Analog Game Studies

In this essay, we share our effort to use serious analog game design as a means for breaking down academic silos, as a window through which these questions, and others like them, might be best approached. Much of the discussion and research in serious games and game-based learning have focused on proliferation and effectiveness of the format. This article focuses more on how serious analog game design promotes integrative learning through intentional faculty collaboration with one another. The initiative—the AICS project (Analysis and Investigations through Cyber-Scenarios)—was first developed and piloted at a regional university in 2012, building upon previous collaborative efforts between faculty of several colleges, and taking as its focus the development of real-time, immersive cyber-based or cyber-oriented simulations. AICS remains a genuinely rich case-study from which to draw best-practices not only for unique and timely content and curriculum design but also under what conditions (theoretically and practically) collaborative academic professional development can be encouraged and sustained.