Cuenta Cuentos: A Co-designed Board Game for Preserving the Language of the Comcaac

Abstract

Cuenta Cuentos is a co-designed board game developed as a game-based learning strategy to support the preservation and intergenerational transmission of Cmiique Iitom, the ancestral language of the Comcáac (Seri) people of Sonora, Mexico. The project emerged within a sixth-semester design course focused on social innovation and Radical Participatory Design, through a collaboration between design students, educators, linguists, and members of the community of the Comcáac. As part of the process, students participated in ludic experiences such as the mangrove-feather toy and the hapapl! game, which allowed play to become a source of knowledge, inspiration, and design insight. These activities helped students understand play not only as a pedagogical strategy, but as a way to activate curiosity, reveal cultural meanings, and inspire more sensitive forms of co-creation. Also the students participated in field visits, conversations, prototyping, and playtesting activities that informed the conceptual, visual, and pedagogical structure of the final proposal. The resulting game invites players to collaboratively construct stories using illustrated 3D haptical cards inspired by oral traditions, natural environments, and symbolic cultural elements of the Comcáac. Designed for both oral and written modes of play, Cuenta Cuentos allows participants of different ages and literacy levels to engage in storytelling while practicing vocabulary, narrative structure, and linguistic expression. By emphasizing imagination, cooperation, and collective narrative construction, the game positions language learning as a shared social experience. Cuenta Cuentos contributes to game-based learning research by showing how analog games can function as culturally meaningful pedagogical tools that strengthen cultural identity and social cohesion. The project suggests that game design, when grounded in ethical co-design processes and local knowledge systems, can expand the educational role of games toward community empowerment and language revitalization.