Sunday, 22 June 2025, 08:30 - 12:30 CEST (Central European Summer Time - Sweden)
William B. Rouse (short bio)
Professor Emeritus, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Rebecca Rouse (short bio)
Associate Professor, Division of Game Development, University of Skövde, Sweden
Modality
on-site
Room: TBA
Target Audience
Students – undergraduate and graduate
Researchers – academic and industry
Practitioners – educators, trainers, consultants
Requirements for participants
Course participants should bring their own laptop or tablet
Abstract
In The Power of Games students are introduced to what games can do across a range of domains from education, healthcare, defense, and commercial industry and given the opportunity to put this knowledge into action in the development of a paper prototype.
Drawing on Rouse’s recent publication (The Power of Games: Business Impacts and Opportunities for Innovation – 2024, Routledge) games are presented as having a long-standing central role in society. Games are discussed in terms of how they foster human playing, learning and competing, including how we can design games to do this better. Questions investigated include: What makes games so appealing? What is the psychology of gaming? Does it vary for card games, board games, simulation games, and online games? What makes a game successful over years? What strategies might succeed or fail? Can online games fundamentally enhance the education of employees and students? We are convinced they can. This requires, however, that games be designed to achieve these ends.
Students are given a background with examples of games the instructors have designed, deployed and evaluated across education, healthcare, defense, and commercial industry. Students are given tools and techniques for making games, and are then led through a hands-on prototype development process.
Benefits for attendees
Attendees can expect to benefit from the course in the following ways:
- Increased knowledge of how games work
- Understanding of what games have to offer across several domains including education, healthcare, defense, and commercial industry
- Development of practical game-design skills
- Have fun!
Course Content
Course Aims
- Introduce students to what games can do across a range of domains from education, healthcare, defense, and commercial industry
- Provide the opportunity for students to put this knowledge into action in the development of a paper prototype.
Course Objectives
- Increased knowledge of how games work
- Understanding of what games have to offer across several domains including education, healthcare, defense, and commercial industry
- Development of practical game-design skills
- Have fun!
Topics to be covered
Games for learning; Serious Games; Game design tools and techniques; Hands-on game design prototyping
Table of Contents
Introduction & presentation round
Games for Learning lecture
- Health Advisor
- Advisor Series
- Acquisition Game
Serious Games lecture
- Simulation of Washington D.C.
- Battery Electric Vehicles & Autonomous Vehicles
- Digital Cultural Heritage
Tutorial on game design
- Game Design Attributes
- Objectives
- Winning Conditions
- Mechanics
- Components/Platform
Game design hands-on exercise
- Group formation
- Concept creation
- Paper prototyping, playtesting and iteration
- Presentation of prototypes and discussion
Optional modules if time allows:
- History, psychology, sociology, and politics of games
- Understanding the Games Industry
- Techniques for Game Evaluation
Resources
Bogost, I. (2010). Persuasive games: The expressive power of videogames. MIT Press.
Castronova, E. (2008). Synthetic worlds: The business and culture of online games. University of Chicago Press.
Fullerton, T. (2008). Game Design Workshop-A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. Elsevier.
Rouse, W. B. (2024). The Power of Games. Routledge.
Rouse, R., Berg Marklund, B., Taylor, A. A. (2022). What Happens When We Play: A Critical Approach to Game User Experience Design and Education. Carnegie Mellon ETC Press.
Bio Sketch of Course instructors
William B. Rouse is Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Tech. He is an author, researcher, and entrepreneur focused on understanding and transforming complex organizational systems in healthcare, education, energy, transportation and national security. His use of computational models to address these challenges has been widely recognized. The interactive visualizations associated with these models have been highly valued by corporate and government decision makers. Rouse has written several hundred articles and book chapters, and has published over 40 books.
Rebecca Rouse is an Associate Professor in Media Arts, Aesthetics, and Narration and Co-Director of PlayLab in the Division of Game Development at the University of Skövde, Sweden. Rouse's research focuses on investigating new forms of storytelling with new technologies such as immersive and responsive systems for theatrical performance, interactive installation, movable books, and games. This design work dovetails with Rouse's research in critical pedagogies and design methods, media theory, and history of technology.