Game On, Mt. Pleasant: CMU initiative pairs academics and games

What began as a space where Central Michigan University faculty experimented with using games as teaching tools has grown into an immersive, real-world learning experience that’s putting students on the national stage. 

This fall, CMU students are stepping beyond campus to design, promote, and sell tabletop games at major conventions—while bringing those lessons back home to the Mt. Pleasant community. 

The new Pages of the Press program, developed through CMU’s Center for Learning through Games and Simulations (CLGS), gives students hands-on experience in game design, marketing, and logistics of games—and you’ll have a chance to play their creations, too.

The Start: CMU’s Center for Learning through Games and Simulations (CLGS)

CLGS is a center in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at CMU. It aims to promote game-based learning to enhance academic understanding and build skills that will translate into real-world experience. 

“It started out grassroots, where the goal was to support faculty who wanted to use game-based learning in their classrooms, to learn how to use game-based learning in the classroom and how to use games and design games,” explains Jonathan Truitt, CLGS co-director. 

“And from there, while we were using games in our classrooms, we had students who were then interested in learning how to develop and design games, especially future educators, who wanted to take those games with them. At the same time, esports was coming online, and so we were partnering with esports, and we then started talking about developing a minor in Game Design Thinking,” says Truitt. 

The center is broken up into two initiatives: press and academics. The academic portion, led by Tracy Davis, covers the Game Design Thinking minor, while the press initiative, led by Truitt, encompasses the Central Michigan University Press.

Developing Games via the Central Michigan University Press

The Central Michigan University Press is an initiative of the CLGS and is the world’s only peer-reviewed game publisher and CMU’s own game publishing company. 

The press is self-funded and relies on crowdfunding to support its game production. They receive game submissions from all across the world and choose to publish those that have both academic and hobby appeal. After extensive review, the game enters the development process, which can span months to years. The manufactured games are sold online and at gaming conventions. 

Students Learn to Market, Sell, & More with Pages of the Press

Each year, CLGS takes its games and showcases them at Gen Con, the largest tabletop game convention in North America. The team brings students to help them market and sell their games, and this year, they will be able to prepare students even more thanks to Pages of the Press. 

“We’ve been lucky enough to be able to take students with us to Gen Con … And it’s a really great experience on a bunch of different fronts,” explains Veronica Gregory, coordinator of outreach for the CLGS. 

“But we saw that students could benefit from some additional preparation. So that’s what Pages of the Press is supposed to be in the end,” states Gregory. “We’re still taking students with us at the convention, but this year, they’ll have a different background, which will enable them to succeed in different ways.”

“And in turn, we’re really looking forward to having these students be spokespeople and representatives of the CLGS and Central Michigan University Press because they will also have a unique position to help us sell our games,” adds Gregory. 

CLGS spent a month prepping for the launch of this program and held student interviews on Oct. 31. During the selection process, CLGS sought out students that represented a variety of interests and skill sets who would be able to market their games with a fresh perspective.

“I think we’re stronger with a group of students that have a range of interests,” remarks Gregory.

“Broadly speaking, we’re interested in anybody who’s just interested in this space,” adds Truitt. “We’re looking for people who have an interest in really trying to make a mark and help education grow, but help the game-based learning space grow about it.”

During the interview, candidates were asked to partake in several different scenarios, including teaching the interviewers how to play a game and explaining the technique they’d use to invite someone to their booth at a convention. 

The scenarios aided the CLGS in selecting the students whom they deemed most fit to potentially market their games at Gen Con, which is their biggest sales week of the year, as approximately 73,000 people attend the convention.

CMU Invites the Community to Playtest Games in Development

In addition to student involvement, CLGS invites community members to be a part of its creative process. Called Break Our Games, they host monthly playtesting nights where game designers bring games in development and community members get to play them. 

Gregory said the event offers “an opportunity for people to actively step into the game design process” while providing helpful feedback for the designers. 

In the end, the CLGS’s main mission is to emphasize the importance of play in educational settings. 

“When you introduce people to the idea of game-based learning, it sort of lets them open up in a different way,” shares Gregory. “Thinking about grades and other methods of testing or education, those can be effective, but I think they also bring up lots of walls. But if you invite people to play a game, then it taps into something that all humans do, and it feels more natural, and it’s something where people can learn in a much deeper way, too.” 

CLGS is hosting two more Break Our Games sessions this semester on Nov. 12 and Dec. 12 from 3-5 p.m. in the Park Library Room 211 on Central Michigan University’s campus.