Too often, instructional designers are given dry content and told to "make it fun." But no matter how much gamification we add, it's still not enough to cover up how excruciatingly boring the content is. Exciting graphics, peer competition, and reward systems can only hold peoples' attention for so long—at some point they'll have to actually engage with and retain the material. However, we know how much fun learning new things can be, and there are many examples of fantastic learning games that are both engaging and highly effective. What sets those games apart and how can we emulate them? In this session, we'll look to the indie games community, which is on the forefront of designing unique and interesting game experiences, to learn how we can "find the fun" in our content and move from simple gamification into designing real games.

While fighting for attention in a heavily competitive market but without the big budgets of large, graphics-heavy games, indie developers must rely on good design to engage their players. Low budgets, short timelines, and distracted users sound familiar to instructional designers. In this session, you'll learn how the indie games community is solving the engagement problem and explore how you can incorporate the same principles into your own designs. You'll take a look at real game design documents and hear from designers about how they find the fun their everyday experiences to create unique and meaningful games. We'll explore the similarities between the game design process and competency-based learning, and discuss how games can be used as tools for persuasion, practice, and assessment. We'll also look at the community that supports indie game designers to see how instructional designers can emulate it, or even get involved themselves. Whether you're building a game or just looking to find the fun within your content, you'll come away from this session with a fresh perspective on how to engage your learners.

In this session, you will learn:

• Design thinking strategies for developing playful learning experiences
• How to "find the fun" in even the most boring content
• How multiplayer online games provide a model for building peer learning activities
• How to leverage competency-based learning to create authentic game mechanics
• How indie game developers build a supportive community, and how instructional designers can do the same

Audience:
Designers, developers, managers

Technology discussed:
Unity, Twine, GameMaker, Articulate Storyline, GitHub