Playing this game as you go through the course is optional, so feel free to entirely ignore it. You can’t skip the quizzes, but you can answer them randomly to speed up the process. You can also unsubscribe from all gamification emails in your course user profile. However, please note that reward points earned throughout the course can be redeemed against a future purchase (up to 10% OFF any course): The better you do in the quizzes and the further you go in the course, the bigger the potential saving on your next purchase…

So if you’d like to spice up your learning journey with a bit of competitive fun (and possibly save on your next course), read on!

The game cheekily defines 12 Stages to Creative Freedom

Tying together the twelve modules of the course into twelve levels for this game proved to be challenging, so I played with an unlikely parabole: What if one’s journey to creative freedom mirrored the transformation that often happens during a grieving process: Mourning old creative habits, resisting leaving them behind before embracing a new approach… You get the idea.

Let’s make it clear right away: unlike genuine grief, this game is not to be taken seriously. It’s just a tongue-in-cheek metaphor in twelve stages designed to match the number of training modules.

Still, while the course should provide many “aha!” moments and lead you to rush back to your project(s) with renewed ideas or to scribble rewrite notes frantically, discovering a new approach can also lead to some questioning. There’s nothing wrong with that.

It’s unlikely you’ll experience the feelings associated with common grieving stages — shock, denial, panic, guilt, etc. — with such intensity as a result of going through the course. I’m banking more on excitement, inspiration and even epiphany. However, should this happen to some degree, the stage descriptions are written to bring some perspective and a bit of fun.

Sounds good? Time to buckle your seatbelt and to hit the road to creative freedom!

You’ll find a description of all the stages by clicking the button below, but feel free to discover them as you go along, the current and next stage are listed on all the game progress pages.

To make your way towards the first stage and start the game

You simply have to access the course from your group page and complete the first section, ‘Welcome to the Course!’

You then move to the next stage by completing new modules, so you can fully focus on the content. However…

As you go along, you earn reward points, freedom points and achievements

Reward points are not specific to a particular game or course and keep accumulating over the life of your account. These are the points that can be redeemed against a future purchase (200 points for 1 USD, up to 10% off any course, max. amount $100). Freedom points are tied to the Creative Freedom game, hence contribute to your progress in this specific game.

A completed topic / module gets you 25 / 100 reward points; a completed quiz gets you 100 reward points; a quiz with a score of 80% or more unlocks 50 reward points and 250 freedom points. A perfect quiz (100% score) unlocks 100 reward points and 500 freedom points, in addition to the 80+ quiz points already awarded.

Finally, completing each stage gets you an increasing bonus (up to 2,500 freedom points).

So everyone can make it to Stage 12, but some will earn more points than others along the way… You can track your progress on a page that includes a leaderboard showing only the top five players if you’re part of a group (on your group page), or the ten all-time best players (in the game itself or if you click on the button below), so no one will ever look bad.

Please note that your displayname (currently ““) can be shown on the leaderboards whether you’re playing the game or not, so you might want to edit your profile to change your displayname.

The winner is the highest ranked player with the most freedom points

Reward points will only be used to break an unlikely tie (and can also be redeemed against a future purchase, as explained above).

Whether you play the game or not, you’ll get a certificate when you complete the course. This is more to acknowledge your efforts than anything else — just a bit of fun for those of you who might find this motivating and entertaining.

Your certificates are stored in your Course Enrollments, which are accessible from the Members’ Area menu, along with your overall quiz score.

Of course, none of this means much regarding your actual script development abilities, so again this game isn’t to be taken seriously. And if you come up with a better idea than the ‘twelve stages of grief’ metaphor for the game, feel free to gift it to me…

Good luck, and have fun!

Emmanuel