Enriching Ethics Education Through Game Design: A Demonstration of Student Experience

This study explores the feasibility of using game design as a learning approach to allow students to creatively explore ethical frameworks. Sixteen participants in an undergraduate ethics course were tasked with creating a game using the game development tool Twine. The game was based on one of three ethical frameworks: Kantian, Utilitarian, or Virtue Ethics. Most participants designed games using the Utilitarian framework. Students’ games primarily employed story-based design techniques like including characters and dilemmas, as well as choices and outcomes, with all but one game incorporating consequences of players’ actions in their designs. An analysis of pre- and post-surveys, student game write-ups, and semi-structured interviews suggested that creating games allowed students to reflect on ethical frameworks by considering ethical decision-making in context and designing consequences based on players’ actions. Designing a game allowed students to playfully engage with ethical frameworks. We recommend that future studies examine specific processes in game design that can improve learning effectiveness and increase creative freedom.