Game or Gamification? Where do I start?

One questions I am asked frequently is about the idea of building a game for a learning experience or adding Gamification elements to a course or learning program. The question is usually, “Help, where do I start with all this?”

As with almost anything, the first place to start is with self-education. Because shortly, you need to make a decision do I want to pursue a game or gamification?

What I usually suggest to get started is to first educate yourself about games and gamification (there are several books out their that can help, including my book —The Gamification of Learning and Instruction
–but there are others). Another good place to start is the article From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining “Gamification” It provides a great context for thinking about games or gamification as a possible solution (of course you first need a real learning need and not puruse either games or gamification for any other reason–if you don’t have a learning need and even a business need behind the effort, you may already be in trouble.)

Next, determine your learning objectives (I guess this could be done first but I think knowing the type of game or gamification effort you want to create helps put the objectives in perspective but both can be done about the same time. Education will help give you some ideas. Also, looking at other games or gamification efforts is helpful.

Then, design the game or gamification project on paper. This is where a game company or someone knowledgeable about instructional game design or gamification can help. Creating a game on paper first is a great way to see how the game plays and to see what parts might need improvement. Adding game-elements, gamification to a course or effort on paper also helps you to examine whether or not the gamification adds value to the instruction or effort or if it is more of a “bolt-on”.

Once the game has gone through the design phase, then hire or obtain a programmer to develop the game and an artist to create the graphics. Or if you are going “pure” gamification, then contract with a gamification vendor who has a platform you can leverage, or work with your IT department to add in those elements.

Next, consider a pilot prior to releasing a full blown version of your effort. No matter how hard you try, you can’t think of everything or cover all the bases, a pilot will point out issues, flaws and opportunities for improvement that you probably never imagined. Make changes accordingly.

Then you can release the game or gamified instruction. Gather feedback, usage data and learning outcomes and then modify as needed.