experiences. Yu-Kai Chou’s Octalysis Framework is full of ideas about what could be adapted for use outside games. Andrzej Marczewski’s gamification elements is another set of ideas. Using game principles is the lightest-touch of the four ways: you’re not actually playing a game.
Find an existing game that fits your learning needs
You could just use an existing game, if you want your learners to actually play rather than just experience the principles. But you need to find the right one. It could be a commercial game not designed specifically for learning. Like Escape the Boom, a simple game you play online and via mobile. Using limited information – one player can see the bomb, the other players the bomb-disposal manual – it explores communication barriers and teamwork.
Or you could use a game designed for learning. Evivve is another online and mobile game where players work together to harvest resources from a sci-fi landscape, to save Earth from disaster. They need to communicate well, make a plan, divide responsibilities and overcome obstacles. It’s great for learning about teamwork, leadership, communication, delegation, and a bunch of other topics.
There are plenty of other games out there that might be suitable for your learning objectives but the downside is that you won’t always be able to find one for every situation.
Adapt a game so that it fits your learning needs
Adapting an existing game is a way to broaden the range of games that might work for you. The board game Codenames is all about giving clues to link two or more words together. The original game uses pretty random words. But you can easily adapt it, especially in the online version, by switching out the default words for words that focus on your topic. The game then becomes a fun way to revise and review a topic: it forces players to think very carefully about the words, what they mean and their connection to each other.
Or you can create even more involved adaptations. Splendor is another award-winning board game, about building up a store 