MERGING EDUCATION, ASSESSMENT, AND ENTERTAINMENT IN MATH GAMES

This work was partially funded by the Educational Testing Service, and was developed along with
Dan Petricca, Kirby Cofino, Gray Leonard, and Gabrielle Cayton-Hodges.

Games for education and games for entertainment tend to follow different development paths according to their respective purposes. Entertainment game development follows the traditional best practices of games design while educational game development adds an additional constraining layer of learning objectives. The contribution of this work is a case study of a game, Function Force, that was created with the entertainment and educational design goals given relatively equal weight. In this case study, the development of the game mechanic, puzzle designs, and game level progressions will be explained and connected to relevant educational and curriculum components.