Child-centered game development (CCGD): developing games with children at school

Children represent an increasingly relevant target group of the game industry. Nevertheless, they are rarely involved in development processes. This article introduces child-centered game development (CCGD) approaches for the game design within the context of the school. Therefore, suitable HCI approaches from user-centered and participatory design as well as educational principles and approaches were used as a foundation. The CCGD approaches illustrate how to guide the involvement and participation of children aged 10–14 years in school classes within the development process of games. Approaches for the analysis, conceptualization, and design phases were developed and applied.

[1]  A. M. White The Process of Education , 1994 .

[2]  Ole Iversen,et al.  Using digital cultural probes in design with children , 2003, IDC '03.

[3]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  Kids as informants: telling us what we didn't know or confirming what we knew already? , 1998 .

[4]  P. Kutnick,et al.  Toward a social pedagogy of classroom group work , 2003 .

[5]  Daniel D. Suthers,et al.  Technology affordances for intersubjective meaning making: A research agenda for CSCL , 2006, ICCE.

[6]  Richard Rouse,et al.  Game design : theory and practice , 2001 .

[7]  Joseph J. LaViola Bringing VR and Spatial 3D Interaction to the Masses through Video Games , 2008, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[8]  Manfred Tscheligi,et al.  Revisiting personas: the making-of for special user groups , 2012, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[9]  Judith Good,et al.  Children’s narrative development through computer game authoring , 2004, IDC '04.

[10]  Peter Cuyvers,et al.  Social perspectives: emote control , 1999, INTR.

[11]  Kirsten Risden,et al.  Evaluating computer game concepts with children , 2004, IDC '04.

[12]  Alissa Nicole Antle,et al.  Child-based personas: need, ability and experience , 2008, Cognition, Technology & Work.

[13]  Peta Wyeth,et al.  Designing cultural probes for children , 2006, OZCHI.

[14]  Andrés Lucero,et al.  How probes inform and influence the design process , 2007, DPPI.

[15]  Panos Markopoulos,et al.  pOwerball: the design of a novel mixed-reality game for children with mixed abilities , 2005, IDC '05.

[16]  Bruce H. Thomas,et al.  Proceedings of the 19th Australasian conference on Computer-Human Interaction: Entertaining User Interfaces , 2007 .

[17]  Allison Druin,et al.  The design of children's technology , 1998 .

[18]  R. Gigengack,et al.  Critical omissions: How street children studies can address self-destructive agency , 2008 .

[19]  Mikael B. Skov,et al.  A review of research methods in children's technology design , 2005, IDC '05.

[20]  Wolfgang Hochleitner,et al.  Using Heuristics to Evaluate the Overall User Experience of Video Games and Advanced Interaction Games , 2010, Evaluating User Experience in Games.

[21]  Ministerium für Schule,et al.  Rahmenvorgabe für die ökonomische Bildung in der Sekundarstufe I , 2004 .

[22]  M. A. Dahlgren,et al.  Conceptualising Professional Identification as Flexibility, Stability and Ambivalence , 2010 .

[23]  William W. Gaver,et al.  Design: Cultural probes , 1999, INTR.

[24]  Catherine E. Snow,et al.  Language acquisition: Conversations with children , 1986 .

[25]  Michael J. Muller,et al.  Participatory design: the third space in HCI , 2002 .

[26]  Panos Markopoulos,et al.  Interaction design and children , 2003, Interact. Comput..

[27]  Keith Cheverst,et al.  How probes work , 2007, OZCHI '07.

[28]  Allison Druin,et al.  Starting an intergenerational technology design team: a case study , 2003, IDC '03.

[29]  Mary Beth Rosson,et al.  Scenario-based design , 2002 .

[30]  Yoram Chisik,et al.  Reading in the wild: sociable literacy in practice , 2006, IDC '06.

[31]  DruinAllison,et al.  Working with young children as technology design partners , 2005 .

[32]  Mark Guzdial,et al.  Learner-centered design: the challenge for HCI in the 21st century , 1994, INTR.

[33]  Toni Robertson,et al.  Proceedings of the 18th Australia conference on Computer-Human Interaction: Design: Activities, Artefacts and Environments , 2006 .

[34]  Manfred Tscheligi,et al.  Using probes to create child personas for games , 2011, Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology.

[35]  D. Norman,et al.  User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction , 1988 .

[36]  Allison Druin,et al.  The Role of Children in the Design Technology , 1999 .

[37]  Paul Dourish,et al.  How HCI interprets the probes , 2007, CHI.

[38]  A. Druin,et al.  The Child as Learner, Critic, Inventor, and Technology Design Partner: An Analysis of Three Years of Swedish Student Journals , 2002 .

[39]  Peter Gregor,et al.  Experiences obtained from designing with children , 2003, IDC '03.

[40]  Alessandro Canossa,et al.  Defining personas in games using metrics , 2008, Future Play.

[41]  Judith Good,et al.  Computer games authored by children: a multi-perspective evaluation , 2004, IDC '04.

[42]  Karen Holtzblatt,et al.  Contextual design , 1997, INTR.

[43]  Tracy Fullerton,et al.  Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, and Playtesting Games , 2004 .

[44]  Peter C. Wright,et al.  Experience-Centered Design: Designers, Users, and Communities in Dialogue , 2010, Experience-Centered Design.

[45]  Alan Cooper,et al.  About Face 3: the essentials of interaction design , 1995 .

[46]  Berry Mayall,et al.  Conversations with Children: Working with Generational Issues , 2008 .

[47]  David Isaacs,et al.  The World Café: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter , 2005 .

[48]  Franca Garzotto,et al.  Broadening children's involvement as design partners: from technology to , 2008, IDC.

[49]  Dion Hoe-Lian Goh,et al.  Child-centered interaction in the design of a game for social skills intervention , 2011, CIE.

[50]  Stephen Richard Billett,et al.  Learning through practice : models, traditions, orientations and approaches , 2010 .

[51]  Randy J. Pagulayan,et al.  User-centered design in games , 2012 .

[52]  Douglas N. Gordin,et al.  Changing how and what children learn in school with computer-based technologies. , 2000, The Future of children.

[53]  A. James,et al.  Research with Children: Perspectives and Practices , 2000 .

[54]  Stuart MacFarlane,et al.  Using the fun toolkit and other survey methods to gather opinions in child computer interaction , 2006, IDC '06.

[55]  Karen Malone,et al.  What about me? Children as co-researchers , 2007 .

[56]  Allison Druin,et al.  Working with young children as technology design partners , 2005, CACM.

[57]  R. Smyth,et al.  Research with children , 2001, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[58]  Brendan Walker,et al.  Cultural probes and the value of uncertainty , 2004, INTR.

[59]  Manfred Tscheligi,et al.  "Now you need to laugh!": investigating fun in games with children , 2009, Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology.

[60]  T. Jick Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Action. , 1979 .

[61]  Peggy Gregory,et al.  An Investigation of Participatory Design with Children – Informant, Balanced and Facilitated Design , 2002 .

[62]  John S. Pruitt,et al.  The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design , 2006 .