Design+and+Development

** For my game design, I wanted to create a branching story for students in my high school Spanish classes. It was important to me that I created a game that was both fun and educational. I started out thinking I may try to focus more on vocabulary and perhaps having my game be a trip to the market, but then I realized that would produce more of a quiz type game which is not what I was looking to do. Then I came up with the idea of teaching more of a life skill (traveling in a foreign country) and using the target language in real-world situations. I myself traveled through **** Spain **** and other parts of **** Europe ****, having similar experiences as the ones I introduced in this game. As I began the creation of each of the decision points, I decided it would be educational to introduce important sites of each city they could visit, some of which they would have learned about in class and others that would be new to them. This added another dimension to the game that I had not started out with but that I think enriches the experience. **
 * This game was designed using “Quandary” a free software application from Hot Potatoes that was created specifically for creating branching stories. A branching story begins with a scenario, in this case a trip to **** Spain ****, and then introduces the first decision point. At each decision point, the player is presented with a decision to make such as where to go next on their travels. Each choice, then, leads the player to a different decision point than another one would. In this way, the player is creating their own story and their own journey. **
 * In designing my game, I had to teach myself how to use Quandary which was a rather daunting task at first. However, the software has an online tutorial that is extremely helpful. In fact, they use their own software to teach about the software! I went through the tutorial a few times and referred to it throughout the process as well. If I can do it, I believe anyone can. **
 * One of the important things I learned while using Quandary is that you have to play through each of the scenarios to make sure that everything is linked correctly and that you don’t hit a dead end or get stuck in a circle with no way out. I found that running scenarios frequently during the creation process helped keep me focused on how I wanted the game to work. It also provided me with an opportunity to reflect upon my work and see how I could make it better or add to it – which I frequently did! While I stuck with my original scenario plan, I did create new decision points along the way that I had not thought of before and that came up while I was thinking about where to go next with it. I think that Quandary is an excellent tool for teachers, and even students, to use as an educational tool. It requires higher levels of thinking but isn’t too difficult to learn to use. **