Guidelines for participatory design of digital games in primary school

Abstract

Game design with children with a participatory approach has been receiving an increasing attention in recent years. However, game design as a complex design process poses several challenges especially when researchers or practitioners implement it within a learning context as a prolonged activity in time. This paper first outlines the background of game design and participatory game design with children. Then, it presents the approach used by the authors for participatory game design with primary school children. The experiences matured from previous field studies, executed applying the approach, resulted in a set of guidelines useful for practitioners and researchers for conducting participatory game design with primary school children.