GameAbility 2025 – Point and click

GameAbility 2025 – Point and Click

Research and training project on educational game design, funded by Cariverona

Game Ability was born in 2022 from an idea by Giacinto Barresi, now full professor of robotics at the University of Bristol and, at the time, researcher at theItalian Institute of Technology (IIT) of Genoa.

Initiated under the aegis of the IIT, the project was subsequently picked up and developed by Lorenza Saettone together with Juri De Vigili (Innovasteam, Vicenza) and Vibrisse Studio.

Game Ability integrates academic research, educational design, technological development and awareness of diversity and how it can be hindered or advantaged by interfaces. In this regard, game design is used as an educational tool for STEM and a critical space on the controls and structure of games.

GameAbility is moving forward in 2026 with the project financed by the Cariverona Foundation, in partnership with Innovasteam and CRE-TA: Children at the Center

@marcellostefanell
♬ suono originale – Marcello Stefanelli

The 2025 path was carried out with the high schools of Vicenza, divided into three complementary levels:

1) Teacher training – Game Based Learning

Path dedicated to teachers, with introduction to game based learning and development tools, from Scratch to conversational systems (Pandora Bot).

2) Student laboratory – Designing a video game

VIbrisse students and experts have developed a video game level based on the point-and-click adventure model, reflecting on the theme of the slowness of the interface and the narrative value of waiting.

3) Final hackathon – trip to Savona by Vibrisse Studio

The students, divided into groups, developed the concept of their game design, specifying the concept, interfaces, character design and above all the problem they started with: the difficulty that their game would face. Final presentation, pretending to be presenting the proposal to investors; each group was evaluated on some aspects, offering them suggestions for improvement. The exhibition phase transformed the laboratory into a performative and critical experience, in which the students argued their design choices like true designers.

Final trip to Savona.

Here are some videos:

They have been defined:

Target
Mechanics
Interfaces
Narrative structure

During the course the students also experienced:

VR scenarios developed by Lorenza Saettone
Interaction with a social robot used for metaphor training

From this experience a paper was born, accepted at the Connected Learning Summit 2025 (MIT).

Outputs

Teacher training course
Video game level
Game design document
Public challenge
Paper accepted at Connected Learning Summit 2025 (MIT)