“The Magic Potion” – An Adventure Game for Learning Ioanna Christou 1,8 , Nikolas Perdikaris 2,8 , Panagiotis Tragazikis 3,8 , Alexandros Douros 4,8 , Electra Galani 5,8 , Dimitris Gouscos 6,8 , Michalis Meimaris 7,8 1 ichris@otenet.gr, 2 perdikarisn@gmail.com, 3 psemms06007@rhodes.aegean.gr, 4 alekosd21@yahoo.com, 5 artcele@gmail.com, 6 gouscos@media.uoa.gr, 7 mmeimaris@media.uoa.gr 8 Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Education and the Mass Media, Faculty of Communication and Mass Media Studies, University of Athens, 5, Stadiou Str, GR-10562, Athens, Greece Abstract. This communication presents the Magic Potion, an adventure game for learning that has been developed by the EPINOISI project in Greece for students with mild intellectual disability, and discusses in detail the design principles that have been adopted, and choices that have been made, regarding the game’s narrative and gameplay structure as well as the balance that it has been necessary to maintain between these two. Keywords: digital games-based learning; interactive digital storytelling; gameplay design; narrative design; EPINOISI project; the Magic Potion game; mild intellectual disability 1 Introduction The EPINOISI R&D project (http://www.media.uoa.gr/epinoisi ) has been implemented by the Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Education and the Mass Media of the Faculty of Communication and Mass Media Studies of the University of Athens and funded by the Greek Operational Programme for Education and Initial Vocational Training 2000-2006 (EPEAEK II) during November 2007 – November 2008, with the objective to realize a specialized formation program for primary, secondary and special education teachers supporting students with mild intellectual disability (MID) and at the same time develop digital games-based learning material for MID students to be deployed and tested in-class. The total duration of the EPINOISI formation program on DGBL for MID has extended to 400 teaching hours, of which 100 hours were allocated to seminars of theoretical formation and 300 hours to practical hands-on seminars, presentation of digital game-based educational material and supervised application of this material in the special classroom. Theoretical formation seminars have been realized during May