Reflections on Teaching Wargame Design
Reflections on Teaching Wargame Design
Reflections on Teaching Wargame Design
By James “Pigeon” Fielder
January 1, 2020
Summary
Whereas design literature documents best practices in professional game production, the cultural body informs on why games work at the cognitive and emotional levels.
Simplifying a nuclear deterrence wargame example from Tom Allen's War Games, both the blue and red teams physically and emotionally experienced the crushing stress of nuclear strike planning.
Sticking to the wide gaming lens gestalt of the course, I supplied games ranging from simple trick-taking card games to contemporary board games barely openable in a single class period.
Fun, to be sure, but I also charged my students to deconstruct the game's innards to figure why they're successful games - even entertainment games have measurable objectives.
Wait, this is a wargame design class, right? My goal in having students deconstruct different games was twofold: first, to encourage students to learn by playing and synthesize gaming literature with actionable mechanics; and second, to expose students to a wider portfolio of game types, genres, and mechanics beyond traditional hex-based wargames.
Cadet performance and feedback further suggested the literature, game deconstruction, and project deliverable functioned as intended for teaching and reinforcing game design fundamentals.
My students suggested designing several smaller games rather than a singularly long game for grading purposes; however, a 40-hour course evaporates rapidly and was just enough time to finish the respective Strategic Command and National Reconnaissance Office games.
In future sponsor-project courses, I'd consider dividing students into smaller, four-student teams in order to mimic the "Many small games" method by increasing each student's individual contributions to larger games.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no undergraduate degrees in tabletop wargame design, or even games in general aside from video game design programs.
Take a risk and post your designs to Wargame Vault and The Game Crafter.
Reference
Fielder, J. (2020, January 1). Reflections on Teaching Wargame Design. Retrieved from https://warontherocks.com/2020/01/reflections-on-teaching-wargame-design/.