Game Elements

Elements found in many games.

1. Goals
-Game Goals
-Instructional
Goals

2. Rules
-Operational Rules-Describe
how the game is played.

-Foundational Rules-
Underlying formal structures,
like the mathematics involved
with dice.

-Behavior Rules-How players
are expected to act toward
one another.

-Instructional Rules-What you
want the learner to gain from
playing the instructional game.

3. Objectives
-The introduction of an
objective or a goal is what
differentiates a game from
play.

-It gives the players
something to work toward.

-Objectives are either
obtained or not obtained and
that is a quantifiable
outcome.

4. Story

5. Stories provide, context,
meaning and purpose

7. 1.Characters
Story Elements
5. Conclusion
2. Plot (something has to happen).
3. Tension
4. Resolution
Write a story to match your
game.

8. Feedback

10. Games like The Sims provide feedback on
many dimensions which provide
opportunities to consider tradeoffs and
higher level cognitive thinking.

11. The most helpful feedback provides specific
comments about errors and suggestions for
improvement. It also encourages learners to focus
their attention thoughtfully on the task rather than
on simply getting the right answer.
Shute, V. J., Ventura, M., Bauer, M. I., & Zapata- Rivera, D. (2009). Melding the power of serious games and
embedded assessment to monitor and foster learning: Flow and grow. In U. Ritterfeld, M. J. Cody, & P.
Vorderer (Eds.), Serious Games: Mechanisms and Effects. Philadelphia, PA: Routledge/LEA. 295-321.

14. Leaderboards provide
opportunities for players to
receive feedback about their
performance as compared to
others.

15. Leaderboards provide
opportunities for players to
receive feedback about their
performance as compared to
others.

16. Recommendations
•Provide authentic and realistic feedback.

•Feedback should be continuous through out
the learning.

•Feedback should be instructional and provide
knowledge of learner’s performance.

•Allow learners to create their own social
“leaderboard” of friends.

17. Time
Motivator for
player/learner
activity and action.
As a resource
allocated during the
game-play.
A game can compress time
to show consequences of
actions more quickly than
real-time.

18. Curve of Interest
Monitor within the
instruction. Track
player movement,
time on task, level of
activity.

19. Replayability
•Replay provides learners
with a chance to try a
different approach,
explore different
hypothesizes and reduces
the “sting of failure”

20. Replay and exploration can be
placed in games by providing
additional pathways through the
content.
Achieving goals
Collecting Items
Exploring
Socializing
Easter Eggs

21. Conflict, Competition and
Cooperation

22. Conflict
Conflict-inflicting
damage on other
players

23. Competition
Competition-
competing against
other players

24. Cooperation
Cooperation-
working with
other players to
achieve a goal.

25. Rewards, Incentives and Points,
Achievements

26. Primarily use expected achievements so players can
establish goals for themselves and understand the
purpose and progression of interactions.
Kapp, K. M. (2012) The Gamification of Learning and Instruction. New York: Pfeiffer. Chapter Ten. Pages 219- 238.

27. Use coins, points and rewards to provide feedback on
performance, updates on progress and level of
correctness.
Kapp, K. M. (2012) The Gamification of Learning and Instruction. New York: Pfeiffer. Chapter Ten. Pages 219- 238.

28. The value, or size, of an anticipated reward influences
the motivational signal sent to the brain only within
the contexts of the reward system.
Howard- Jones, P. A., & Demetriou, S. (2009) Uncertainty and engagement with learning games. Instructional
Science. 37:519– 536 DOI 10.1007/s11251- 008-9073- 6

29. Give players an opportunity to go over their earned
achievements using some kind of visual stored list.
Kapp, K. M. (2012) The Gamification of Learning and Instruction. New York: Pfeiffer. Chapter Ten. Pages 219- 238.

30. What can you do?
Use points, rewards and badges to
convey meaning, achievement and
progress.

31. http://www.coursehero.com/courses/

34. 2 weeks after launching Courses (powered by gamification), CourseHero
received 350 suggested edits to existing courses and 122 requests for new
courses.

Another 68 people offered to augment existing courses by creating their
own course to be hosted on coursehero.com.

35. Since the implementation of gamification elements, time on
site overall has increased around 5 percent.

36. For Gamified courses, the time on site for the Courses are nearly
three times as long as time onsite for all of coursehero.com .

Social sharing of achievements increased nearly 400 percent in
three months.

38. Aesthetics
•A large element of any game is how the game
looks and the overall congruency of the
artwork, interface and activities.

39. Artwork and the “look and feel” of
the game plays a major role in the
overall design and enjoyment of a
game.
Includes
audio as
well as
visual.

40. Gaming uncertainty can transform the emotional
experience of learning. This may improve engagement
and improve encoding and later recall.
Howard- Jones, P. A., & Demetriou, S. (2009) Uncertainty and engagement with learning games. Instructional
Science. 37:519– 536 DOI 10.1007/s11251- 008-9073- 6

41. Experimental results reveal that uncertainty enhances
learning and is positively associated with motivation.
As motivation increases, participants tend to spend more time answering questions and have higher accuracy.
Ozcelik, E., Cagiltay, N. E., & Ozcelik, N. S., (2013)The effect of uncertainty on learning in game- like environments.
Computers & Education 67. 12– 20

42. Uncertainty in a learning game can enhance players’
experience in several ways, including changes in brain
chemistry and activity.

Robinson, S. (2012) Taking a chance: Introducing uncertainty into learning games. Proceedings of the
Academy of Educational Leadership, Volume 17, Number 2, 2012

43. Chance or luck is a highly motivational
element of games both of traditional
games of chance but in other video games
like finding hidden treasures.

44. What can you do?
Allow chance, risk-taking and
uncertainty into gamification efforts.
50% appears to be an optimal number.

45. Freedom to Fail

47. Recommendations
•Allow failure.

•Provide for multiple attempts.

•Focus on learning from mistakes and failure.