Educational Game Design
Collaborative project for Carnegie Mellon University course, Design of Educational Games.
Using the EDGE framework and principles from game and instructional design, my team and I created an educational game, Before You Sign. We designed this game to help players determine what they value most in a job, as well as advocate for themselves when negotiating an employment contract.
This is a game about reflection and self discovery, one that can be played throughout a person’s life to see how their values change.
During our literature review, we found resources that addressed concrete skills, such as negotiating an offer or asking for a promotion. However, after interviewing our peers, we discovered that these skills weren’t the pain points they struggled with most.
“Ultimately, I was deciding between receiving a higher pay, or staying with my partner.”
How to negotiate wasn’t the problem. For many college students and early professionals, their main challenge is determining how their values and personal life map to a career.
For example, one interviewee recalled a time when she was deciding between two offers between a Tech Giant and a startup. Ultimately, she needed to choose between relocating for a high-paying job, or stay in the same city as her partner. Throughout our interviews, we heard similar stories about how best to balance career decisions with personal priorities. Our game fills this need.
If we were to update Before You Sign, we would create a digital version.
Before starting, players could answer a few questions to gauge where they are in their career (early, mid, late) and what they value (travel, stability, perks, etc.). Based on their answers, the game would update its content.
As players make choices, the game adjusts to present increasingly relevant cards, while still maintaining variability by randomly presenting “wildcards.” This is crucial as it prevents the experience from feeling repetitive and encourages players to examine value systems or scenarios they haven’t given as much thought to.
As a mobile app, Before You Sign could easily remind users to play if it’s been a while, keep track of game results, and present data over time. After each session, users are invited to write in the app’s journal. Journal entries can be accessed at any time, much like a diary, as users reflect on their personal evolution.
