Game Sprints Sheet

Collaborate with peers to brainstorm game ideas

This is an adaptation of an activity played by NMSU’s Innovative Media Research and Extension team. This activity is done at the beginning stages of design to help generate unique ideas for games, animations, and other educational digital tools.

In this activity, you will divide into small teams. Each team rolls one die to determine the theme and game mechanic. For both categories – theme and game mechanic, roll the die three times to get three choices for each.

From the three choices, your team will select one item from each category – one theme and one game mechanic. Using the selected theme and game mechanic, your team will create a game idea. In addition to the theme and game mechanic, you should identify a goal of the game and how the player wins the game.

Row	Themes*	Game mechanic*
1	Dinosaurs	Roll + Move
2	Art	Dice Rolling
3	Food	Memory
4	Royalty	Player Elimination
5	Fantasy	Trivia
6	Farming	Role Playing
7	Zombies	Storytelling
8	Robots	Trading
9	Trains	Simultaneous Actions
10	Vampires	Leveling Up
11	Alien Invasion	Rock-Paper-Scissors
12	Superheroes	Pattern Building
13	Wizard School	Betting
14	Nautical	Variable Player Powers
15	Travel	Bluffing/Lying
16	Animals	Press Your Luck
17	Cinema	Cooperative Play
18	Mythology	Voting
19	Space	Judging
20	Sports	Deck Building

Key Terms

Theme

• A topic or subject
• A recurring, unifying subject or idea

Game mechanic

• Uses the rules and steps in the game to guide players
• A way for players to achieve the game’s goal and give players feedback
• Makes the game fun and interesting for the players
• Gives players restrictions what can be done in the game

Name of Game

Game Designers

Game Theme

Player Change From Game

Game Goal

Game Mechanic

Game Rules

Game Ends/ Player Wins

Additional Information About the Game (Recourses, Obstacles, Characters, Story)