Identifying and validating game design elements in serious game guideline for climate change

Abstract

Climate change can simply be defined as an increase in temperature, normally referred to as global warming. Recent studies have confirmed the failure of many climate communication efforts due to the one-directional transmission of information that has transformed the audience into passive consumers of information. The young generation tends to be avid gamers, thus serious games could be a suitable medium to increase climate change awareness in order to cultivate a better attitude towards nature among this group. However, very few games focus on carbon cycle fundamentals that are directly related to climate change. Existing climate change games have been unable to improve the quality of knowledge on environmental issues due to the lack of contextualization of the carbon cycle. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop and verify a guideline of game design elements to assist game developers in developing a climate change game that can facilitate experiential learning on climate change based on the carbon cycle. The guideline consists of 13 game elements derived from previous studies. Seven experts from both game and environmental areas were selected to review the designed guideline. The experts were given two to six weeks to evaluate the guideline and were asked to rate and comment on each game element. At the end of the review, the experts' feedback and comments were analysed and scrutinised. The results showed positive feedback from all experts. The guideline was updated based on the experts’ comments, and finally a total of 12 game elements for a climate change game remained. This guideline can be applied to develop a new climate change game. This paper discusses the validation of the guideline proposed for a climate change game design.