In connection with education, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Add in Arts (not just Fine Arts) and you have STEAM. STEM / STEAM are not a way of learning, but a high-level set of categories in which learning is desired. When our children are attending school either in the classroom or at
We recently entered “Pirate Pursuit – The King’s Pardon” into The Game Crafter’s Small Box Challenge contest sponsored by Furry Games. The King’s Pardon is the second of three Pirate Pursuit games we plan to release: the first being “Pirate Pursuit – The Spanish Treasure Fleet” and the third yet unnamed and planned for late
Chess Attack has its origins way back in the depths of time. Growing up, we often played tabletop games, including both Chess and Dungeons & Dragons. At one point, we were playing quite a bit of Chess, but for D&D me it was a bit boring compared to more “realistic” combat systems. A pawn automatically
What is nugget-based learning? And how is it related to game design? Well…I was crafting the afterword for my historical novel where I mention how research drives continuous learning, and it got me thinking. In this technologically-enabled education climate it’s so easy to, almost accidentally, learn about something new. We’re all learning more and more
As often as not, when we play a game, we aren’t taking a box from off our shelf – we’re playing games from our brains. “Extinction Event” always comes to my mind when thinking of an example of a non-traditional game that just popped into being. It spontaneously spawned from equal-part desires to teach a
During the summer, especially with the current circumstances, parents can find themselves standing in for absent playmates. This is a great opportunity to be an example of good sportsmanship, to recognize effort and individual improvement, call out good ideas and teamwork, and so much more. It’s also a good time to draw out creativity and
After I posted a screenshot of the character sheet template I use to a Facebook writers group, editor and author Jodie Renner asked if I might provide a bit of my thinking behind using this tool. This article is the result… When developing the major characters of my stories, I can’t help but draw upon
Our daughter used this phrase “I am pretending to pretend” in a poem she recently wrote titled “I Am”. She couldn’t say where the inspiration for this line came from, but it made me think of the times when she had a class that didn’t go the way she thought it would. In these cases,
Playing with balls inside the house is quite a thing for us. When our daughter was younger, she was not able to control the balls as well as she can now – it was a common occurrence for them to get away from her. Our kitchen is the kind you can walk through from one
Introducing board games to your young children can be an “iffy” thing – especially with the more involved games. Long gameplay Strategy, thinking long-term Need to do well, need to win Rules complexity, reading comprehension Player versus player (alliances, stealing, hurting or killing) These are all challenges to ability, attention span, and appropriateness. But, you