Project DetailS
Analog Game Brief
Title: Pursuit of Excellence: Nutrition Ninja Edition
Subject Area: Customer Service knowledge of CompanyName value propositions, meal types, ordering & order types, billing, and shipping & delivery procedures.
Learning Domains: Declarative, Conceptual, Rules-Based & Procedural Knowledge
Learning Objective 01: Using materials included with the game [condition], new CS Team members [audience] will find, state, and recall facts within the six knowledge categories [behavior], successfully earning a “belt” in each category [degree].
Learning Objective 02: Using materials included with the game [condition], new CS Team members [audience] will categorize, compare, and select meal types for customers based on game questions [behavior], successfully earning a “belt” in the nutrition category [degree].
Learning Objective 03: Using materials included with the game [condition], new CS Team members [audience] will assess rules and procedures concerning subscription charges and delivery & shipping issues [behavior], successfully earning a “belt” in those categories [degree].
Game Details
Basic Core Loop: Roll, Move, Answer. Repeat for three die rolls or until incorrect— whichever comes first.
Game Mechanics: Nutrition Ninja is a collection-type board game patterned on Trivial Pursuit. Players advance by answering questions in six knowledge categories: value propositions, meals & nutrition, ordering & order types, billing, shipping & delivery, and general & miscellaneous. Players roll a die and move their pieces around/across a circular track and spokes, aiming to collect “Belts” (game piece wedges) representing each category. Belts are earned by landing on specific spaces and correctly answering corresponding questions from cards read aloud by another player. A player's turn continues as long as they answer correctly, and they can move in any direction on their turn. One example of an explicit rule that fosters player agency includes the choice of questions for Miscellaneous category being left up to the fellow Ninja asking the question, offering strategic gameplay and the opportunity to make decisions that could impact the asker positively and the recipient of the question, negatively.
Game Goal: To win, a player must collect all six belts or score more points than any other Ninja. As soon as a Ninja earns their sixth belt, the regular part of the game ends and the final round begins. Draw one card randomly and each player writes down their answers to the six questions on the card. When everyone is done, add the number of correct answers in the final round to the number of wedges acquired during the regular game. A perfect score is 12; whoever has the most points out of 12 wins. The game combines strategy and key customer service knowledge areas at CompanyName.
Social Mechanics: Fellow Ninjas take turns in rotation, asking one another questions as the game progresses (cooperation). Ninjas are also working against one another to earn belts at all six levels before any one else does (competition).
Primary Core Dynamic: The primary core dynamic for Ninjas is collection. Collection is suited to helping player/learners make associations—for example, matching a certain type of customer to a certain meal type or aligning steps in a process to specific performative tasks such as billing and shipping.
Materials: game board, game token (wheel), answer tokens (wedges), die, question & answer cards.
Game binder: Ninja Handbook (CS Team Operations manual):
About Us print out, Menu print out, Nutrition Facts print out, Subscription vs. NonSubscription table, Billing table, Delivery Partners by zone, and Shipping Map (included on game board).
Peer Responses
Peers were kindly supportive, offering actionable suggestions to improve the game and move this iteration forward. Both classmates who responded encouraged me to lean into the “Ninja” theme as it was both fun and could be made relevant to the player/learners. One suggested customizing the game board more, to match the theme, as did our game guide. Another classmate suggested adding additional learning objectives to address higher order thinking skills. Considering feedback, I'm working to make the game board a more relevant part of the mechanics. I've incorporated some material from the Ninja Handbook (CS Team manual) onto the game board, and am considering adding more if I can do so without making the environment too busy or overwhelming. In an effort to level the playing field, a player is limited to three rolls of the die during any turn, limiting overly successful (or lucky!) Ninjas. I'm also stipulating the choice of questions for Miscellaneous category is up to the fellow Ninja asking the question, in the hopes they're able to slow down too much progress, too quickly; the same is true if a Ninja lands on the center space without having earned all their Belts. The hope is these tactics will also increase player agency and allow for more strategy. I'm also adding additional learning objectives to address having enough (and enough higher level) questions.
Reflection of Process
I had a better sense of what is required for building a game this go-round. There is a fair amount of overlap with the process we used for the narrative game we built in Twine, but there were also significant differences. Social dynamics were a new issue to contend with. Writing clear instructions matters quite a bit to the success of the game and the amount of fun player/learners can have without disagreements about how to interpret the rules. I was grateful to have taken ISLT-9421 and ISLT-9474 as they prepared me to be more thorough and in-depth with documenting procedures, which makes writing instructions easier. If I had this project to do over, again— I’d give myself more time. Putting out a good product to personal and academic standard, regardless of format or topic, just takes time. I would also have liked to have more opportunity to test the game with the intended audience. Still, I'm glad to have kept the same theme I used in our previous project. It was fun to explore how a different game type offers different mechanics while still presenting information on similar topics!
No comments:
Post a Comment