9781422272916

CHAPTER 1

SCIENCE IN GAMING

Do video gaming and STEAM have anything in common? To help answer that, let’s define the elements of a video game. In the book The Art of Video Game Design , author Jesse Schell defines a game as a “problem-solving activity done with a playful attitude.” No matter what video game you play, that game will have four core elements: aesthetics , story, technology, and mechanics. Aesthetics dictate how a game looks and feels and what you will see and hear when you play the game. Mechanics outline the rules by which a game is played. The story is about how the events of a game unfold. Since video games are interactive, the player has a big role in deciding what that story will become. Finally, the technology is the foundation of the other three; the level of technology dictates the limitations on how a game will look, how it will be played, and how its story will unfold. STEAM, which is short for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math, is being stressed in middle school and high school

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