The results were, frankly, astounding. I knew they would be good during the Play Day, but I did not think they would be this improved. I had asked many of the kids doing the project if they were gamers or not, and even the ones who self admitted to games being “not their thing” (Actual phrasing) demonstrated a higher understanding of the core concepts being taught than if they were to do a regular paper. These four classes are all eleventh grade classes being taught by the same teacher in the same year, and as is shown, the classes that participated in the Game Narrative Project scored near 100%, while the class that did a more traditional paper scored much lower. 

Afterwards, the teacher also mentioned “The biggest problem that this assignment helped me solve was eliminating NTIs (Not Turn In). I saw that the students were engaged in the process and their stories, and as a result I had 100% participation in all three project activities. The 60.7% writing module I mention above was that low because 11 students simply decided not to do the assignment at all”

In my time working as an in-school IT Technician at Fairfax County Public Schools,  I have had the pleasure of meeting and developing relationships with a multitude of teachers across many levels of education. In July of 2024, an 11th grade English teacher approached me with an idea: create an English project with the final deliverable being a game.

Our end result was the Game Narrative Project, wherein a student would be tasked to take an event that happened to them, analyze it through the lens of literary devices and structure, then recontextualize it into a simple game. Finally, these games would then be shown off in a Science Fair-like “Play Day”, where the teacher and other judges would go around and have the students present their games to be graded. The teacher then invited me to come back during the play day to be one of the judges.