Cards, cubes, and collaboration: a case study of the development of an educational board game

Games are a powerful tool for learning, offering unique benefits for student engagement, particularly when addressing complex or challenging topics. The general public's understanding of how vaccines are made is limited and the general public is unaware of the comprehensive research, development, and safety measures that are inherent in vaccine development. As such, we created a new educational game to address this knowledge gap. This case study examines the development process of an educational board game designed to enhance public understanding of vaccine development. The game, titled N.O.V.E.L.-Newly Observed Variant of Extreme Lethality, was created using a modified Backward Design methodology to align gameplay with specific educational standards and learning objectives. Designed for 2-4 players aged 10 and up, the cooperative game challenges participants to conceptually research a novel pathogen, develop an effective vaccine prototype, conduct animal testing and clinical trials, and distribute the vaccine-all while managing the spread of the disease. This case study details the iterative design process, including research and consultation with vaccine development experts, game prototyping, playtesting, refinement, and production. A key focus was balancing educational content with engaging gameplay mechanics to ensure both learning effectiveness and player enjoyment. Additional considerations such as original art, graphic design, teacher resources, alignment to educational standards, and animated videos were integrated to support accessibility and engagement in a classroom setting. The findings from this development process highlight best practices for designing educational board games and offer insights into how game-based learning can be used to communicate complex scientific concepts.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s44217-025-00472-z.