Playing to learn game design skills in a game context

This interactive session presents early research findings resulting from a game simulation currently called Gamestar Mechanic through which 70 middle and high school-age players learn to design video games. Gamestar Mechanic is an RPG (Role-Playing Game) style online game through which players "take on" the behaviors characteristic of professional game designers (e.g., designing games, accounting for variability change within a game's system, critiquing games). Reflecting on and practicing design can lead, we believe, to skills that are crucial for success in the modern, high-tech, global world. Game design is but a start in learning to think of complex interactions among variables, people, and technology, but it is also a domain that can help others reflect on complex interactions among systems. Early findings are showing that the pedagogical design of Gamestar Mechanic has the potential to help participants develop understanding of technical concepts particular to game design, systems-thinking skills, and other behaviors associated with the domain.