My Complex Mechanics: 9 Gamed-up Teaching Approaches is my second card game that teaches instructional design for creative exercises and learning games. It is a little more advanced than my original design tool What’s Your Game Plan?. It consists of 17 flashcards that break down my original theories for the instructional design of playful experiences and games, which I call “Complex Mechanics and Simple Mechanics.”
If you’re read my new book about creative learning design, The Allure of Play, these cards provide excellent summaries of the concepts and a quick way to apply the book’s ideas. But you don’t need the book to appreciate the cards; in fact, people have been brainstorming with these cards for years before the book was available.
Long Description
One of the biggest challenges for educators and training managers is to create meaningful exercises, which are exercises that give their learners both deep learning and engagement.
Complex Mechanics: 9 Gamed-up Teaching Approaches presents you with 9 teaching templates that gamify any of your existing instructional exercises, whether for the classroom or workplace. All templates are academically grounded: classified by Bloom’s taxonomy, deep learning principles, and engagement mechanics. After a thorough “pre-game” where you study the concepts, you are walked through a brainstorming game, where you will design your own non-digital learning game or creative exercise!
“Complex Mechanics” can be used as a stand-alone game, or together with my other instructional game “What’s Your Game Plan?” as an expansion. (If you haven’t heard of that other game, read about it too!)
Ordering the Game
Order the game for $20 from DriveThru Cards here. This is the most current version of the game (copyright 2022), called the “Allure of Play” edition, since it matches the images and information in my book exactly. You’ll need to download the instructions directly from my webpage below.
Bulk Orders: If you’d like to place a bulk order of any of my games (30 units minimum), like when you want my games for training events, conferences, or the classroom, you can save a lot of money. View this page for the discounted prices.
Instructions
Download the game rules here. (Once printed, you can trim your instructions if you want them to fit more tightly in the game box, or you can leave them as-is.)
Icebreaker for Conference?
Are you planning a large event that could benefit from a getting-to-know-you session that’s both fun AND pedagogical? Read more about my “Conference Trading Cards” icebreaker where participants play with these cards.
Extra Components (Optional)
CARD SLEEVES: Protect your cards from the friction of constant use. These hard sleeves (sometimes called “premium”) are almost like a laminate coating, except they’re removable. Click here to see how you can order a pack of 50 sleeves.