This paper presents the formulated ‘play‑to‑engage’ model for indigenous community engagement that incorporates factors in cultural protocols and game design thinking. The hybrid model of the participatory co‑creation model was formulated in the study that had been rolled out in two rural primary schools in West Borneo. These schools are located in remote villages, away from urban amenities, and technological affordances and resources are limited. There are more than twenty culturally‑diversed indigenous tribes in Borneo. Although it is a known fact that indigenous cultures, including those in Borneo, have many cultural protocols and distinctive custom practices, it is still a challenge for researchers who work with such communities to understand, adhere to and follow the cultural protocols. The model looks at incorporating gameplay and culture protocols to drive community engagement. Since play is universal, the creation of a trustworthy partnership between the community and researchers was established through the use of play during the engagement process. Narratives captured in the study represented reflection, problem solving and creativity in the interactions with the indigenous communities, based on the developed indicators of the ‘play‑to‑engage’ model. 

This article discusses the application of game design thinking as a learning process for scaffolding co‑creativity in Higher Education based on the GameChangers initiative (gamify.org.uk) part‑funded by the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE). Taking into account the relationship between play, technology and learning, the game design thinking approach fully embraces and accommodates for the creation and development of games of any typology (board games, card games, digital games, etc.) and playful solutions (gamified products) as freely chosen by the learners, aligning with the importance of autonomy, relatedness and purpose in motivating learners to be deeply engaged in the process. Through this process, learners are expected to gain valuable knowledge in creative and collaborative problem solving and experience game design and development process towards addressing real challenges and opportunities in their communities. The focus of the process is on the creative process rather than the end products/solutions produced by the learners. The paper will specifically discuss the methodology and findings from an experimental module developed based on the approach involving four cohorts of Level two undergraduate students (n=122, 2017‑2019). The students came from the different schools and faculties at Coventry University, UK. Based on the qualitative feedback and reflections collected through the Module Evaluation Questionnaire (MEQ) and the final reflection pieces, the co‑creative process inspired by play and games demonstrates that through the process, students discover the importance of elements such as empathy, purpose, meaning, art, creativity and teamwork in their learning regardless of the specific disciplines they are pursuing. 

We consider game design as a sociocultural and knowledge modelling activity, engaging participants in the design of a scenario and a game universe based on a real or imaginary socio‑historical context, where characters can introduce life narratives and interaction that display either known social realities or entirely new ones. In this research, participants of the co‑creation activity are Malaysian students who were working in groups to design game‑based learning resources for rural school children. After the co‑creativity activity, the students were invited to answer the co‑creativity scale, an adapted version of the Assessment Scale of Creative Collaboration (ASCC), combining both the co‑creativity factors and learners’ experiences on their interests, and difficulties they faced during the co‑creativity process. The preliminary results showed a high diversity on the participants’ attitudes towards collaboration, especially related to their preferences towards individual or collaborative work. 

The field of game design for educational content lacks a focus on methodologies that merge gameplay and learning. Existing methodologies typically fall short in three ways: they neglect the unfolding of gameplay through players’ actions over a short period of time as a significant unit of analysis; they lack a common consideration of game and learning mechanics; and they falsely separate the acts of playing and learning. This paper recommends the gameplay loop methodology as a valuable tool for educational game design, as it addresses these major shortcomings. Furthermore, this paper outlines how this methodology can be supported by knowledge from subject‑specific didactics—considering both the curriculum and its mediation (contributed by experts from educational practice) as well as methods of player‑centered design—in order to ensure the appropriateness of learning objectives and techniques of mediation in the context of a particular field of knowledge, the game’s appeal to its target group, and the effectiveness of the learning mechanics. A case study of the design and production phases of Antura and the Letters, a literacy game for Arabic refugee children, illustrates the uses of the gameplay loop methodology situated in the described broader approach to educational game design. Finally, this paper explains the results of an impact study revealing that the approach indeed provides the opportunity to merge playing and learning. 

In this paper, we present the project, Community Drive, as well as the theoretical and empirical background on which the project is based. Through technical and humanistic collaboration, the project aims to create models that allow children and young people to participate in overcoming future challenges in cities by becoming active and contributing participants in research and development efforts. Further, the project contributes knowledge about community‑driven game tools, user‑driven big data and the Internet of Things and their connection with intelligent and socially responsible urban development. The project is conducted in cooperation with the city of Copenhagen, local schools and Aalborg University. Community Drive involves students, aged 10–13, attending schools in deprived neighbourhoods near Aalborg University Copenhagen in southern Copenhagen. This area is characterised by a high rate of unemployment, low income and residents with little or no education. As a result, resources have been allocated for reconditioning the subsidised housing in this area. In this paper, we discuss the ways in which Community Drive, initiated in May 2018, is based on the results of pilot projects conducted from 2014 to 2017. Overall, these studies showed that tasking students with changing their living conditions by redesigning their neighbourhoods is a strong motivational factor. During the redesign process, students were able to construct game‑based models of various residents’ needs and argue for redesigns based on their knowledge about the area and the ability of certain designs to fulfil the needs of various groups of residents living in the area. We also present initial results from collaboration workshops between schools and professional external local partners. These results show that three themes are central for the collaboration process: building local contact, meaningful local ownership and real challenges and applicable solutions.