How Instructional Design Taught You to Play Video Games
Director/Videographer/Editor
Video games have always been more than entertainment. From arcade cabinets and demo loops to adaptive difficulty systems and companion-driven guidance, games have quietly become some of the most effective learning environments we interact with every day.In this video, I explore how video game tutorials evolved alongside the principles of Instructional Design—feedback loops, constructivism, scaffolding, and the Zone of Proximal Development. Drawing from personal experiences with games like Super Mario Bros., Sekiro, Civilization V, and Baldur’s Gate 3, as well as my work creating training content at Ken Cook Co., this essay examines how frustration, failure, and discovery became tools for learning. By tracing the shift from manuals and arcade cabinets to modern adaptive systems, we can better understand how games teach us, why they work, and what they reveal about how people learn.
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