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Artificial Life in Game Mods for Intuitive Evolution Education Anya E. Vostinar1, Barbara Z. Johnson2, and Kevin Connors2 1Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057 2Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA 50112 [email protected] Abstract a large fanbase and achieve the goal of demonstrating evo- lution via natural selection to a large audience. Finally, if a The understanding and acceptance of evolution by natural selection has become a difficult issue in many parts of the game markets itself as being a game about evolution via nat- world, particularly the United States of America. The use ural selection, those who are resistant to accepting the idea of games to improve intuition about evolution via natural se- of evolution are unlikely to even try the game. Therefore, if lection is promising but can be challenging. We propose the the goal is to use games to improve evolution understanding use of modifications to commercial games using artificial life and acceptance, a game would have to 1) correctly imple- techniques to ‘stealth teach’ about evolution via natural se- lection, provide a proof-of-concept mod of the game Stardew ment evolution via natural selection, 2) be fun, 3) amass a Valley, and report on its initial reception. large fanbase, and 4) not be overtly about evolution via nat- ural selection. Introduction Creating a new game that will achieve those four crite- Teaching the theory of evolution via natural selection has ria is a difficult problem, however we suggest an alternative. become a controversial issue in the United States educa- Some games support community modifications of the game tional system in recent decades (Sinatra et al., 2008). Even code, called mods, that allow programmers to tack on ex- after setting aside the political and religious motivations tra features to an existing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) for resistance, there remains a central challenge that evo- game. By modding existing commercial games, researchers lution via natural selection is counter-intuitive partially be- ensure evolution is correctly implemented, are able to use a cause it occurs at spatial or temporal scales that are difficult fun game with a large fanbase (assuming the game is already or impossible for humans to observe, let alone understand. commercially successful), and could even utilize ‘stealth- There are many efforts underway to improve this problem learning’ by pitching the mod as making the game more re- of observable evolutionary dynamics, and one of them is alistic (Sharp, 2012). Some studies have begun to explore to incorporate evolution into games. This approach enables using this approach in both formal school settings where people to observe evolution in a context that can be non- teachers create educational mods of popular games (Moshir- confrontational and on temporal and spatial scales that they nia, 2007) and during out-of-school learning opportunities can grasp. such as after school coding clubs in which learners modify There have been a number of games that attempt to incor- COTS games to develop or demonstrate their understanding porate evolution as a central or secondary game mechanic, of academic content (Bertozzi, 2014; Hayes and King, 2009; arXiv:2007.03787v1 [cs.NE] 7 Jul 2020 however they run into several recurring issues. One such Steinkuehler and Johnson, 2009). issue is that evolution via natural selection is an inherently Here we discuss how research in artificial life could be directionless process and there is a great temptation by game harnessed for educational goals involving evolution via nat- developers to add direction to it to make a game more fun. ural selection through games and present a proof-of-concept This change, however, reinforces a common misconception mod to demonstrate the possibility of this approach. We de- of evolution via natural selection, namely that of some be- veloped this mod for the popular indie game Stardew Valley. ing (either a deity or the organisms themselves) directing This game, released on February 26th, 2016, is a “country- the process towards a goal (e.g. Spore (Bean et al., 2010)). life RPG” that allows interactions with plants and animals Some educational games have a primary aim of demonstrat- through farming, breeding, and fishing (Barone, 2020). This ing evolution by natural selection correctly, but end up be- theme, combined with the fact that over 5 million people ing games that are not particularly fun to play. Even when own the game (Orland, 2018) and that there already exists an a developer succeeds at creating a game that is both scien- active modding community (of both programmers producing tifically accurate and fun, they face an uphill battle to gain mods and players downloading mods) makes Stardew Valley the perfect avenue for this proof-of-concept mod. The devel- games generally targeted lower-order learning objectives in oped mod targets the fishing feature of the game, adds func- which students were expected to remember specific facts tionality and possibly fun to that feature, and demonstrates without necessarily being able to apply them to novel sit- a way that evolution via natural selection can be integrated uations (Krathwohl and Anderson, 2009). into existing games. Experiential or inquiry-based learning Background While direct instruction games focused on aiding students Games and virtual worlds have been used and tested in for- in remembering specific facts, active learning games were mal and informal educational settings to teach a variety of early experiments in creating a learning environment in subjects, including STEM, as long as the technology has ex- which students would gain virtual experiences and collect isted. For many educators, particularly in K-12 classrooms, information about a system in order to form and test hy- games (either physical or digital) are seen as a way to en- potheses about what is happening in the system. Students gage and motivate the new generation of learners who pre- could be guided by an instructor or the in-game instruc- fer and are increasingly adept at learning concepts and com- tions to run a simulation of a natural system and record re- plex tasks through a variety of media (Sharp, 2012; Dahleen sults (Christensen-Dalsgaard and Kanneworff, 2009; Gibson et al., 2014). Since Net Gen students (also called “Digi- et al., 2015; Jordens¨ et al., 2018) in order to understand how tal Natives”) have grown up surrounded by digital media that system works and propose hypotheses that explain re- and routinely play computer (or smartphone) games even sults or predict future events as they continue to play the as young children, the traditional methods of direct instruc- game. tion are ineffective tools for 21st century learners who thrive In other science learning games such as Quest Atlantis by learning through multimedia-supported exploration and (Barab et al., 2005), River City (Clarke and Dede, 2009), knowledge construction (Prensky, 2010). and Citizen Science (Gaydos and Squire, 2012), students It is important to note that, in this context, the term games take on the role of scientists to investigate a virtual world includes a wide variety of ludic tools. Games may include problem such as lake pollution. As students would maneu- those played with physical manipulatives, such as board and ver their game avatar through a virtual world they would card games, as well as digital games played on a computer make decisions about where and how to gain information or tablet device - with or without Internet connection. The in order to form hypotheses about problems being experi- games used may also be either those designed for instruc- enced and to propose solutions. Often these learning ob- tion (called serious games or serious educational games aka jectives were posed as quests, a popular fantasy game trope, SEGs) or commercial games designed for entertainment but that provides players with a defined, achievable goal that can repurposed as educational tools. A number of studies have be reached by a variety of paths. This increases a sense of demonstrated success in using serious or commercial games, agency and empowerment in the player/learner, and the in- either physical or digital, in both the classroom and in in- trinsic reward of solving the puzzle or fixing the game-world formal situations such as afterschool programs. However, problem keeps learners motivated to overcome challenges attention needs to be paid to both the questions of whether and increase learning or skills along the way. or not the game is fun enough to hold the attention of the students (Baker, 2008) and also to what games are appropri- Creative platforms for learning and assessment ate to particular pedagogical approaches and levels of learn- Often, educators carry the burden of finding or creating a ing. Studies have shown that games (physical and digital) game to use in teaching their course content, however, it is can be used to support traditional, instructionalist paradigms possible to pass over that responsibility to the learners and as well as a variety of active learning strategies designed to challenge them to design a game while they increase mas- engage students in higher order thinking, reaching into the tery of academic content. Game creation or modding has highest level of Blooms taxonomy: creating (Krathwohl and been used as a creative platform with a specified rule/tool set Anderson, 2009). that guides or inspires their development of understanding of educational content - particularly of large systems (Dahleen Direct instruction and practice games et al., 2014). Such constructivist learning approaches were Early educational games were often designed within the tra- described by Lave et al. (1991) and are being tested as a ditional, direct instruction framework in which the com- means for learning academic content such as second lan- puter substituted for the teacher in providing information or guages (Monterrat et al., 2012).

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