Students will collaboratively design, build, test, revise, and launch an interactive video game for a defined audience. They will investigate: What makes a video game engaging, and how can we use that knowledge to create our own? Guided by the question, “How can we design and launch a video game that is fun, meaningful, and playable for our audience?” teams will apply ethical and responsible design principles, share decisions, resolve challenges, and use player feedback to improve usability. Students will justify their design choices and communicate their learning through the completed game, a public presentation, and individual reflection.

Students will investigate what makes games engaging and apply those findings to design and launch a fun, meaningful, playable video game for a defined audience. They will collaboratively develop an interactive gameplay experience, share decisions and leadership, resolve conflicts, and meet team milestones. Students will apply ethical and responsible design principles, then justify how their choices support accessibility, fairness, player well-being, and meaningful engagement. They will conduct user testing, analyze feedback, make actionable usability revisions, and communicate their learning through a public game launch and reflection.

Teams will create an audience profile, game concept pitch, ethical and responsible design checklist, and playable prototype with core mechanics and interactive feedback. They will document shared roles, key decisions, conflicts resolved, and progress through a team production board and individual reflections. After peer playtesting, teams will produce a usability report identifying evidence-based revisions and refine the game for accessibility, engagement, meaning, and playability. The final products will include a publicly playable game launch, a trailer or promotional page, and a team presentation explaining what makes the game engaging and how it meets its audience’s needs.

Students rotate through three short, contrasting video games and record moments that feel fun, frustrating, meaningful, accessible, or ethically questionable. In teams, they compare observations, identify design patterns that shape engagement and usability, and choose an audience they care about serving. Teams then complete a 15-minute paper-prototype challenge, exchange prototypes for rapid playtesting, and make one revision from peer feedback. Close by discussing: “What makes a video game engaging, and how can we use that knowledge to create our own?” and “How can we design and launch a video game that is fun, meaningful, and playable for our audience?”

Host a public game-launch arcade where teams share playable builds with classmates, families, educators, and local game developers. Each team gives a brief pitch explaining how its game is fun, meaningful, playable, ethically designed, and tailored to its audience, then invites guests to play and provide usability feedback. Teams display design artifacts that answer, “How can we design and launch a video game that is fun, meaningful, and playable for our audience?” and “What makes a video game engaging, and how can we use that knowledge to create our own?” Conclude with audience-choice recognitions for engaging gameplay, meaningful design, accessibility, and collaborative development, followed by individual reflections on feedback and next-step revisions.