North-West University

Design and Development of a Narrative-based Tabletop Game for Promoting Soft Skills Acquisition

The development of the tabletop game Gr8 Success! serves as a pedagogical intervention designed to promote soft skills acquisition among undergraduate information technology students at North-West University in South Africa.

• North-West University developed a narrative-based card game, 'Gr8 Success!', to teach soft skills like empathy and communication to IT undergraduates who often perceive traditional modules as trivial.
• Initial testing with 33 students showed 88% interest in using serious games for coursework, with 100% of participants finding the prototype enjoyable and its educational purpose clear.
• The game utilizes an Educational Design Research methodology and agile development to embed learning objectives into mechanics inspired by titles like Fluxx and Gloom.