Game and simulation designers, engaged in both entertainment and educational contexts, employ heuristics as guiding principles for shaping their design practices. It is not clear to what degree there is congruence between pedagogical design instruction and its real-world implementation. It is important, therefore, to conduct heuristic research to discover what designers do in practice. The dominant trend for heuristic research in the game design field is the use of survey-based methods. To gain a more contextualized and nuanced understanding of designers’ practices, I conducted open-ended interviews with six designers of games and simulations across five field sites, and explored their works in depth. I found that despite designers’ diverse educational and professional backgrounds, their practices converge at key points, reflecting common heuristics. This finding supports the use of iterative and practice-based learning in game design instruction.
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