Mini-games for Learning?
This is a guest post from Charles Palmer. He is the Director of the Center for Advanced Entertainment and Learning Technologies (CAELT) and Associate Professor of Multimedia at Harrisburg University. Charles leads the Center as well as spearheads new developments in digital storytelling and forms of entertainment technology for projects at HU and in the community. He is a creative educator, administrator, and producer. He is co-coordinator of the LEEF program.
Mini-games are a common diversion in hard-core entertainment gaming titles and a reinforcement device in many modular based learning systems. At their core mini-games are short experiences that offer the user an alternate interaction to their primary task. Whether it’s a quick snowboarding challenge in Final Fantasy VII or a virtual Putt-Putt course used in a Freshman online physics class, these games provide an escape from the game-world or a chance to practice newly introduced skills, concepts and procedures. To facilitate these tasks mini-games often have simple interactions, limited commands/tools, and tend to follow a single game mechanic. These limitations make the experience more accessible to the audience, but sometime fall into the trap of being too watered-down to be an effective learning tool.
Mini-games take on a variety of genres and mechanics and are either incorporated into the game-world or appear in “pop-up” windows to denote the separation. The Final Fantasy series is famous for utilizing mini-games as side-quests to extend the game play, or provide access to rare “power up” and other achievements. In the hard-core gaming titles these diversions, sometimes called “Easter eggs” because they are hidden within the game world and may require a specific button combination to locate, are also used provide additional challenges, advance the storyline, or shamelessly promote new titles and sequels within the game world.
On the learning side things are a bit different. In this area mini-games are used to teach or reinforce key concepts of the main experience. A perfect example of this will be shown at LEEF 2010. The Fundamentals of Business Financial Management project, created by Defense Acquisition University, uses mini-games to reinforce core course content and provide situational context for the learning objectives (read more). This usage is commonly seen in K-16 and corporate training classroom across the globe.
Developers everywhere are using mini-games to extend the interactions and experiences presented in their digital projects. Their utilization of simple concepts makes them easy to define and include but …
Mini-game does not equal mini-development!
One misconception is that developing these short experience doesn’t require a lot of time. More than one client has asked our team to “just throw in a couple mini games”. Let’s give this some thought. Aside from a simple mechanic, every component of the game must be created to meet the needs of your specific situation; visual assets, game play, codebase, sound, and interface. This isn’t a matter of slapping on a new skin and clicking the “make my app” button. Like developing any title/experience the process is time intensive and requires the same mix of development skills as any other venture.
Mini-Games are
- used to reinforce module learning objectives.
- diversionary tool for adding entertaining content.
- quick “sub-game” or demo to extend game play or promote larger titles.
- short casual game which “generally” centers around a single game play mechanic.
- often included as hidden Easter eggs.
- can be a central mechanic in a compilation; multiple mini-games bundled together around a central story.
- metered/keyhole game play (Skyrates.net) interaction is limited to short bursts or activity followed by long (sometimes measured in hours) periods of inactivity.
This reflects just one of the topics to be explored at LEEF, the Learning and Entertainment Evolution Forum on June 17-18. LEEF is an interactive professional development event showcasing the convergence of learning and entertainment technologies and exploring the organizational, design and technical challenges for adopting games and simulations for learning. Join Charles and presenters such as Jerry Heneghan of Applied Research Associates, Mike Cuffe, VP at Farmer’s Insurance, Phaedra Boinodiris of IBM, Koreen Olbrish of Tandem Learning and more at LEEF this summer! The event will take place in Central Pennsylvania at Harrisburg University. Go to www.LEEF2010.net to learn more about the program!
