The philosophy of sandbox games and its application in the teaching and learning process.

Cleber Carvalho

Senior Designer and Educational Technology Specialist

As a designer, one of my most interesting tasks is to look for emerging trends that can be applied in mass products in the future, and I don't mean for 30 or 50 years from now, but for a very near future of 3 to 5 years.

And one of the most curious trends that I've been observing lately, comes straight from the gaming industry, before you say that this is child's play and not very interesting, I must say that by observing the behavior of the users of this media, among them many children, we can take several interesting characteristics and apply them in other scenarios, including education.?

Have you ever heard of the term "sandbox"? Sandbox, which is a term in and means sandbox. The name is very self explanatory, it is a space reserved in playgrounds for those responsible to leave the children, where they can play various games according to their creativity, these spaces are very common in American playgrounds, so much so that you may have seen their representation in a multitude of American movies. Here in Brazil they are not so common, because of all the creative freedom that these open spaces provide for children.?

The term sandbox ended up being adopted by game developers to identify a very particular category of games that we will talk about next.?

Within the gaming industry, we have the progression games where the player must follow a very linear path, going through phases and accomplishing well defined goals in order to win the game, if you don't get the expected results you will be "Game Over". The similarity with our current traditional education is not mere coincidence. Sandbox" games give the impression of having no rules, but in fact they have the minimum of rules in order to maximize the creative possibilities of the players, here there are no predetermined results to be achieved and the player will never see written on his screen the words "Game over".

It is very common for a sandbox game to be online (games that require internet connection) and multiplayer (made for several simultaneous players), where players from different places are connected within a single scenario, where there are no well-established initial goals, there in this space full of possibilities these unknown but connected people, can organize themselves and create their own game goals. The game system only offers means for them to communicate and invent their own rules.

To exemplify this type of game more clearly, I will mention one of the greatest exponents of this segment which is the famous "Minecraft", if you have a child between 06 and 12 years at home it is very likely that you have heard of this game (I confess that I have 33 and still play). In it, several players from different parts of the world connect in a world made entirely by blocks, which can be combined and recombined to build anything that the imagination of these players want, for those who are over 30 years we can make an analogy with a classic toy that I'm sure most adults know: LEGO. The game Minecraft would be almost like a digital version, an update of the classic LEGO building toy for today's connected generation.?

One of the most interesting features of this game is that when entering this world of blocks, absolutely no instruction is given, there are no tutorials for use, no narrative in the background, players must figure out on their own how to walk, how to collect blocks, and how to combine them to create elements. This initial learning, although completely empirical, has a very fast curve, and after getting used to these initial mechanics, players will be able to let their imagination run wild and start building something.?

And that is exactly where the great value of this game lies, it would be obvious to imagine that in a game apparently without rules, chaos reigns among the players, but exactly because there is no pre-established objective that the players see the opportunity to organize themselves into groups and create new uses for the game.?

There are players who become architects of surreal works, others prefer to use the game to tell stories, others just to talk to their friends, and others take the game to another level and start making automation projects within that fictional world. These are just some examples of use that we can cite, the possibilities are endless and the players can organize themselves, join forces and achieve pre-set goals in group democratically.

Minecraft for sure is the greatest example of sandbox game to date, but there are infinite other games that give a huge creative freedom to the players with few rules, such as:?

Kerbal Space Program, an amazing space-themed game that works a lot on logical thinking and planning. We also have Scrap Mechanic, Dont' Starve, a game with super captivating visuals and light enough to run even on more modest smartphones and the already old The Sims 4 could also enter this list, but in a more conservative degree of freedom.

Do a search on the internet and discover the most varied sandbox games and the possibilities they can give you in teaching some kind of content.

I mentioned above that most of our educational institutions are more like progression games, but even in many of these more linear schools, we can find spaces that offer openness to experimentation and creativity, where we can draw parallels with sandbox games.

If you are part of the school community you must have heard about the already famous "maker spaces", "Fab labs", "Google" or "Microsoft" rooms, all these spaces have many characteristics of a game sandbox, because they offer several resources that can be used by students in the most varied ways to put their creativity into practice. 3D printers, scrap metal, various materials and tools, are like the little blocks of Minecraft that can be quickly combined in different ways in the students' constructions.?

There are no pre-established lesson plans for these spaces, they are not only the math, science or computer science classroom, in fact all the disciplines can make use of the space and normally several disciplines are mixed during the construction of the students' projects, many times it is impossible to identify the limit between the use of the knowledge of each one of them, since they all mix and complete each other in a fluid process of discovery and prototyping.

Like in a sandbox game, these areas are created to be used by several students at the same time, students from different grades meet there and can exchange information, learn, discover and help each other to achieve their goals.?

Does all this description mentioned above sound like something you have read around here??

For more traditional teachers it may be difficult to see these spaces as full of possibilities, often because of this old-fashioned way, or more "traditional" way of thinking, they end up underutilizing these spaces, for not knowing exactly what to do there or in which situations it would be interesting and profitable to develop educational projects in these creative spaces, which with minimal rules can be providers of an efficient learning and results with their students.

In many schools these incredible spaces end up being abandoned, serving only as a marketing tool for the school, which can thus sell the idea of being up-to-date and innovative to the people in charge, even if in reality these are not characteristics widely spread in the institution.?

In order for these spaces to actually fulfill their purpose of existence, a change in the school's mentality is required, as well as more modern approaches in line with the current behavior of its students outside the classroom.

Believe me, this trend will become stronger and stronger and will be brought inside the schools by the students themselves, who are more than used to the sandbox culture in their homes and in the products they consume all the time, they will desire less and less pre-prepared and linear solutions and more and more creative freedom and tools flexible enough for them to materialize all their ideas. So teachers keep an eye on this trend and try, whenever possible, to add sandbox pills into your teaching and learning processes, you will find that it is super fun and you will get more and more spontaneous engagement from your students.

Thank you for reading!

Best regards!

Cleber Carvalho