In a recent Game Design Challenge, you were tasked with designing a game that first graders could play in a physical education class . The best answers are not only featured here, but also have been tried out on a group of school children in Oakland, Calif.
What made the winning entries stand out? The key to the P.E. game design challenge was to know the audience. A lot of information was provided in the challenge, but a lot more was left implicit. Dealing with first graders has a lot of implied constraints, even more than those mandated by the school board!
There were a lot of fantastic entries, many more with illustrations and diagrams than from the previous challenge. This is great and is encouraged! Diagrams cut down on the number of words while enhancing the clarity of a design idea, and they're used ubiquitously in the professional industry.
Here's my favorite diagram from last week, sent in by Aaron Bean. The entry itself didn't win but this state machine warmed my heart.
On to the results!
Implicit Constraints
Injury. Many of the entries had the students trying to hit each other with the ball, which in this day and age is considered a liability. Small children are very fragile and the school board doesn't want to risk any possibility of injury. Many excellent entries lost out because the games were too risky for the students to play.
Seven-year olds are antsy! There were a number of outstanding (and for the most part very educational) games that involved the students waiting in line or sitting out for long periods of time. While older students may be willing to wait their turn, first graders are much less patient.
Several entries that would have otherwise won lost points for engaging only a fraction of the students at any time. If the students are restless, the teacher will have to spend all her time managing those who aren't playing rather than administering the game.
Best Entries
Paul Maxwell VanDuyne, Globs (see page 2)
This entry floored me. It's educational, it's physical, it's easy to explain, and it allows the teacher to monitor all the students with ease. What's more, it clocks in at 300 words (250 if you don't count the preamble).
I was amazed by the creativity of this entry. Instead of using any of the properties we usually associate with a ball, Paul instead chose to use it as a unique signifier. That is to say, he used the fact that there is only one ball in this "world" to shape his game rather than its ability to bounce or roll.
This game also rewards kids for mathematical as well as physical aptitude. The variations allow for a game in which kids never have to sit out and, even if they're playing a variant where they do sit out, they get a little mini-reward (the ability to choose the next equation) on their way out. This is very important for little children because it keeps losing from being embarrassing and keeps them from being disappointed when they become out.
By the time this piece is published students in Oakland will have played this game for three days.
Andrea Wästlund, Thump! (see page 3)
This entry convinced me that it could work despite having the children stand in a line because the game is fast enough that the children would be moving most of the time.
I was impressed by the malleability of this game. It is versatile enough that a teacher could modify it to suit whatever subject the students need to work on.
I was also impressed by the ending statement. My only problem with it is that the less coordinated students always end up solving problems while the most coordinated students spend most of their time running. This is easily fixed though as teachers could give "challenge questions" to anyone who caught the ball five times, for example.
When I sent this to the teachers in Oakland, I made the recommendation that they add the rule that makes the last person in line the "catcher" -- it's his or her job to run after the ball when someone misses it. There's plenty of time for this while the student who missed the ball is being asked a question (it can even become a mini-game for the catcher to try and return the ball before the question is answered) but, if no one does it, I was concerned that the game would be bogged down by delays.
I also recommended that they use something significantly larger than a tennis ball as the game might be too challenging for first graders with a ball that small.
Otherwise I left it exactly as Andrea sent it. I hope to hear how it goes soon.
Tim Edwards, Alphabet Soup Tag (see page 4)
I've spent at least an hour trying to decide who should take third. There were so many good entries...
In the end I decided on Alphabet Soup Tag. It's complicated, it's chaotic, it's hard to control, but it's something that little kids would go wild for. If a teacher is brave enough to try it I think it would be a memorable experience for everyone involved.
