The Design and Use of Simulation Computer Games in Education

This chapter reports the design of an instructional simulation for use as a museum display that incorporates elements of game design theory, narrative theory, and instructional theory within a layered design framework. The purpose is to show how multiple theories from distinct fields converge to influence a single design and to show how design elements arising from different theories work together to produce artifacts capable of operating outside narrow views of the theory’s traditional venue and metaphor. The chapter will show how the structures supplied by the different theories combined to provide a “discipline” (Schön, 1987) for the design and how theory-related design language terms that begin as abstractions are integrated and given specific dimension during design.