One Way to Create Educational Games

This paper argues that improvisational theatre games, long used to train actors, can be adapted to train professionals in other fields. Its central claim is that improv games build simple, teachable skills such as observation, teamwork, confidence, and cultural understanding, and that they do so within a meaningful context rather than in isolation. The author draws on theatre studies, sociology (particularly Goffman's frame analysis), and game studies to frame improv games as short, rule-bound exercises with a clear end condition, distinct from larp and jeepform in that they rarely involve character creation by designers.

The paper outlines the practical role of the director, who selects games, tailors them to students' existing abilities, retires games once mastered, and monitors whether players are masking discomfort with humor. It emphasizes that improv games teach through repetition, since knowledge only becomes skill after repeated play. The author also cautions that games should avoid randomness such as dice or cards, which shifts the focus from player skill to chance, and that a game's ending should be shaped by the lesson it is meant to convey.

As applied examples, the paper proposes adapting these exercises for border guards learning to observe and evaluate travelers, and for nursing students practicing patient assessment with an actor playing the patient while the director provides clinical details through side coaching. The author argues that these disciplines would benefit from closer ties with theatre schools. The work is conceptual and illustrative rather than empirical, relying on the author's experience and existing literature instead of a formal survey or controlled study, so its claims about effectiveness in these applied fields remain untested.