Collectible card games and its sub-genres are popular among both children and adults.
Their educational aspects have attracted attention from education community. These
games are not only engaging and social, but also encourage players to strategize,
communicate and make estimates. Some players spend endless hours designing, testing,
and refining decks. Others are constantly trying to complete and perfect their collections.
Yet others enjoy the camaraderie of the community, as well as mentor and mentee
relations. Some of these activities are useful in themselves, exercising logic and critical
reasoning. Others seem ripe for adaptation to an informal learning environment. In spite
of this, very few educational CCGs have been made. We imagine this workshop will
spark audience members’ interest to pursue design and development of such games.
We will first present some background on the topic of collectible card games (CCGs) and
its sub-genres. We will familiarize the audience with the educations aspects of these
games, and common pitfalls to avoid. For the majority of the remaining time, we will
collaborate and guide audience to make an educational CCG. During this process we will
give examples of successful CCGs, and discuss their design characteristics. We will
move on to a brainstorming session, followed by a division into smaller groups for design
work. Groups will then come back together to test the games. Time allowing, the division
and collective testing cycle will be run at least twice. We will conclude with parting
thoughts for how the game can transition to the digital realm: what mechanics and
dynamics would need modification without a tangible element, and possible mechanics
that could benefit from a lack of tangibility.