Richard Durham
Unifying systems and finding the game in everything
Rich has had diverse game design work over the last two decades. He has designed over 30 published or public event games across mediums. From digital audio adventures (Twisted Tales series for Grabbit Entertainment), transformational games for social good organizations (Hohi 1816 tabletop game, End-danger mega game for Four Paws International, etc.), games for street festivals, large events, and personal hobby games for tabletop (Award nominees Dirty Little Secrets, Skip Jack, etc.).
Rich is a regular speaker at academic and industry conferences on games and gameful learning, recently The NZ Game Developers Conference, Wellycon, Games Based Learning Conference, Play by Play, and the NZ Association of Trainers and Developers conference.
Finally, in his role at the University of Auckland Rich works in the leadership of the faculty of Creative Arts and Industries to shape teaching and learning strategies and - yes - smoosh in playful design and games.
Quick, Dirty, and Backwards Game Design: A Framework for Drawing Learning Goals as Game Goals
This hands-on session will pull together threads of Backwards Design, Constructs, Action-mapping, and more to weave a quick and dirty framework to guide conversations in aligning game goals and educational objectives.
In this session, you'll:
- Unpack a learning problem to find the values that sit alongside behaviors
- Translate educational objectives into engaging game challenges
- Weave together the values, learning goals, and skills into actions in a game
Conclude this interactive session with a practical tool and framework, ready to lead discussions on crafting aligned, engaging game-based learning experiences.
