The Predator Game: A web Based Resource and a Digital Board Game for Lower Grade School, Focusing on the Four Biggest Predators in Norway.

The Predator game was developed by Nord-Trondelag University College, The Mid-Norway Predator Center and the game company AbleMagic. The game is a multiplayer digital game, based on a classic boardgame model, where the players take on roles as one of Norway's four biggest predators, the bear, the wolf, the lynx, and the wolverine. The goal is to use the game as a part of grammar school children's preparations for visits to the Predator Center and the learning activities that they organize. This paper describes testing the game on a group of grammar school pupils. It focuses on how different game properties and the surrounding context effects the gameplay, looking into indicators like motivation, collaboration and competitiveness. It shows that The Predator game engages pupils and enhances collaboration and that the pupils genuinely appreciate many of its' features. At the same time it reveals some weaknesses in the game design as well as technical flaws. As digital games are a powerful medium for teaching and learning, proper testing during the design stage is essential. This paper lays out the strengths and the weaknesses of The Predator game, enabling improvements at the same time as sharing our findings with other game designers and scholars, in order to facilitate successful game design.