Documentation in Play: A Framework for Collaborative Evidence Construction in Inquiry-Based Games

Games are sites where players construct meaning through their interactions with the game system and with one another. Yet, while existing work describes why players make meaning, less is known about the mechanisms by which players collectively decide what counts as evidence during play. We present a 2.5-year Research through Design study, conducted through co-design with youth, that investigates these evidentiary meaning-making processes via the design of a misinformation-based game. Drawing on formal game analysis and qualitative analysis of design documentation and co-design sessions, we develop the Documentation-in-Play (DiP) Framework, presenting four mechanisms researchers and designers can use to observe and design for how players produce and stabilize evidence in collaborative play. We also present design heuristics for scaffolding these mechanisms, organized across cognitive, social, material, and time-based dimensions. While our design probe centers a misinformation game for youth, DiP is positioned as a transferable lens for any inquiry-oriented game context where interpretation, validation, and inscription are central to play.