Building early childhood character through Indonesian traditional games: The development and implementation of the Komodoria model

Concerns over moral decline in the digital era have intensified the need for effective character education in early childhood. Character, conceptualized as enduring behavioral dispositions, is shaped through repeated social and cultural experiences. This study investigates the effectiveness of culturally adapted traditional games as a play-based intervention to foster character development among young children. Adopting a research and development (R&D) framework, this study introduces the Komodoria game, a modified traditional Indonesian game integrating structured play with character education. The model operationalizes nine pillars of character through embedded task-based indicator cards that promote values such as responsibility, honesty, cooperation, respect, and empathy. The intervention was implemented over 20 days with two cohorts of kindergarten children aged 4–6 years in West Lombok, Indonesia, with teachers facilitating guided play sessions. Findings indicate substantial improvements in post-intervention character scores across participants, demonstrating the model’s effectiveness. Character acquisition occurred through dual mechanisms: explicit instruction embedded in gameplay and implicit social learning processes, including rule adherence, turn-taking, and peer interaction. This study concludes that culturally grounded, modified traditional games offer a robust and integrative approach to character education in early childhood. However, intervention outcomes are mediated by individual socio-emotional readiness and contextual factors, reinforcing the indispensability of teacher facilitation. These findings underscore the pedagogical value of culturally responsive, play-based models and advocate for their systematic integration into early childhood curricula and teacher professional development programs.