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    Game Logic: Level Up and Create Your Own Games with Science Activities for Kids
    Game Logic: Level Up and Create Your Own Games with Science Activities for Kids
    Game Logic: Level Up and Create Your Own Games with Science Activities for Kids
    Ebook199 pages1 hour

    Game Logic: Level Up and Create Your Own Games with Science Activities for Kids

    By Angie Smibert and Lena Chandhok

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    About this ebook

    What was the last game you played? Video game, board game, world building game?

    In Game Logic: Level Up and Create Your Own Games with Science Activities for Kids, middle schoolers take on the world of games by figuring out what makes them challenging, fun, and addictive! Kids love games. Board games are still wildly popular, despite the profusion of video gaming devices that reach audiences as young as toddlerhood. World-building games such as Settlers of Catan and Dungeons & Dragons are played by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, both online and in living rooms, and gaming conferences occur around the globe, including hundreds in the United States alone. This makes gaming a perfect backdrop for learning new skills!

    This book takes kids on a journey to discover the history of games, and then leads them from their initial idea for a new game through several iterations of a game all the way to playing the final version of a game they created. Educators use games as a way to introduce logic, collaboration, and persistence in classrooms, and Game Logic is the perfect companion. Kids explore the processes of both playing and creating games while developing critical and creative thinking skills that apply to tasks and concepts across academic fields.

    Game Logic includes hands-on STEAM activities and critical thinking exercises related to games. Fun facts, links to online primary sources and other supplemental material, and essential questions encourage readers to dive deeper into the games they love to discover what makes them tick.

    Nomad Press books integrate content with participation. Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Education all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNomad Press
    Release dateJun 9, 2019
    ISBN9781619308039
    Game Logic: Level Up and Create Your Own Games with Science Activities for Kids
    Author

    Angie Smibert

    Angie was born in Blacksburg, a once sleepy college town in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. She grew up thinking she wanted to be a veterinarian; organic chemistry had other ideas. But she always had stories in her head. Eventually, after a few degrees and few cool jobs—including a 10-year stint at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center—she wrote some of those stories down. A frequent contributor to Odyssey Magazine, Angie has published many, many short stories for both adults and teens.

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      Book preview

      Game Logic - Angie Smibert

      Introduction

      WHAT IS A

      GAME?

      Games have been around since ancient times. Playing games seems to be a natural part of being human! Whether you love the idea of working together in a cooperative game or the thrill of competing against other players, playing games is a pastime enjoyed on all the continents.

      Have you ever wondered how games are invented? Who thinks up the twists and turns of a game of Clue or the highs and lows of Uno? What’s behind the decisions players have to make in Dungeons & Dragons? No matter what game it is, a lot of thinking, inventing, and deciding went into it. To get from an idea for a game to a finished product can take years!

      Let’s take a look at how one game designer made it happen.

      ESSENTIAL QUESTION

      What is your favorite game to play? Why?

      WORDS TO KNOW

      cooperative: a game that requires players to work together.

      user experience: the experience of a person using a product.

      pandemic: the outbreak of disease when it spreads across more than one continent. Also the name of a game invented by Matt Leacock.

      license: to sell the right to publish to a publisher. The author typically gets royalties, or a percentage of the profits, from sales.

      war game: a game based on military experiences.

      hobby game: a specialty game played by people who are passionate about it.

      avid: eager and enthusiastic.

      morals: a person’s standards of behavior or beliefs.

      tactics: a carefully planned action or strategy to achieve something.

      prestigious: something inspiring respect and admiration.

      PANDEMIC

      Since he was a kid, designer Matt Leacock dreamed of publishing his own board games. He made his own games as a hobby throughout high school and college. After college, he went to work for companies such as AOL and Yahoo, working to improve user experience on different technological products. He designed lots of cool things—but he never forgot about games. In fact, he kept designing them on the side.

      In 2000, Matt designed a game called Lunatix Loop. He printed 200 copies of it on his laser printer and set up a booth at the German game industry show called Spiel. In 2007, Matt pitched the idea for a new game, Pandemic, to publishers. Pandemic is a cooperative game about fighting outbreaks of disease and pandemics. He licensed the game to Z-Man Games.

      Pandemic has sold millions of copies since it came out in 2009, making it one of the bestselling modern board games. It’s also won many design awards and influenced lots of new games. Matt Leacock now designs games for a living!

      Pandemic Legacy, a game by Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau

      credit: mrwynd (CC BY 2.0)

      GAMES AND GOALS

      Many tabletop games get their start this way. One or two people have an idea, and they invent a new board or card game.

      Take a look at an interview with Matt Leacock at this website. It took Matt lots of tries to become successful!

      Snakes Lattes Matt Leacock

      Some inventors are driven by boredom. For example, two bored friends invented Trivial Pursuit on a rainy afternoon. Another pair of gamers came up with Dungeons & Dragons because they were tired of typical war games. And maybe a bored Roman soldier invented tic-tac-toe.

      Other inventors want to teach something with their games. The creator of the original version of Monopoly wanted to show how greedy landlords could be. The creator of Life wanted to teach morals! And perhaps an ancient Chinese emperor invented Go to teach his son wisdom—or at least military tactics.

      DID YOU KNOW?

      Hobby games are ones designed for avid gamers. Hobby games include role-playing games, collectible card games, war games, and some more complicated board games.

      WORDS TO KNOW

      plaything: a form of entertainment that people interact and play with. It can be a toy, game, or puzzle.

      agent: a player of a game. This can be a person, a computer, or the game itself.

      connoisseur: an expert judge in matters of taste.

      independently: on one’s own or without help.

      logic: the principle, based on math, that things should work together in an orderly way.

      Most inventors of games, though, just want to create something they love—a great game.

      WHAT’S A GAME?

      If someone says the word game you probably know what they’re talking about, right? We know Scrabble and kickball are games. We also know a big plastic dinosaur is a toy and a brainteaser is a puzzle.

      So, what makes a game different from a toy or a puzzle?

      A designer named Chris Crawford (1950– ) came up with a helpful way to think about games. Games, toys, and puzzles are all forms of entertainment that we interact or play with. He calls these playthings. A toy is something you play with—but without a goal. You’re just playing and having fun. Playthings with goals can be puzzles, competitions, or games. We usually work puzzles alone, while competitions and games include many players, called agents.

      Agents can include human players, the computer, or simply the game itself. In a competition, two or more players compete, but they don’t interact with each other to affect the outcome. For instance, running a race is a competition—each person runs their own race independently. In a game, however, players either work against each other or they work together against the game.

      When game designers develop new games, they have to keep track of many different things. They have to use logic to ensure the game makes sense and is fun to play. Otherwise, no one will want to go back to it after playing it only once!

      A game is a plaything that players use to interact with each other to achieve a goal. To do that, the players have to follow rules.

      In this book, you’ll learn about the history, logic, and design of tabletop games. These include board games, cards, dice, and role-playing games. You’ll also get the chance to design and play games of your own. You might discover that much more work goes into creating a game than you thought! All you’ll need is a little imagination. Let’s get started!

      WORDS TO KNOW

      data: information, facts, and numbers from tests and experiments.

      brainstorm: to think creatively and without judgment, often in a group of people.

      prototype: an early version of a design used for testing.

      ESSENTIAL QUESTION

      What is your favorite game to play? Why?

      Activity

      GAME, TOY, OR PUZZLE?

      You probably have several board games and card games in your home, as well as puzzles and

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