The Multiplayer Classroom: Game Plans is a companion to The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game, now in its second edition from CRC Press. This book covers four multiplayer classroom projects played in the real world in real time to teach and entertain. They were funded by grants or institutions, collaborations between Lee Sheldon, as writer/designer, and subject matter experts in various fields. They are written to be accessible to anyone--designer, educator, or layperson--interested in game-based learning. The subjects are increasingly relevant in this day and age: physical fitness, Mandarin, cybersecurity, and especially an online class exploring culture and identity on the internet that is unlike any online class you have ever seen. Read the annotated, often-suspenseful stories of how each game, with its unique challenges, thrills, and spills, was built.
Lee Sheldon began his writing career in television as a writer-producer, eventually writing more than 200 shows ranging from Charlie’s Angels (writer) to Edge of Night (head writer) to Star Trek: The Next Generation (writer-producer). Having written and designed more than forty commercial and applied video games, Lee spearheaded the first full writing for games concentration in North America at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the second writing concentration at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is a regular lecturer and consultant on game design and writing in the United States and abroad. His most recent commercial game, the award-winning The Lion’s Song, is currently on Steam. For the past two years he consulted on an "escape room in a box," funded by NASA, that gives visitors to hundreds of science museums and planetariums the opportunity to play colonizers on the moon. He is currently writing his second mystery novel.
Section 1 Skeleton Chase 2: The Psychic
Chapter 1 ◾ Introduction to Section 1 3
Chapter 2 ◾ Foreword to Section 1 9
Jeanne Johnston
Chapter 3 ◾ Design Document 11
Chapter 4 ◾ Episode 1 – Trailhead 27
Chapter 5 ◾ Episode 2 – Gimme Shelter 45
Chapter 6 ◾ Episode 3 – Stardust 65
Chapter 7 ◾ Episodes 4 and 5 – Crop Circles 83
Chapter 8 ◾ Episode 6 – Champions 103
Chapter 9 ◾ Episode 7 – Skeleton Chase 123
Chapter 10 ◾ Afterword 137
Section 2 The Lost Manuscript
Chapter 11 ◾ Introduction to Section 2 141
Chapter 12 ◾ Foreword to Section 2 143
Shihchia Chen Thompson
Chapter 13 ◾ Design Document 145
Chapter 14 ◾ Episode 1 – The Heritage Library Program 169
Chapter 15 ◾ Episode 2 – China Bound 171
Chapter 16 ◾ Episode 3 – Last Class before China 175
Chapter 17 ◾ Episode 4 – Capital International Airport 177
Chapter 18 ◾ Episode 5 – Reception 185
Chapter 19 ◾ Episode 6 – The Teahouse 189
Chapter 20 ◾ Episode 7 – Codebreaking 193
Chapter 21 ◾ Episode 8 – The Forbidden City 199
Chapter 22 ◾ Episode 9 – Police Headquarters 203
Chapter 23 ◾ Afterword 207
Section 3 Secrets: An Internet Mystery
Chapter 24 ◾ Introduction to Section 3 211
Chapter 25 ◾ Foreword to Section 3 215
David Seelow
Chapter 26 ◾ Design Document 217
Chapter 27 ◾ Episode 1 – Primal Empathy 231
Chapter 28 ◾ Episode 2 – The Present Is the Past of the Future 241
Chapter 29 ◾ Episode 3 – Have a Hart 249
Chapter 30 ◾ Episode 4 – Change of Heart 255
Chapter 31 ◾ Episode 5 – Follow the Money 263
Chapter 32 ◾ Episode 6 – Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing 271
Chapter 33 ◾ Episode 7 – The Experiment 277
Chapter 34 ◾ Episode 8 – Showdown 287
Chapter 35 ◾ Afterword 293
Section 4 The Janus Door
Chapter 36 ◾ Introduction to Section 4 297
Chapter 37 ◾ Foreword to Section 4 299
Zachary N.J. Peterson
Chapter 38 ◾ Design Document 301
Chapter 39 ◾ Episode 0 – Introduction (Week 1) 325
Chapter 40 ◾ Episode 0 – Introduction Continued (Week 2) 329
Chapter 41 ◾ Episode 0 – Door Bell (Week 2) 331
Chapter 42 ◾ Episode 1 – Unlocked Door (Week 3) 333
Chapter 43 ◾ Episode 1 – Unlocked Door Part 2 (Week 3) 335
Chapter 44 ◾ Episode 2 – Tower Door (Week 4) 339
Chapter 45 ◾ Episode 2 – Tower Door Part 2 (Week 4) 343
Chapter 46 ◾ Episode 3 – Open Door (Week 5) 345
Chapter 47 ◾ Episode 4 – Janus Door (Week 5) 349
Chapter 48 ◾ Episode 5 – Knocking on the Door (Week 6) 355
Chapter 49 ◾ Episode 6 – Back Door (Week 6) 359
Chapter 50 ◾ Episode 7 – Pick a Door (Week 7) 363
Chapter 51 ◾ Episode 8 – Trap Door (Week 7) 367
Chapter 52 ◾ Episode 9 – Spirit Door (Week 8) 369
Chapter 53 ◾ Episode 10 – Locked Door (Week 8) 373
Chapter 54 ◾ Episode 11 – Golden Door (Week 9) 377
Chapter 55 ◾ Episode 12 – Swinging Door (Week 9) 383
Chapter 56 ◾ Episode 13 – Kicking Down the Door (Week 10) 385
Chapter 57 ◾ Episode 14 – Cell Door? (Week 10) 389
Chapter 58 ◾ Afterword 393
Chapter 59 ◾ Postmortem 395
Biography
Lee Sheldon began his writing career in television as a writer-producer, eventually writing over 200 produced shows ranging from Charlie’s Angels (writer) to Edge of Night (head writer) to Star Trek: The Next Generation (writer-producer). In 1994, tired of television, Lee turned to his new love: video games. Since then he has worked on over 40 games. In 2006 he began teaching video game writing and design at Indiana University. While there he first started designing classes as games. He also wrote and designed an alternate reality game that went through three iterations. The first two, The Skeleton Chase and Skeleton Chase 2: The Psychic, were funded by the Robert Wood Foundation and were designed to improve student fitness. The third, Skeleton Chase: Warp Speed was a redesign of the second game, shrinking playtime from 7 weeks to 3 days for a group of Coca Cola executives from North Africa.In 2010 Lee moved to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he was an Associate Professor in the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program. There he was co-director of the GSAS program for three years and created the first full writing for games program in North America. He was lead writer and creative director on several incarnations, both a class designed as a game and a digital version, of The Lost Manuscript a narrative-driven game teaching Chinese language and culture.He joined the Interactive Media and Game Development (IMGD) program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2015 where he is again designing classes as games and has developed the second full writing for games curriculum in North America. Lee’s book Character Development and Storytelling for Games (Second Edition, 2013) is the standard text in the field. He wrote the bestselling book The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game (2011). Over 1500 people in 45 countries now follow the Facebook page for his method of teaching classes as multiplayer games. His recent applied game projects include The Janus Door, a cybersecurity class designed as a game, funded by an NSF grant, and currently running at California Polytechnic State University. He wrote and designed Secrets: A Cyberculture Mystery Game, an online class designed as a game teaching culture and identity on the Internet for Excelsior College that went live Fall 2015; and wrote Crimson Dilemma, a business ethics video game for his old school, Indiana University, that debuted Fall 2014. His most recent entertainment games are The Lion’s Song, an episodic game following the creative and personal struggles of four
