Stealing the exams: Using narrative techniques in designing an escape game in university context

Abstract

In this proposal the development of a narrative concept of the escape game "Stealing the exams“ is presented. The game is based on NFC tags, which are distributed in the whole building of the university. By tagging them via smartphone the player acquires the next puzzle piece and eventually fulfills the mission. Particularly, according to game based learning escape rooms open up the chance to enhance communication between players, promote problem-solving skills, train time management while playing location based puzzles. An important research question goes around the challenge of connecting an exciting story with the different places and the puzzles that go with it. When designing the game, common methods of game design and design based researches were used. Part of the game balancing was to bring video-based story elements and tasks together into an appropriate balance in order to achieve an immersive gaming experience. During the whole process, the game play was repeatedly evaluated and discussed with the target group. In summary, our approach offers meaningful results of using storytelling both methodically and in terms of implementation, which we would like to make available to the research community as a best practice example.