Game Designers’ Perspectives: Interception between Games and Educational Games Design

Abstract

Games and Educational Games(EGs)! To what extent do they diverge? How do game designers approach such apposition? The extensive need for games in and outside classrooms demands clarity between games and EGs through game designers’ perspectives. In the Australian context, game designers have witnessed technological advancement, the user-expectation, and the use of games within various contexts, including the classroom. The transformation in technology and the need to adapt and design games corresponds to the needs and requirements of its end-users. Admittedly, it has been overlooked in gaming studies if the designing processes and their perception differs between games and EGs. Respecting that aspect and the knowledge adapted by game designers to achieve players’ experience successfully, we first need to comprehend how game designers position games and EGs within their context, their experience constructed over time, and their beliefs. Therefore, this paper interprets seventeen game designers’ perspectives through semi-structured interviews in Australia. The data is thematically categorized, coded, and analyzed using NVivo. The results are presented through the interpretivism paradigm, which is grounded in the theoretical implications based on Dewey’s theory of experience and concepts to gather the ‘essence’ of game designers’ experience. Furthermore, a conceptual basis is established for game designers and learning designers to consider while designing games and EGs.