New Publication! Curious Games: Game Making, Hacking and Jamming as Critical Practice

Characters Created by Participants for Matt Simpson’s card game, Ecosystem (2019).

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new research article by Manchester Game Centre directors Dr Chloé Germaine and Professor Paul Wake. ‘Curious Games: Game Making, Hacking and Jamming as Critical Practice’ has been submitted to Behavioural Sciences as part of a special issue on the Benefits of Game-Based Learning edited by Professor Ian Turner (University of Derby). The article is currently available in preprint and can be read here.

Abstract

In this article we establish the affordances of game making and hacking as a critical practice in teaching and research. We explain the origins of our approach in two completed research projects and consider its impact on our ongoing scholarly practice. In the first project, students at the Manchester School of Architecture were tasked with exploring questions relating to Britain’s post-war power infrastructures through the creation of games (in place of traditional essays). These games were subsequently used to share research with the public. In the second project, we moved from game making to hacking through participatory research with young people, investigating how board game play could support their climate literacy and action. There, game hacking was an anarchic process that enabled young people to interrogate the world and develop critical frameworks for speaking out about their experiences. In our own research practice, we have used game hacking to creatively investigate designing for sustainability and as a practice for imagining alternative climate futures. Translating the methods of making and hacking into the UKHE classroom, we have developed creative game-based learning and teaching practice to support students to develop and investigate their own research agendas.