KaiUnEarthed.com is an interactive fiction video game that invites players to imagine liberated, unpoliced futures. Teenagers in the future encounter artifacts from our time as they go through a coming-of-age ceremony. This involves connecting with us, their ancestors, through interactive analog journals. The project was released in 2021 as a narrative prototype created in Twine, and a near-alpha prototype of the full video game was debuted at GLS 2022. While one of the designers played the game, the audience participated by shouting out suggestions for narrative choices; they also received their own journals, allowing them to interact with the analog game mechanics, taking home a personalized record of their journey. In this sense, the session was a cross between a Well-Played game analysis and a creative writing workshop. This demonstrates one possible use case for Kai UnEarthed in future critical game literacy learning spaces.

LoFi Hip Hop Worlds to Study In is a collection of three-dimensional worlds full of study spots with instrumental music and ambient sounds. Students can explore these worlds to relax while they take breaks from studying. The software allows them to set a timer to remind them to come back to their studies. When they do, they can set a new timer; the game-world remains inactive in the background, but the application continues to provide relaxing sounds and beats with no ads. The game was released on Itch.io in 2021 to support students with remote learning during the COVID19 pandemic (https://lofiworlds.itch.io/study). At GLS 2022 it was set up in the arcade to offer attendees some meditative downtime as they took a break from the intensity of the conference.

This hands-on workshop will present strategies and examples of how to design game-based learning that treats games as multi-model texts in a broader ecology of learning. As part of the Walden, a game EDU project, an interdisciplinary team of educators, researchers, curriculum designers, evaluators outreach experts, and game designers have re-designed the core experience of the award-winning independent game, Walden, a game (https://www.waldengame.com/educators), to develop inclusive, classroom-friendly, and standards-aligned games-based learning modules. This workshop includes a hands-on demonstration of these new educational game modules and integrated curriculum. These lessons use the game as a text to prompt critical discussion and learning. The session reflects on what we learned when we applied a playcentric design method to the challenges of teaching during COVID-19 and beyond. Participants will engage collaboratively with the lessons and will take away best practices in the use and design of multimodal learning games.