Literacy and Learning through Game Design

This poster describes a research project based on an afterschool game design workshop. This workshop was intended to teach the tool Twine to 5th and 6th grade girls. Twine has been lauded as an accessible design tool, but thus far little research has been conducted on it. This mixed-methods study explores the ways in which girls engaged with the literacy and programming aspects of the tool, as well as the ways in which they brought their own Internet literacies and knowledge of pop culture to bear on the games which they made. Implications for teaching game design in and out of school will be discussed.