Playtesting Games

We often cite games as good for learning because they provide safe environments for players to explore their rule systems through trial and error—I.E. testing certain actions based on incremental mental models of how the games work and further incrementing those models through reflecting on failure. Yet, even though we know learning through failure is often the best way to learn, it can be difficult to think about structuring our learning environments (such as K12 classrooms) to include safe spaces for failure. As it happens, the perfect scaffold from game systems to classroom systems could be a design experience since it is common in design (and engineering) to iterate incremental changes for a final product. Indeed, usually the first prototypes, alpha builds, and drafts of our work start off truly sucking. It’s only through collecting, synthesizing, reflecting, and acting on feedback—from trying the mechanics of the system, from peer reviewers, from playtesters—that our work improves. This process of incremental progress through design iterations can mirror the exploration process in games.