Educational Game Design Fundamentals

It is one of the few books about educational game design. I found it raises many important points and offers good models. I actually borrowed it from a library during my Master, but decided to buy it as I want to keep it as a reference book.

I was impressed by the book. I am coming from a different field than educational game design, but with a substantial background in Digital Humanities. I was looking for a book that would help me implement my ideas on the creation of an educational game on history and geography. Kalmpourtzis' book fulfilled all my expectations and more. He leads the reader through gradual steps to the theoretical concept of "learning" and the necessary practical skills for creating your game.I came to this field carrying my prejudices on game designing and education, but the author helped me to understand better my own ideas about games and game experiences. Little did I know how fundamental it is to know your audience or how substantially the game aesthetics change the experience of education.I found this book very helpful both as theoretical guide but also as a handbook for practical issues. My favorite chapters were the ones on Game Interfaces and Game Aesthetics (chapters 11 and 12 respectively) because the author aided me to understand my mistakes in my own project and to make substantial improvements.Despite the fact that the book is dealing with sometimes complicated topics, it is highly readable (don’t be surprised if you end up having it as a pillow book) and well-illustrated. My recommendation is reading the whole book once or twice and then using each individual chapter as you move along with your project.

I have read several books on game design and education but none has the intensity, creativity and pragmatism of this one. This is a book infused with the experience of a veteran of the field, with real examples, that helped me understand better the issues and challenges that may appear when I design learning games. I believe that this is a must read for anyone that wants to have an introduction to game design for education.