Interview with Marius Meißner, senior espoto game designer and experiential educator
You have a brilliant idea for an interactive game or a digital application and don’t know how to implement it? Or you are already a user of our software and want to make the most of its possibilities?
In this interview with Marius, you will learn how our training offerings can support you in implementing your ideas playfully and excitingly. It doesn’t matter whether you already have experience in game design or if you are a curious beginner – the Game Based Thinking method will provide you with new inspiration. Find out why our versatile training offerings provide everyone with the opportunity to expand their skills and implement their ideas in a creative and effective way. And this is independent of our software.
Marius Meißner is not only a senior Serious Game Designer at espoto GmbH, but as a passionate experiential educator he is also an expert in the field of various educational projects. With this unique combination of experiential education and game development, he designs digital learning programs.
In doing so, Marius uses his knowledge to design processes in an innovative, logical and playful way with the help of his developed Game-Based-Thinking approach. With this method and a lot of experience Marius has designed a versatile training offer. Here, users, beginners or even experts can get new impulses for the implementation of their game idea.
Dear Marius, you will be offering various trainings starting in the fall. How did the idea come about?
We are currently receiving a lot of requests for concepts in which many different target groups would like to illustrate certain topics in a more playful way, and in recent years we have increasingly written concrete offers directly and traveled to the customers. We have designed and implemented many individual trainings. In the course of this, I developed a new method – the Game-based Thinking method – from various training methods, seminars and experiences that I have made over time. And then the training concepts emerged from that.
How is the Game-based Thinking method structured and what does it produce?
Who is your target group for the trainings? And do you have a few examples of use cases where the Game-Based Thinking method can provide concrete support?
The target groups are educational institutions, companies from the tourism sector and, for example, human resources departments. I see particularly great potential in the area of educational institutions, and this is also where my heart lies. There are so many great topics that could, in principle, be implemented in a much smarter and more exciting way.
Especially with abstract topics that are currently being implemented in the youth sector. For example, on hiking days, where it’s about excursions, I saw just the other day during the excursion that many kids are equipped with such an eternally long collection of sheets. In the first moment, the young participants are still having fun, but when it comes to doing the same thing over and over again, boredom sets in and motivation wanes.
With a serious game approach, you can simply implement such things in a more playful way and also make them more interactive through our digital tools. For many companies, this is interesting for the human resources department. For example, to make an open day exciting or on the topic of onboarding, to accompany the start-up phase of new employees professionally and sympathetically. In the coming months, this will once again be particularly important for companies with trainees, in order to make the start of training successful right at the beginning. And the training offers just the right tools to turn game ideas into concrete concepts and ultimately digital and hybrid applications.
What role does good storytelling play?
Good storytelling plays a central role. As a provider of location-based game software, we at espoto always focus on the topic of immersion, because we always look at different perspectives when it comes to storytelling. In most cases, the thinking takes place on a specific topic, which you enter from either a location-based or role-based perspective. Here, the story may have a protagonist, an antagonist, and other roles that make sense for the game at hand.
Especially for computer games, these roles take on an enormously important function. In our field of location-based games, however, the game location – the place of action – also plays a central role. Accordingly, storytelling can also be conceived from this perspective. Where does the user go? Which places do we perhaps also want to bring into the real perspective, in order to create an illusion of place in addition to the place where he is perhaps also playing? This is what the storytelling training is for, here we can combine real and fictional story elements.
Which basics and/or prerequisites do the participants of the trainings have to bring along?
Basically, no previous experience is necessary, because the trainings logically build on each other. Someone who already has a concrete idea will find these individual basic steps helpful in illuminating their own development from a professional game design perspective. With some previous experience and a concrete idea, interested participants could also start directly in the Storytelling training to further develop their own idea.
In any case, it is helpful if you have played games yourself and already have a few ideas and basic mechanics for your own game. During the training, many ideas also emerge in the process and exchange with other participants. These different perspectives are very valuable and our workshop cards always provide so much inspiration that, for example, complete applications have already been thought through in the course of a storytelling workshop, including the game locations, storylines and roles.
Realize your game idea with the espoto trainings
From the basics of game development to storytelling and puzzle design, you’ll learn the skills you need to turn your ideas into reality. Sign up – we’re looking forward to seeing you!
If you have any questions about our trainings, please use our contact form to request further information.
