Best Practices in Cross-Sector Partnerships for Educational Game Design

Studies on learning have affirmed the importance of digital games for learning across a range of disciplines, yet the actual task of creating educational games faces the challenge of structuring productive partnerships between academic content experts, student partners, and professional game designers. Based on our team’s creation of the language-learning game "Brendan’s Voyage," this paper proposes scalable practices for maximizing successful collaboration in game design. As a game designed to teach medieval French language and culture, "Brendan’s Voyage" has had three distinct phases: solo development, student collaborations, and professional partnerships. In 2022, the project received a two-year NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) grant to create a deliverable educational game in conjunction with an independent game development company, Causeway Studios. Whereas academic partners are likely to emphasize the importance of accurate content and pedagogically sound game activities, game designers may reasonably prioritize the aesthetic coherence, the logistics of game mechanics, and the enjoyability of the game. These two kinds of goals are both essential to a successful educational game, yet these goals can be at cross purposes in the practical workflow of game creation. Rather than framing these as competing agendas, this paper describes clear pathways to ensure both concerns are incorporated into successful game design. These insights stand to empower other academics and game designers who hope to collaborate with maximum success toward the end of creating effective educational games.