Constructivism in Level DesignPRESENTATION BY BLAINE GANTER

Educating Players

In order to completely enjoy a game, a player has to first understand the rules

This knowledge can be gained through a variety of methods: By having a person with previous experience or knowledge of the

game teach/coach the new player

Examining a printed or digital instruction booklet that is included with the game

Foregoing trying to gain any preliminary knowledge, and figuring out the game as you go

This presentation was going to be about how to properly educate players on game mechanics, but the best tutorial ever has already been made.

Best Tutorial Ever

Designing a Better Tutorial

As a wise man once said, “Tellem what your gonna tellem, tellem, and tellem what you toldem.”

Video games have fallen into a pattern of giving context sensitive prompts, pop-up text boxes, and other means of interrupting the gameplay experience to offer the player a new piece of information.

Rote learning typically gets the job done, but does it play to the strengths of games as an educational medium?

What is Constructivism?

Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that contends human’s acquire knowledge and meaning from an intersection of their experience and their ideas

It is heavily related to Experiential Learning, which is learning through experience (different from rote or didactic)

Constructivism hasn’t become its own pedagogy, and research on has had mixed results

Despite his, Constructivism has been an incredibly influential force on modern education around the world

Jean Piaget-The Father of Constructivism

Jean Piaget formalized the theory of constructivism

Piaget is a well-known Swiss Psychologist who lived from 1896-1980

He developed numerous different theories and discoveries that grew his understanding of learning over his lifetime including

Piaget’s Models

Sociological Model of Development- dictates that children move from egocentrism to sociocentrism (logic shift from personal understanding to universal understanding)

Biological Model of Intellectual Development-explains that thinking and intellectual development are the results of assimilation and accommodation

Elaboration of the Logical Model of Intellectual Development-Piaget began arguing that intelligence develops in a series of stages related to age (lead to upward spiral model, and was the most debated by American psychologists when his ideas gain popularity in the 60s)

These models would all contribute to Constructivism

Spiral Model

• A later education theorist named Joseph Bruner would continue to refine Piaget’s spiral model.

• Bruner asserts that in a contemporary classroom model the instructor should engage in the Socratic Method of teaching (guiding questions) to aid the learner in coming to their own conclusions

• Bruner also stated that good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying , generating new proposisitons, and increasing the manipulation of knowledge.

The Buiding Blocks of Constructivism

Schema-an existing organized pattern of through or behavior that categorizes individual or related information

Assimilation- An individual responds to a new event in a way that is consistent with existing knowledge

Accommodation-Individuals manipulate or alter their knowledge to make sense of their current environment

Applying Constructivism to Game Design

While rote and didactic instruction methods may inform the player on necessary information, they break the player’s immersion

Experiential Learning serves as a better tool to teach the player as the fourth wall isn’t broken

Game Designers can create constructivist approach based learning opportunities to instruct players

Back in Time

One of the best sited examples of a “tutorial” that doesn’t break this 4th wall came out for the Super Nintendo in North America in 1994

Mega Man X

The game was designed by Capcom in Japan as the next generation for the storied game franchise in the 16-bit era (following many titles on the original Nintendo Entertainment System)

Mega Man titles have historically been 2-D side strolling action platformer games

Mega Man’s character model was updated, enhanced, and more detailed than ever before thanks to the increased color palette and processing power of Nintendo’s new console

In addition to the updated graphics, a new play mechanic, the wall jump, was also added

8-Bit to 16-Bit

Constructivist by Design

During the first stage of the game, the player is given a brief introduction of the story and thrown into action

The play mechanics of the game should be familiar to anyone who has played a platforming game

At one point in the first stage, the player character is dropped into a pit after defeating a large bee shaped craft

Mega Man’s default jump is not high enough for the player to escape this pit

So, what do I do?

Educating by Design

When placed into this hole, the player has no choice but to further explore their situation in order to progress

Players have to use their existing schema to accommodate the fact that they are unable to escape the hole via running, shooting and jumping

Upon discovering that none of these techniques will work by themselves, the player is forced to explore their situation for a means of escapes

This will eventually lead to jumping into a wall and seeing a new animation of their character gripping the side of the wall

By combining grabbing a wall with a press of the jump button, players will “discover” Mega Man’s new ability of wall jumping, thus assimilating this new piece of information

The Morale of the Story

This brief action sequence informs the player of two different things The mechanic of wall jumping

The fact that falling into every pit or hole doesn’t mean the loss of a life

Both of these pieces of information are crucial to completing the game The wall jumping mechanic is used constantly throughout the

remaining stages of the game

Mega Man X had hidden collectables character upgrades and items strewn hidden throughout the game that could only be found by doing things like jumping in holes

In Conclusion

As serious game designer it is our job to provide player’s with an informative experience that is engaging

Using techniques based upon sound educational theory, like constructivism, allows us to create far more effective educational tools