A Game Contest Accessible to Beginners

Design and Outcomes of a Private Game Programming Contest for Elementary and Junior High School Students Nationwide

Abstract

This interactive session provides an opportunity for attendees to directly play and experience game works created for a nationwide game programming contest for elementary and junior high school students. The contest was designed using gamification principles to be “accessible to beginners,” incorporating mechanisms that lower the barrier to participation and emphasize frequent praise and positive feedback. This paper reports on the contest from the perspective of Kishimoto, a game developer and gamification designer, focusing on an evaluation process that prioritized whether the games were enjoyable to play and how effectively the creators’ intentions were conveyed through the gameplay experience.