Game Design as Problem Solving

Abstract

In this paper we present how students at an arts immersion school in Canada, designed games using Minecraft as a design tool to represent Grade 8 curriculum content learnt in Social Studies. Our research was based on our theoretical framework on how game design could be an aesthetic process, which elaborates how a design commences with a problem and progresses as an iterative creative cycle towards finding a solution. Using this framework, we examined two groups of Grade 8 students’ game design process. The groups represent unique approaches towards problem solving that incorporated content from the Aztec and Spanish Civilization in their game design. We have interpreted the representation of the content as the posed problem and analyzed how each group proceeded with their game making based on their ideas, experience at playing the game and feedback received from fellow classmates. Our findings highlight how the design process through Minecraft was a creative endeavour on their part. Through our findings, we re-emphasize how involving students in game creation efforts help them to experience an aesthetic learning process, allowing them to become protagonists of their learning. We argue for game design as learners’ problem solving experience, through which they struggled to construct knowledge in social systems while developing fluencies both in gaming and technology.