Pre-production phase in digital game design with children: participatory design approach

In this thesis, the co-design process in developing digital games has been studied through a participatory design approach. It is important for children to participate in the design process of technologies aimed towards children in order for them to have a voice in the products they use. This is the primary reason that participatory design, which is based on the concept of participatory democracy, forms the basis of this thesis. Another point of note is that while children participate in these processes, creative and innovative ideas which play a role in the broadening of technological limits are cultivated. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to use participatory design as base, and in order to support the pre-production phase with children, to make a suggestion of new theoretical framework for the digital game design process with children. Also, from this viewpoint, it is aimed to develop new co-design techniques and collaborative configurations. This thesis was conducted as a qualitative study in which multiple data collection was utilized in the context of action research methodology. In total, there were four different ways of collecting data: literature analysis, participatory observation, artifact analysis and interview. Data analysis was conducted in the context of an analysis framework maintained through coding and categorization system, formed by induction. The participants of this thesis make up an intergenerational design team of children and adults. The design team consists of eight children and a group of 16 adults including technologists, designers, game developers and educators as well as researchers. The children are between 7 and 11 years of age and acted as design partners on the team. In the studies where children are in the role of design partners, the children and the adults are equal members of the team and work together throughout the design process. The design team has partaken in design activities in order to design a mobile game over a period of an academic year on certain days of the week. Mobile games are technological design products that are used expansively by children on mobile media. For this reason, as well as the fact that it was the preferred subject for the children participating in the study, the technological product that is the subject of this thesis was chosen to be a mobile game. Game design is a process made up of three phases: pre-production, production and post-production. This thesis focuses on the pre-production phase. Co-design activities have been executed in three sections: narrative design, narrative design selection, gameplay design. In the narrative design section, 21 sessions have taken place over nine weeks in order to develop new co-design techniques for the narrative design. In the first section, three new co-design techniques have been suggested and by applying these techniques, it has ended up with four different game narrative designs. In the narrative design selection section, 10 sessions have taken place over three weeks in order to develop new co-design techniques for the narrative design selection. This section has ended in suggesting a new co-design technique and by applying this technique, the game concept document has been formed regarding the narrative design which has been chosen. In the gameplay design section, 30 sessions have taken place over 10 weeks in order to develop new collaborative configurations. The last session has resulted in suggesting a collaborative configuration with children. Besides, a game design document has been formed for the game design that has been studied on. The primary output of this thesis is the theoretical framework for the process of co-design with children. In addition, from the point of this theoretical framework, other outputs can be listed as new co-design techniques, new collaborative configurations, and the Table of Transcription and Analysis which has been adapted for data analysis. This thesis matters in the areas of research, design, gaming and technology in terms of adopting an interdisciplinary, collaborative and process-focused research and design method with a democratic approach. It also contributes to empowerment of children in the development of technologies aimed towards children through the outcomes mentioned above. The results and outcomes gathered are expected to help guide researchers and professionals working in similar contexts. On the other hand, though the studies in which children participate in the design process as users or testers are prevalent, the studies in which children participate in the design process as design partners are relatively few. Additionally, in our country, the studies in which children participate in the process as design partners are unprecedented. In this context, the first study in the field has been conducted.