Video Game Design: Mechanics and Logic - 2 Hour Workshop

Audience: Students ages 12-14
Theme: “How games teach you to play without boring you to death”

• Recording
• Slides
• Mechanics Demo Game
• Resources:
  • Glossary
  • Next Steps
• Student Handouts:
  • Vocabulary Handout
  • Worksheet Handout
• Instructor Notes:
  • Common Questions
  • Timing Guide

1. Workshop Goals

By the end of this workshop, every student should be able to:

• Name and describe at least 3 types of game mechanics
• Explain the difference between a mechanic and a story beat
• Describe how progressive discovery works (using Metroid or another example)
• Identify how a game teaches a mechanic vs. just telling the player about it
• Design a short mechanic introduction sequence for a mechanic of their choice

2. Success Definition

A student is successful if they can say:

“I can spot how a game is teaching me something new, and I can design a way to introduce a mechanic without just putting up a wall of text.”

3. What This Workshop Is (and Isn’t)

This workshop is idea-first, not code-first. The goal is to build the designer’s eye — the ability to look at a game and ask “how did they do that?” and “how did the game teach me that?”

There is an interactive demo game that students can play to observe mechanics in action. The focus is on observing and analyzing, not on building the code.

4. Workshop Agenda

5. Materials

• Printed vocabulary and worksheet handouts (or on-screen)
• Computers/tablets for the Mechanics Demo game
• Whiteboard or sticky notes for the group design activity