My (Story) - Toy - Puzzle - Game

As I explore the modern idea of gaming in education I’m see the benefits of creating a game that is classified as nonlinear gameplay as describe in Wikipedia’s Nonlinear Gameplay article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_gameplay. I like the idea of having the game player able to decide which topics he/she wants to learn about, but all players achieve the same final goal. This design not only satisfies many different leaner but will meet or excess common core standards that are being adopted across the country. I would base my nonlinear game on the game taxonomy labeled as adventure as outlined by Chris Crawford in his 1982 book, The art of computer game design. The book is embedded below. My educational topic for the game would focus on the skills needed to successfully write different genres like: descriptive, expository, journals and letters, narrative, persuasive, and poetry.  I believe educational games that focus on these two types of game development will promote deeper learning by all players.

The player will be able to select a hero or heroine from stock characters. They have come from the land of words and sentences, and going to the world of writing genres. At this point the player will be able to split off into different directions like learning how to write different types of poems, or explore writing purposes. As the character masters each writing genre they get closer to slaying the dragon and freeing the gold in the gold room. Each time the player successfully completes a genre they will receive a reward, like the Haiku Master or Narrative Commander.Chris Crawford - The Art of Computer Game Design