42 Educational Games Coaching and Design

Women in Classical Video Games Despite the prevalence of video games set in or inspired by classical antiquity, the medium has to date remained markedly understudied in the disciplines of cla…

It examines the range of figures presented from the 1980s to the present, alongside discussion of issues such as historical accuracy, authenticity, gender, sexuality, monstrosity, hegemony, race and ethnicity, and the use of tropes. Get your copy here:

We are super excited to highlight the terrific work of Jane Draycott and Kate Cook in their anthology, Women in Classical Video Games. The volume surveys the history of women in video games set in classical antiquity.

Classroom Games to Teach Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Skills in 2025 - Filament Games These standout games help students practice empathy, communication, and emotional regulation in 2025 classrooms.

Full text here:

We love how reliable Filament Games is for highlighting great game content in specialized educational contexts. This post is part of their continuing series on games for teaching social and emotional learning skills.

Registration is open: seriousplayconf.com/...

We are super excited to make our first-ever visit to Serious Play US at Duke in August! The conference has a great reputation and we can't wait to see what kinds of connections we can make.

In this Simulation and Gaming article, Henry G.H. Low and Marina Ellefson of UC Davis explain their creation of the Punnett Farms game to help community college better understand molecular genetics.
journals.sagepub.com...

Lots of us learned about Mendelian genetics in high school, but probably don't remember more than breeding pea plants.

Britain is a global gaming superpower Can it remain one?

Read this Economist article for those and other insights about the British gaming industry:

OK, raise your hand if you knew that Grand Theft Auto was made by Brits (Scots, to be precise).

Registration should open soon - you can find the most current information here: reactingconsortium.o...

Next up on our laydown of 2026 conferences: the Reacting to the Past Game Development Conference, running from 8-11 July at Canisius College in Buffalo. We'll be escaping the heat, playing some great games in development, and possibly playtesting a work in progress!

Q and A with the experts: How games trick you into playing – and paying | Waterloo News | University of Waterloo Have you ever bought something in your game without knowing the cost in real currency? You may have encountered deceptive game design or specific user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) practices that trick players into doing things that mainly benefit the game's developers and publishers. Hilda Hadan, a Ph.D. candidate in Systems Design Engineering supervised by UX

Read the full thing here:

There's a fine line between using immersive mechanics that draw your players in and deceptive practices that make them do things for your benefit. This University of Waterloo piece is a helpful set of ideas for designers to stay on the right side.

The Ultimate Guide to Self-Playtesting Self-playtesting is your secret weapon. Here’s why it's non-negotiable.

You're not respecting your playtesters' time, and you're not getting the feedback you actually need. Worse, if the game breaks, it will probably be awhile until you can get it to the table again." Read the whole thing here:

Chris Backe (Chris Backe) nails why it's so important to self-playtest before getting your game out to others: "Skipping the self-playtesting phase is like asking an editor to review a first draft full of typos and half-finished sentences.

Former Tampa Teacher Creates Card Game to Teach Local Black History A clever new card game highlighting Tampa’s Black history is coming to stores this month. Black Tampa Historians contains 70 cards with challenging questions and multiple-choice answers about the city’s…

Get the full story from wild941 at

All politics is local, and some of the best games are too! Read how one Tampa native created an educational card game to address lesser-known aspects of the city's history and its Black community.

Plus, he practices what he preaches - you can find a status update of his many games in development here: x.com/Clint_Davey1/s...

Some great game design advice here from Clint Warren-Davey.

Games-Based Learning Virtual Conference 2026 Games-Based Learning Virtual Conference 2026

The 100% remote conference runs from 5-7 June, and they're in the process of finalizing their slate now. Stay tuned for further updates at gblconference.com/.

Summer's pretty hot here in Arizona, so we appreciate any excuse to stay in the air conditioning. In June, that will be the 2026 Games-Based Learning Virtual Conference presented by University XP.

Digital Game-Based Learning for Science Teaching Learn about five platforms with which you can use and design digital educational games from scratch for different areas of knowledge.

Read about how one educator made it happen, via the Institute for the Future of Education at Tecnologico de Monterrey:

Implementing digital games in a science class isn't just "plug and play." It takes careful selection, implementation, and assessment.

Keep, Eliminate, Adapt As a new school year begins, these three verbs can help teachers reflect on the practices they want to bring into their classrooms.

Read more about this approach via Edutopia here:

"Keep, Eliminate, Adapt" is a great framework for educational game design too:
- Keep things that excite/engage your learners.
- Eliminate distractions that don't serve your learning objectives.
- Adapt that really cool idea you love that just isn't landing with your players.

If you're going to be in the Phoenix area on 5-6 Feb, come by and say hi! folcfest.asu.edu/

Our next conference is Arizona State University's Future of Learning Conference (FOLC) Fest 2006. We'll be presenting a poster on best practices for Reacting Microgames and how to incorporate them into diverse classrooms.

Hear their travails (and a terrific description of the challenges of creating educational games) at: www.npr.org/2025/10/...

From the Planet Money Team: "We want to make a board game. It must, of course, teach the world about economics. It must be fun. It'd be nice if it sold lots of copies! How hard could that be!?"

Oh, you sweet summer children.