Assistant teacher course/Individual curriculum/Game design

Game design

Pupils with a strong interest in games may often receive support to change their interests, not to develop the topic further. An individual curriculum can allow a pupil to explore the connections between games and academic topics instead. All game designers should take an interest in game theory, stochastic, pedagogy and psychology. The pupils should be motivated to be creative and design their own games from scratch, not to play or modify available games (with the possible exception of chess and similar board games). Developing a good game can require a high amount of planning, group work and game testing. The game designers can also develop and train soft skills in the process.

Pupils interested in computer games can take an interest in computer science and the underlying mathematics of 3D computer graphics or the physics for a physics engine. The underlying mathematics will initially be much too difficult but VPython, Python Physics and Alice can also be used by younger pupils. 3D computer graphics and a physics engine can create a continual challenge until college, the challenge for the educators is to find a balance between using software libraries (possibly without understanding for the internal logic) and designing own libraries. Another challenge for the educators is to find a balance between using game design as an end in itself and using enthusiasm for game design to motivate harder science.