ctrl+R: Reflections on Prompting Reflective Game Design

The document explores "Reflective Game Design" (RGD) as an alternative design agenda focused on deconstructing and understanding play experiences, aiming to clarify how reflective ideas evolve during game development. The core research question investigates what constitutes a reflective game. The authors introduce ctrl+R, a digital game design tool developed to prompt reflective ideas among game makers. This tool, iterated from physical card and tile games, presents designers with eight random digital questions influenced by Dialogue Mapping and "wicked" problem-solving, intending to spur critical reflective reasoning rather than prescribe a formula for RGD.

Preliminary qualitative data was collected from eighteen game "jammers" during the Global Game Jam 2019. The methodology involved deploying the ctrl+R tool to capture game ideas and subsequently administering an online post-jam survey to gather feedback on the created games and the tool's utility. Data analysis employed Grounded Theory to categorize participant responses, yielding three types: gameplay-centric, author-centric, and game design-centric.

The findings highlight the context-dependent nature of tacit design knowledge in reflective game design. The research moves beyond solely evaluating end-game artifacts to holistically describe the activity of reflective game design, articulating how designerly reflection integrates into the creative process. This work lays a foundation for future iterations of ctrl+R and offers insights into the relationship between context, intention, and RGD, initiating a broader discussion on the capabilities and limitations of tools within this design paradigm. The study's scope is focused on game design processes and tools, specifically within the context of a game jam event.