Core Skills Analysis
English: Language and Literacy
The child reviewed a PC game on Steam, practising how to express an opinion about a product for an online audience. The activity involved choosing words to communicate a judgement clearly and considering how written feedback could help other readers decide whether to try the game. Writing a review also supported skills in organising ideas and using concise, purposeful language. The child learned that online writing can share personal perspectives with a wider community.
Digital Technologies
The child used Steam, a digital platform, to review a PC game and engage with a feature for publishing user feedback. This provided experience with creating content within an online service and communicating through a digital interface. The activity also introduced the role of user reviews in helping people make choices about digital products. The child learned that digital platforms connect individual contributions with other users.
Critical and Creative Thinking
Reviewing a game required the child to form and communicate an evaluation based on the activity. The child practised turning a personal response into feedback that could be understood by others, an exercise in making and explaining a judgement. Considering the review’s purpose also supported perspective-taking by focusing on what information might be useful to prospective players. The activity strengthened evaluative thinking and purposeful communication.
Tips
Tips Extend the review into a short comparison by having the child review another game and identify what makes each experience distinct. Invite the child to create a simple review framework with prompts for overall impression, memorable features, and intended audience, then use it to organise a future review. Explore how different readers might interpret the same review by sharing it with family members and discussing which details helped them understand the child’s view. As a creative follow-up, have the child turn the review into a one-minute audio or video recommendation, adapting the message for a different format.
Book Recommendations
- The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, Third Edition by Jesse Schell: A detailed guide to examining games through different design perspectives, useful for developing more thoughtful game reviews.
- Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal: Explores what games do for players and communities, offering ideas to consider when describing a game’s appeal and impact.
- Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Fourth Edition by Tracy Fullerton: Introduces game design concepts and playtesting, helping readers connect player experience with how games are made.
Learning Standards
- Australian Curriculum English — AC9E10LY06: Create and edit texts, including digital texts, for purpose and audience; connected to composing a game review for Steam readers.
- Australian Curriculum English — AC9E10LA03: Understand how language choices express and develop ideas; connected to selecting language to communicate an evaluation.
- Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies — AC9TDI10P06: Plan and manage digital projects collaboratively; this activity offers a limited connection through creating and publishing digital content on a platform.
- Australian Curriculum General Capabilities — Critical and Creative Thinking: Evaluate information and communicate considered judgements; connected to forming and expressing a review.
Try This Next
- Review-planning worksheet: organise an overall opinion, supporting details, and intended audience.
- Write a short comparison of two PC game reviews, noting how each communicates its judgement.
- Create a three-question quiz about what makes online feedback clear and useful.
- Adapt the review into a one-minute spoken recommendation for a friend.