Posted September 29, 2020 by Haley Price
Structural Changes: Making the Game Classroom-Friendly
I recently made a large structural change to the game after talking with my advisor, Dr. Clulow, about what kind of game professors would be most likely to integrate into their classrooms. Most professors are in my grandparents' generation, and all of them are at least as old as my parents. They didn't grow up with computers or cell phones, so video games are still a hard classroom sell for them. Professors have to learn the technology on top of figuring out how to fit a video game into a lesson plan they may have already been teaching for over a decade. If I want my game to be useful, I need it to very clearly match up with existing lesson plans.
I decided to make my game episodic rather than one continuous narrative. That means it will no longer be just about the Pazzi Conspiracy. The game will still be set in 1478 Florence, as that is the height of the Renaissance under the Medici, something most syllabi and books I've read touch on. However, the game will be a series of short, 10-15 minute levels that a student can play (or a professor can assign) in any order. This makes the game highly flexible and easily integrated with existing classes.
What would be the main quest/storyline of each level, if not the Pazzi Conspiracy? To answer this question, I pulled 10 syllabi from various Italian Renaissance history, art history, and Italian studies classes to see what common themes existed between them. Once I knew which themes all the experts agreed were important, I'd be able to isolate exactly what learning objectives I should have for my game. However, the Renaissance is so complex and rich that each professor can (and apparently does) teach it totally differently. I found several themes that were consistent across most but not all of the syllabi, so I ended up comparing those to the research I'd already done on the Medici and the Renaissance in order to narrow my options.
Below is the list of 9 main themes I came up with and guiding questions for each. (I've started an annotated bibliography for all the topics, but I'll spare any poor reader who has made it this far.) My next step is to ask my second thesis reader, Italian Renaissance expert Dr. Frazier, which themes she thinks are most important. I likely won't be able to research and make levels to teach all of these themes, so I need to know which ones to prioritize. I'm arbitrarily shooting for five.
Learning Structure for the Game
Each of the following units will correspond to one short (10/15-minute) level of the game. The game will be episodic, so after the first introductory level, the player can do them in any order. Each level will have one main questline that aims to answer the unit’s guiding questions.
Professors can also assign levels in any order to go with their class. They can choose not to assign certain levels, or even just assign one. It is highly flexible for their curriculum needs.