignore, B. AND Franckel, S. 2009. Layered elaboration: A new technique for co-design with children. Proceedings of Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI'09, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Zaman, B. 2005. Evaluating games with children. Proceedings of Interact 2005 Workshop on Child-computer Interaction: Methodological Research, Rome, ItaGoogle Scholar
Index Terms
- A narrative-driven design approach for casual games with children
Recommendations
Understanding and fostering children's storytelling during game narrative design
IDC '14: Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Interaction design and childrenChildren typically have extensive expertise and experiences of computer games, which can enable them to make valuable contributions when involved in the design of games. Within this paper we discuss our approach to the involvement of children in the ...
Snoozy: A Chatbot-Based Sleep Diary for Children Aged Eight to Twelve
IDC '22: Proceedings of the 21st Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children ConferenceMany children suffer from sleep problems which can be detrimental to their development and well-being. Treating clinicians rely on sleep diaries to assess how patients experience sleep. Currently used sleep diaries are made for adults and parents are ...
User-centered research in the early stages of a learning game
DIS '12: Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems ConferenceGames offer a compelling medium for learning. However, designing a successful learning game that features engagement alongside its educational objectives is a craft that is still underway. Our research adapts a user-centered approach toward designing a ...
Comments