Game Design Commons^™

Solarvale: Exploring Australian Ecology And Culture Through Serious Game Design, Ping-I (Adam) Ho, Elliot Birch

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This research examines how a serious game: Solarvale: Tale of the Sun Root (Birch et al., 2024), developed by students from SAE University College addresses the importance of ecological conservation and cultural awareness specifically in relation to the Australian landscape. While some Australian serious games, such as Catchment Detox (2008), Paperbark (2018), and Bleached Az (2019) engage with similar themes, few titles integrate storytelling with interactive ecological environments and cultural awareness in a way that encourages players to reflect on their own role and actions—which is the central focus of Solarvale. Drawing on the concepts from serious game (Gee, 2007), …

Sae What? Magazine - Issue 1 - 2026, Sae University College

SAE What? - Student Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Last Werewolf: An Interactive Narrative About Bipolar Disorder, Rebecca Kerr

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

The Last Werewolf is an interactive narrative game exploring lived experiences of bipolar disorder through metaphor and emotional design. Drawing on the creator’s personal perspective, the game uses cyclical transformation as a lens for understanding mood episodes and identity fragmentation. The showcase presentation examined how mechanics and narrative structure were used to embody bipolar experiences, aiming to foster empathy and nuanced mental health representation in games. By integrating creative practice with research, The Last Werewolf demonstrates how independent games can meaningfully communicate complex psychological realities through interactive storytelling.

Igda Foundation Alumni Weekend: Multiclassing For Better Leadership, Matthew Dyet

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This talk was presented at the IGDA Foundation Alumni Weekend, an annual event that is run by and for recipients of the IGDA Foundation scholarship. The talk covered the fundamentals of leadership through the lens of multiclassing as covered in my book, Great Games Need Great Leaders.

Towards Active Learning Practice: A Theory To Practice-Led Model. Part 1: Principles Of Student-Centred Learning, Strutts Psyridis

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This monograph explores Active Learning as a student-centred pedagogical model that bridges theory and practice in screen education. It examines constructivist approaches, metacognition, and situated learning, arguing for performative, embodied teaching methods. The paper highlights tensions between traditional instruction and experiential learning, proposing adaptable frameworks for enhancing engagement, autonomy, and transferable skills.

Towards Active Learning Practice: A Theory To Practice-Led Model. Part 3: Engagement, Motivation And Classroom Management, Strutts Psyridis

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

Part 3 of this continuing series on Active Learning examines engagement, motivation, and classroom management within active learning environments, arguing that meaningful engagement is performative, designed, and context-dependent. Drawing on creative industries, intrinsic motivation theory, flipped classroom models, and digital pedagogies, it proposes that effective teaching integrates facilitation, structure, and adaptive strategies to sustain learner agency, participation, and deep learning.

Gad314.1 Example 1, Sae University College

Exemplars

A submisson for GAD314.1 - Portfolio for the period of 24T3 of high quality to serve as an exemplar for future trimesters

Gad314.1 Portfolio Example 1, Sae University College

Exemplars

An example of GAD314.1 - Portfolio of high quality and work to serve as an exemplar for future trimesters.

Ani219 Project 3 24t3 Student Exemplar Example 1, Sae University College

Exemplars

This is a distinction-level submission for ANI219, Project 3 in 24T3.

Gad314.3 Proof Of Concept Example 3, Sae University College

Exemplars

GAD314.3 Proof of Concept submission of high quality to be used as an exemplar for future trimesters

Gad314.3 Proof Of Concept Example 2, Sae University College

Exemplars

GAD314.3 submission of high quality to be used as an exemplar for future trimesters.

Ani219 Project 2 Example 1, Sae University College

Exemplars

ANI219 Project 2 34T3 student submission.

Gad314.2 Market Report Example 2, Sae University College

Exemplars

GAD314.2 submission of medium quality, to be used as an exemplar for future trimesters.

Gad314.2 Example 1, Sae University College

Exemplars

GAD314.2 - Market Report of high quality used as an exemplar for future trimesters.

Sci-Fi Deck Builder: Masters Project Development, Anna Tookey

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This talk was given at the SAE Graduate Seminar. It discussed the process of reaching the final creative outcome and the steps that made it happen. The talk was geared towards master's students who are exploring how they might pursue practice-based research.

Gad178.3 2d Asset Design For Games: Part 3, Sae University College

Exemplars

This submission acts as an exemplar for GAD178, Project 3 at SAE University College.

Gad178.3 Project 3 2d Asset Design: Creature Collection, Sae University College

Exemplars

This submission should act as a exemplar for GAD178 Project 3 at SAE University College.

Gad178.1 2d Asset Design For Games, Sae University College

Exemplars

The submission found should be used and an exemplar for the work required of a high distinction for 2D asset design for GAD178 as SAE University College.

Gad178.2 2d Asset Design For Games: Part 2, Sae University College

Exemplars

This submission acts as an exemplar for receiving a high distinction for GAD178 Project 2 at SAE University College

Cim316.2 Antville Example 1, Sae University College

Exemplars

Capstone Planning documentation for a video game.

The concept of Antville is a cooperative video game dedicated to boosting

social skills and teamwork among children. Inspired by the Young Minds

Matter survey, which reveals a gap in social skills development for kids aged

4-12 (The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2020), Antville will

address these social skill deficits through game mechanics informed by

scholarly research.

Great Games Need Great Leaders: From Masters To Publication, Matthew Dyet

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This talk was given to the SAE Graduate Seminar and looked at the whole process of writing the book Great Games Need Great Leaders. It covers the Masters research that informed the book, the process of interviewing experts from the games industry and other fields, and the writing of the book itself.

Illuminating Women’S Interwar Australian Ghosts Stories In A Tabletop Roleplaying Game - Methods, Processes And Aesthetics, Matthew Sparksman

Postgraduate

Australian voices are underrepresented in international media, particularly in the medium of Tabletop roleplaying games. Women’s voices and access to publishing media were rapidly retaken by men after the Great War, including the mediums of Ghost Stories, Film, and other media (Handasyde, 2017, p.18; Ohri, 2018, p.386). This can also be illustrated in the shift in archetypes of ghostly tales to be dominated by that of the “suffering and sacrificed male exiled to death far from home” (Kelly cited in Carleton, 2015, p.21; Kelly, 2007, 18). It is therefore important that we seek to find and value such artefacts that …

Razorblade Swing: Sympathy For The Dead, Game Design Document, Matthew Sparksman

Postgraduate

Sydney of the late 20s was a world of dark, crisp shadows and flashing blades. The war has recently ended, and there is a hunger, a mania, to forget and bury the ghosts and spirits. But the dead, and things inhuman, do not like to be forgotten.

Razorblade Swing is a tabletop roleplaying game that seeks to explore this world through the eyes of street-level, everyday, vulnerable people, particularly women. The main conceit is that the Razor Wars were the product of the ghosts and spirits of war. Those who come back often deal with this through addiction, vice and …

Revelation Perth International Film Festival Academic Conference 2024, James Thompson

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

Drawing delegates from around the country The Revelation Perth International Film Festival's Academic Conference is a truly interactive two days of intense discussion and debate on all things cinema

Revelation is Australia's only international film festival to host and encourage academic discussion alongside its screening program and we look forward to taking its discoveries to audiences around the country and world. It represents an important platform in film discussion and analysis in this country.

Taking place on Tuesday July 2nd and Weds July 3rd 2024, the Revelation Academic Conference draws local, national and international academics to discuss and analyse issues …

What Teams Need: Leading Digital Creatives, Matthew Dyet

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

What Teams Need: Leading Digital Creatives was a talk at the Revelations Conference. Based on my book Great Games Need Great Leaders, this talk was focused more broadly on leadership in the creative industries due to the audience being primarily from film.

Gad213 Designing Game Systems, Sae University College

Exemplars

Exemplar of GAD213.1: game design activities and design documentation for a combat system.

Tabletop Games For Training: Teaching Soft Skills To Game Development Students, Matthew Dyet

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

Among the key competencies for game development that tertiary education provides, soft skills are among the most challenging to coach students on. In an active learning environment the expectation is that soft skills such as communication, estimation, and prioritisation are gained through experience when students undertake group project work. While appropriately scaled projects may provide an opportunity to engage with soft skills in a meaningful way, this learning is often a lower priority to the student presented with more tangible project outcomes that they expect to be graded upon. Engaged and enthusiastic students may reflect upon how their experiences have …

The Impact Of Draconic Signs Upon The Game Design Process, Peter Carey

Postgraduate

This creative practice research project explores the use of draconic signs and symbols, and their impact upon the game design process through a game developed in VR and an accompanying exegesis. The research draws on semiotic theory, exploring how meaning is created and conveyed through the use of symbols in games. It examines how the addition of draconic symbols to locomotion, character abilities and dialogue choices may facilitate player agency. Further, it examines the impact integrating these symbols into the player's avatarisation may have on the construction of player identity.

Via a creative practical component, the research demonstrates the practical …

Ai Interactivity In Game Design, Morgan Casey

Postgraduate

This exegesis focuses on the design of AI in games. This text aims to explain key concepts important to game design, including the use of affective and emotive components to further immerse players in the game world. The goal is to provide insight into the level of complexity required in an AI units’ design to provide enjoyable interactions attainable by an independent developer.

This research will take the combined efforts of playtesters and myself as sole designer and programmer to create a series of play tests with which to examine the enjoyment of various levels of AI complexity and their …

The Stranger Next Door: Enhancing Horror Narrative Through Real Time Progress And Meta-Data, Fae Daunt

Postgraduate

The age of mobile connectivity affords uninterrupted access to mobile phones. While game developers have leveraged this phenomenon to create new game mechanics (such as stamina often which monetizes the acceleration of gameplay) narrative mobile game designers are yet to realise the creative potential of uninterrupted access. In response to this, this exegesis details the creation of The Stranger Next Door—a horror narrative set in the player’s realtime which simulates conversations and interactions via a replica social media platform.

This research document begins with a review of relevant literature, situating the game within the conventions of the horror genre and …