Play to Learn: Creating Educational Games for Youth Work

An online workshop for youth workers, trainers and educators who want to move beyond using ready‑made games and start designing their own educational games around real themes from their practice. Every game is treated as a new question: an invitation for young people to explore “What is really happening here?” and “What could we do differently?” through play.

The focus is on low‑tech, easy‑to‑run games that can be prototyped and facilitated with very simple materials: scarves, balls and objects that participants can either create themselves or find easily in nature or their immediate environment (stones, sticks, leaves, paper, recycled items). This makes the method realistic for any youth setting, regardless of budget or equipment.

Participants are invited to bring one concrete issue or learning goal from their context – for example: low participation in discussions, online conflict, inclusion and exclusion, stress and wellbeing, or ethical questions around AI and technology. Through guided reflection, they translate this into a potential game situation: Who are the players? What choices do they face? What tensions or dilemmas should appear in the game? What question will this game ask the group?

The workshop introduces the core elements of game design for learning:

• a clear learning purpose and target group
• a simple narrative or theme that makes sense for young people
• roles, rules and resources (such as scarves, balls, natural objects)
• game mechanics – what players actually do and repeat during play
• feedback and endings – how a round finishes and what “success” can look like
• debriefing questions that help participants connect their experience back to the central question behind the game.

In small design teams or individually, participants sketch a first analogue prototype using whatever they have at hand: drawing a space or path on paper, assigning meanings to different coloured scarves or types of balls, or using found/natural materials as tokens, obstacles or resources. They write short, clear instructions and then run mini play‑tests in breakout rooms, where others try to play, notice which questions the game raises, and give feedback on clarity, engagement and learning potential.

Special attention is given to inclusion and emotional safety: how to avoid reinforcing stereotypes, how to balance competition and cooperation, how to support players who struggle with movement or language, and how to handle strong emotions that may arise. The facilitator also highlights ways to involve young people themselves in co‑creating or adapting the games, so that designing the game becomes part of exploring the question, not just an activity prepared in advance by adults.

By the end of the workshop, participants will:

• understand how each game can act as a focused question in their youth work practice
• know how to design simple, low‑resource games using scarves, balls and easily found or self‑made materials
• have created at least one new game concept or prototype linked to a real issue and guiding question from their context
• leave with a draft facilitation and debriefing plan to help young people reflect on the question behind the game and connect it to their own lives.