Going solo: reflections on individually designing a single player game for distance learning

This chapter explores the design, creation and implementation of an online single-player ‘choose your own adventure’ role-playing game, in a large core LLB module. The game is of particular note because it is part of a predominantly online distance-learning approach, where there is no opportunity for students to engage in game-based learning within the physical classroom. The chapter outlines how the branching narrative of the game was developed to model the ‘narrative’ of a legal claim in the tort of defamation. There is detailed discussion of the use of variables throughout the game, both to help drive the narrative and to provide students with a tangible ‘score’ (albeit contextualised into a bill of legal costs) at the end of play. The chapter concludes by reflecting upon the design process and providing practical suggestions as to how to balance depth and complexity with the finite resources available to educators.