What is I-GAME and why should you care?

What is I-GAME and why should you care?

In recent years, games are becoming more and more popular in educational settings because they're a great way to learn. When you play, you forget that you’re actually learning important skills. When we're playing a game, we're more engaged and absorb information better. In addition to this, games can help us learn how to make decisions faster and interact with others. The problem is that a lot of educational games are old-fashioned and not very exciting. Our project, I-GAME, wants to change that. 

I-GAME is derived from “Innovative Gaming Methodologies in Education”. It is a project aimed at exchanging and deepening the knowledge of the involved parties on several game-related subjects such as: 

• The different stages of creating a tabletop board game. 

• The adequate ways to adjust games for excluded groups.

• The best solutions for efficient education for vulnerable groups. 

Including much, much more not mentioned in this list!

Who’s participating in the project?

This project has brought together four vastly different organizations.

Challedu is a greek, non-profit organization (NGO) that focuses on education, inclusion, and engagement through game-based learning. They create games, formal and non-formal educational programs, as well as tools for different sectors, including social inclusion and education and innovation. Their goal is to empower marginalized groups and promote positive societal and environmental change. 

Dracon Rules Design Studio is a greek company that promotes the use of board games as educational tools in the education sector and in society at large. They aim to create, improve, develop, analyze, critique, and disseminate games as educational and societal innovative tools. They have experienced members in the board game design and education industries, as well as skilled project managers, who are willing to provide assistance to organizations with similar goals.

Share Education Association is a romanian NGO that focuses on non-formal learning to provide growth and access to education for beneficiaries from all backgrounds and ages. Their main purpose is to expand the horizons of children, young people, and adults, develop critical thinking skills, and encourage tomorrow's leaders to make positive changes in education, life, and in their local community overall. They collaborate with formal educational bodies to achieve their objectives.

Archon Studio is the last partner in this project and I dare say that you might know who we are. We are a team of artists and engineers who innovate in the board game industry through our stunning miniatures made using the latest technologies. We always strive to create premium quality models that hobbyists and players of all genres can enjoy. And we don’t plan to stop just there.

What do we do? 

The project aims to change the designs of serious games. Namely, to turn them into modern and innovative board games that are great games in their own right on top of being educational. We're also focusing on taking a closer look at groups that might not have access to digital games and their needs, like people with low income, disabilities, or who belong to minorities. We want to make sure that everyone can learn through these games! We planned to have four sessions where each partner will contribute their expertise in the different stages of creating the game. By working together, we'll be able to deepen our understanding of how to create awesome games that are perfect for modern education. Moreover, after each session, we plan to prepare videos summarizing what each organization learned. The first two meetings are already behind us. 

The first one was prepared by Archon Studio and participants could learn about all the technical aspects of creating board games. The participants could see the manufacturing process along with the constraints and opportunities connected to it for themselves. We also had a lengthy discussion about the creation of components. The project included a visit to the factory where participants could explore the process of manufacturing games, the manufacturing installations, or the technical side of manufacturing like preparation of materials, 3D design, graphics etc. After that they attended lectures in the main office with technical experts and could ask about the details of their work in more depth. In addition, the participants attended a meeting with Ukrainian refugees and polish volunteers created in cooperation with the local shop Chaos Games and NGO organization Pilanie Ukrainie.

You can check what our guests learned at that meeting in the video below:

What can you expect from us in the future? 

Recently, we had a meeting with some awesome companies we are working with in Arad, Romania.  We talked about our goals for the I-GAME project. 

We had a lengthy chat with Challedu, Dracon Rules Design Studio, and Asociatia Share Education members on each of our perspectives on the topic. Each company sent two representatives, and we talked about our roles in the project and what we need to do next. Soon we will finish the creation of the next video, summarizing our latest meeting which took place in Kardisa, Greece. The Dracon Rules Design Studio went very in-depth into the rules-design process and analysis of the inner workings of a board game. There’s a lot to look forward to! 

This year, another two meetings will take place, which will center around the topics of “serious game” designs, inclusion, and the struggles of minority groups. All members of the project are looking forward to our next steps, and we hope to give you even more interesting news in the future.