Design Heroes: A Playground Challenge

Proposed Title: Design Heroes 

Learning Goal: The goal of the game is to teach the design thinking process with creative thinking strategies by addressing the challenge of designing an inclusive playground that is accessible, fun, and safe for all students. 

Intended Learner: Upper elementary students (3rd-5th) studying STEAM concepts such as engineering and physics.

Learning Objective: Given the real-world design challenge of building an inclusive playground, students use the design thinking process (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, Iterate) to create a plausible solution that incorporates accessibility and inclusivity, demonstrating empathy and creativity throughout the design process. 

Story Plot: In a futuristic world where creativity, play, and empathy are all but forgotten, students are recruited by the Builders of Tomorrow, a secret society of inventors, dreamers, and designers who are working to build a better tomorrow using the design thinking process and creativity. Students are recruited to be Design Heroes tasked to save a fledgling community where children are unable to play together because the playground is unsafe and inaccessible to some of the children. The playground has deteriorated over time with unsafe slides, swings that only have open backs, broken equipment, and an uneven ground covered in gravel. The Design Heroes are briefed on their mission: design an inclusive playground where every child feels safe and welcome. The Design Heroes begin their quest and must navigate through different stages of design thinking through interactive, branching choices. For each quest (based on a design thinking phase), they will encounter various characters (interviews), obstacles (possibly Obstacle Ogre who presents obstacles such as doubt or misunderstanding), mentor (Creativity Companion to help with creative thinking strategies) and other choices that shape the player's learning path. In the final test stage, students present their design to the community and receive feedback. They iterate based on feedback and end the game with seeing the result of their playground design. 

Conflict Details: The main conflict revolves around the outdated and broken playground that is NOT designed for all children and needs to be rebuilt. For example, children in wheelchairs can't move around the playground because of gravel and children who struggle with noise and excessive movement have no place to play. Design Heroes will encounter obstacles as they navigate each phase. This might include lack of materials for prototype quest, inability to communicate for empathy quest, or lack of confidence for ideation quest. 

Primary Decisions: Both trade/off and risk/reward decisions will be part of this game. Players will have to make trade/off decisions for inclusivity and accessibility. They will need to make risk/reward decisions based on how creative their designs are (beyond tried and true designs). 

Setting and Characters: I envision this being a 2nd person narrative with Builders of Tomorrow being the narrator. Players should feel they are in control of their choices.