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Coding · Grade 9

Design a Fair and Enjoyable Mechanic

Learners start the game-development elective by treating games as systems of mechanics, dynamics and player experience, then judge fairness with exact probabilities and expected values computed by counting dice outcomes, find dominant strategies in payoff tables and rebalance them, and test a mechanic with a paper prototype and observed playtests, ending with a reviewed design document for an original mechanic.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 90 minutes
  • Check what you learned: 8 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, trace code, highlight a text, type a number, put in order and sort into groups
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What learners will discover

  • Describe games as systems of mechanics, dynamics and player experience, including the core loop.
  • Judge fairness using probability, expected value, the balance of skill and luck, and counterplay.
  • Find dominant strategies and rebalance costs and rewards using payoff tables.
  • Plan and run paper playtests, recording observations and iterating one change at a time.

Lessons

  1. Games as systems 5 steps2 practiceabout 20 min
  2. Fairness, chance and skill 5 steps3 practiceabout 24 min
  3. Balancing with numbers 4 steps2 practiceabout 22 min
  4. Paper prototyping and playtesting 5 steps3 practiceabout 24 min
  5. Check what you learned 8 questions at the end

Keep exploring

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