Gamestar Mechanic Launches Today!

Today, E-Line Media and the Institute of Play are launching Gamestar Mechanic, a game-based learning platform that teaches the principles of game design as a form of 21st Century skill building in a highly engaging and creative environment.

Gamestar Mechanic was created through a unique public private partnership that includes leading foundations, non-profits, academia and the game industry. Development of the game was initially funded through a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to the Institute of Play. The game is published by E-Line Media, one of the Cooney Center’s esteemed partners.

The Gamestar Mechanic platform taps into the natural passion of youth for playing and making games. The title helps them develop the technological, artistic, cognitive, social, and linguistic skills that they will need to thrive in the 21st Century, including: Systems Thinking, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, Collaboration and Digital Media Literacy. The game also provides a powerful motivation for learning critical STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills.

Gamestar Mechanic features three, fully integrated components: Quests, with exciting adventure games that provide critical scaffolding for the core principles of game design; a Player Workshop, featuring easy-to-use drag-and-drop game creation tools; and Game Alley, a community where players can publish their games, discover, play and review the games of their peers and enter great game design competitions.

In addition to regular monthly game design competitions, many players in the Gamestar Mechanic community will also be eligible to enter two national game design competitions: the prestigious Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, which recently added video games as a new design category, and the National STEM Video Game Challenge recently announced by President Obama at the White House.

Congratulations to the teams at E-Line and Institute of Play!

Gamestar Mechanic Press Release

Download Gamestar Educator Overview