In 2014 Bill Cohen was given a bag of equipment and told to run a weekly ‘recreational sport’ session for 30 students in Years 7 and 8. Faced with non-existent interest levels, a random assortment of gear and an inexplicable rubber chicken, Bill challenged the students to create games using any equipment they wanted with one commandment - “You must use the rubber chicken”. Recreational sport had, completely by accident, turned into a weekly game design class, with students tweaking rules and iterating their ideas based on peer feedback.  

Three schools, one pilot program and several very awkward conversations later, ‘The Art of Game Design’ is now a 100-hour elective with units in everything from creating board games to crafting escape room puzzles to running narrative experiences. But the course is also about learning from feedback, making small improvements, using restraints to unleash creativity, working with lots of different teams, and seeing yourself as someone who can finish things. Bill has made a bunch of mistakes and is ready to make the entire process easy for you to tweak or replicate in your school, from a lunchtime club to a full-blown elective class. Get ready to get your game on!

School Level: Secondary

Level of Expertise: Intermediate

Role/s of Audience: Teacher