The Secret Process for Creating Games that Matter is a presentation by game designer Jesse Schell and Dr. Barbara Chamberlin (New Mexico State University), laying out a design framework for making games meant to create real-world change.
Summary: The resource presents a three-step process for designing “games that matter”: describe the change you want in the player, identify the real-world activities that produce that change, then design the game around those activities.
Big Idea: Good “games for good” don’t start with a game idea, they start with a clearly defined human change you’re trying to create, then work backward to find the activities that produce that change, and only at the end wrap those activities in game mechanics.
Playable Takeaway: The framework’s credit-score example (understand what affects your score, experiment with decisions, live with the consequences) is itself a ready-made blueprint for a financial literacy game built around cause and effect rather than instruction.