ProblemScape Design

I have had the chance to learn and practice a number of game design, development, and production skills at RoundEd Learning, thanks to my time working on ProblemScape, the RPG for 6th grade algebra. During my time on the project I was able to design activities for learning, script custom interactions, and work with developers to ensure timely and polished content delivery.

Activity Design for Learning

My gameplay design responsibility consisted mainly of short-form 2D activities and puzzles that addressed a single learning outcome. Creating gameplay that doesn’t feel like it’s just solving practice problems can feel complex, so I generally start with some word trees to try and break the design goals down from multiple angles. I usually write a word or phrase that describes the learning content, and then other word “seeds” from the context of the activity, or the constraints I’m given. In the example below, I was given the task of creating a new activity to fill a hole left by some moved content, so I had to create something that would fit in the bank location, and relate to the calculation machine used there.

Once I’ve digested the design goals a bit, I brainstorm some possible gameplay systems that can also engage a student with the learning content. In the case of the bank activity, my frontrunner idea was an activity that would have the player drawing a line across terms and operators to generate expressions that represent gem currency for bank customers. At this point, I like to make something that conveys what I’m looking for. If the idea is simple enough, I’ll prototype it in Unity. Otherwise, a paper prototype or a drawing will help communicate the idea. In this case, I created a gif to show one of the potential problems being solved.

After walking through the idea with the team and covering potential use cases, I start in on an activity brief document and a requirements doc to hand off to the development team. From there, it’s a matter of playtesting and iterating until the game feels right. In the case of the bank activity, we found that the ability to stop mid-draw, resume, or backtrack, was really important to encourage players to start drawing and see how the expression looks without risk of getting a wrong answer.

More information about ProblemScape is available at RoundEd Learning’s website.