Design Of Serious Games Research Articles

Didactic and Psychological Principles of Successful Design of Serious Games

In this paper, a systematic, evidence-based overview of didactic and psychological design principles is provided, which have a significant impact on the learning success of Serious Games. Design criteria are described that relate to the structure of games, the principle of learning through play, interaction regarding usability and playability, as well as motivation with the necessary game incentives. Furthermore, perspectives on the future development of Serious Games are outlined, focusing particularly on the implementation of concepts of adaptive e-learning and AI-supported learning.

FABLE: A New Horizon in Digital Learning and Serious Game Design

Serious games have stood out as a new pedagogical format capable of motivating students through interactive learning. The lack of standards in the conception of these video games has led to the creation of different models, where the ludic aspects often prevail over the educational ones. This research analyzes the models present in the literature to identify those key elements in the design of serious games and to determine the presence of ludic-pedagogical elements. A systematic review is carried out following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement to identify the existing models for creating serious games. A qualitative analysis of the selected models is carried out to extract the key elements that should be present when creating a guide for designing serious games and to evaluate a ludic-pedagogical approach. Finally, a directed content analysis is performed to evaluate the presence of ludic-pedagogical elements in the selected models. The results show a lack of attention paid to the elements of the pedagogical dimension of the game in the studies reviewed. Other elements, such as the format or the audience, are not specified, and most models prove incomplete. From this study emerges FABLE (Fun And Balanced Learning Experience), a model that incorporates both the playful and pedagogical dimensions of the serious game.

Participatory Arts-based Game Design: Mela, a Serious Game to Address SGBV in Ethiopia

<p>The emerging body of work on participatory game design (PGD) highlights the significance of working with end-users’ voices as the starting point. This is particularly critical in serious games that seek to impact social change in areas such as sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). This article, which is based on fieldwork with 16 college instructors in four agricultural colleges in rural Ethiopia, draws together concepts of participatory visual methods (particularly cellphilming), PGD and a game universe perspective to offer an engaging and interactive approach to the design of serious games. We refer to this as ‘Participatory Arts-based Game Design’ (PAGD), an approach that was used to create Mela, a serious game to address SGBV in Ethiopian agriculture colleges. Exploring Mela game’s participatory and engaging design process, this article offers a framework for serious game development to address critical social change issues that go beyond the game itself. It has the potential to not only place the end-users at the centre but to recognize the critical role of engagement and immersivity in a field oriented towards impact and sustainability.</p>

A Systematic Review of the Design of Serious Games for Innovative Learning: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, or Mixed Reality?

The recent integration of educational technologies and emerging learning approaches into education systems has been driven largely by the pandemic. This paper conducts a systematic review and delves into the new wave of research on serious games designed for innovative learning using augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). The review was referenced to the review protocol, PRISMA 2020. Using the Scopus Database with a time filter from 2007 to 2023 (27 July), we searched 329 articles and shortlisted 273 relevant studies. Notably, European countries contributed the most (62.9%) to this research area. Among the most frequent keywords, VR (90.9%) was commonly used in AR/VR/MR, while e-learning (95.3%) was among the popular innovative learning approaches. Further research studies are needed to employ AR and MR technologies, as well as other innovative learning approaches, to enable performance evaluation and comparison of various educational technologies and learning approaches. We conducted an in-depth analysis of the relevant studies and their basic characteristics. Additionally, we introduced 15 essential and recently published AR/VR/MR standards to ensure better reliability, quality, and safety of architectures, systems, products, services, and processes. To facilitate performance evaluation and analysis, we surveyed 15 recently published benchmark education datasets. This review suggested four future research directions, including multisensory experiences, generative artificial intelligence, personalization and customization, and real-time interaction.

Development of the Engagement Playability and User eXperience (EPUX) Metric for 2D-Screen and VR Serious Games: A Case-Study Validation of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Research into the design of serious games still lacks metrics to evaluate engagement with the experience so that users can achieve the learning aims. This study presents the new EPUX metric, based on playability and User eXperience (UX) elements, to measure the capability of any serious game to maintain the attention of players. The metric includes (1) playability aspects: game items that affect the emotions of users and that constitute the different layers of the game, i.e., mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics; and (2) UX features: motivation, meaningful choices, usability, aesthetics and balance both in the short and in the long term. The metric is also adapted to evaluate virtual reality serious games (VR-SGs), so that changes may be considered to features linked to playability and UX. The case study for the assessment of the EPUX metric is Hellblade, developed in two versions: one for 2D-screens and the other for VR devices. The comparison of the EPUX metric scores for both versions showed that (1) some VR dynamics augmented the impact of gameplay and, in consequence, engagement capacity; and (2) some game design flaws were linked to much lower scores. Among those flaws were low numbers of levels, missions, and items; no tutorial to enhance usability; and lack of strategies and rewards to increase motivation in the long term.

Generative AI Based Difficulty Level Design of Serious Games for Stroke Rehabilitation

Generative AI Based Difficulty Level Design of Serious Games for Stroke Rehabilitation

Acculturative game design with Latine communities: a bridging review on acculturative stress, behavior change, and serious games

Acculturative stress disproportionately impacts first-generation Latine-Americans, leading to significant mental health risks stemming from intergenerational cultural norms around gender identity and sexuality. Facilitating communication is critical in reducing this stress, yet it can be challenging for Latine individuals to take the first step in expanding their views due to limited resources, cultural pressure, and motivational needs. On the other hand, serious games provide a unique opportunity to address this challenge by introducing novel experiences to encourage the growth of perspectives in acculturative norms. This article presents a narrative review that bridges three key concepts: (1) acculturative stress in Latine-American communities, (2) modern behavior change theory and model, and (3) the design of serious games. We conclude by proposing a framework for Acculturative Game Design (AGD) and discuss considerations for fostering the support of intergenerational relationships around Latine identity.

Toward a Mid-Range Design Theory for Developing Pedagogically Effective Serious Games

ABSTRACT Serious games (SGs) represent promising digital learning tools. However, SG design frameworks frequently lack a comprehensive integration of pedagogical considerations, which might explain the observed variance in SG effectiveness. To address this research gap, we use a design science research approach to develop a mid-range design theory that translates pedagogy into SG design. We exemplify and empirically evaluate the application of our design theory with an SG designed for intercultural competency development with good results.

Serious games research streams for social change: Critical review and framing

The number of scientific publications about serious games has exponentially increased, often surpassing human limitations in processing such a large volume of information. Consequently, the importance of frameworks for summarising such fast‐expanding literature has also grown. This paper draws a panorama of serious game research streams, focusing on higher education in engineering and management. The research design involves a systematic review using PRISMA guidelines, along with bibliometric and content analyses. The sample comprises 701 documents collected from both Scopus and Web of Science databases. For supporting bibliometric analyses, Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny tools are employed. In addition, a coding schema is developed for in‐depth analysis of 701 documents selected according to the inclusion criteria. In short, the literature on serious games for engineering and management education grows more rapidly than modern science, following a globalised, collaborative and context‐based trajectory. The results reveal five main research streams: game design guidelines, game design cases, game experiment guidelines, game experiment cases and generalists. These streams are summarised in a proposed framework. Cross‐tabulation and statistical analyses conducted in SPSS Statistics identify the key relationships amongst the research streams. Finally, opportunities to investigate serious games for sustainable development education arise, and there is a need for future efforts to formalise the framework classification algorithm. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Scientific production related to Serious Games (SGs) has grown exponentially in a globalised manner. It reflects the interest from various domains, particularly the field of sustainability in management. Literature reviews on SGs have emphasised various topics, including the acceptance of simulations and games as effective methods of teaching and learning. The role of technology‐enhanced games and simulations in the context of digital transformation in education and the emergence of sustainability as a promising field for future SGs research are also highlighted. The literature has introduced three categories for empirical research on SGs: (1) game presentation, (2) game evaluation and (3) game effectiveness. It has also highlighted methodological rigour as a common challenge across studies. What this paper adds Scientific research on SGs in Engineering and Management Higher Education (EMHE) experiences exponential and significantly faster growth compared to modern science in a globalised and collaborative manner. This growth reveals the scarcity of experts in this area and attracts the attention of various fields, particularly in the realm of sustainability. Thematic trajectories indicate a decline in discussions regarding users' perceptions of SGs and their validity as educational tools. They also demonstrate consistency in discussions about SGs design, and the potential of sustainability emerges as a promising area for future SGs in EMHE. A comprehensive framework composed by five primary research streams connects game design cases and guidelines, game experiment cases and guidelines and generalists. This framework can serve as a lens for future context‐based literature reviews, and the relationships amongst its streams reinforce the idea that the field can benefit from increased methodological rigour in experiments. Implications for practice and/or policy This review offers categorised supplementary material in which educators can discover a variety of artefacts for application in their specific educational contexts. Designers can access guidelines for enhancing the design of innovative games. Researchers can access guidelines for more effective evaluation of their artefacts across various contexts. Finally, policymakers can explore numerous experiments to inform decisions related to technology‐enhanced innovations in the classroom.

Literature Review for the Design Methods of Serious Games

This study emphasises the primary designing characteristics of serious games that make a balance between entertainment and education. The method description was utilised as a tool based on the analysis of serious game structure, strategies, model application, and factors of games supporting entertainment and the learning process in the literature. Through Summon system (a systematic digital library that includes various popular digital libraries), 52 potential studies were collected within the recent five years (from 2018 to 2023). The result shows that 13 methods are utilised to design serious games in reviewed papers. These methods involve a diversity of design theories proposed in these papers selected and some potential dimensions that impact the design of serious games to create the balance between entertainment and education.

Using scaffolding theory in serious games to enhance traditional Chinese murals culture learning

AbstractThis study explores a game model that uses scaffolding to learn about cultural heritage based on adventure games. A case study using traditional Chinese murals tested the effectiveness of serious games in improving learning performance and knowledge acquisition. This study observed and evaluated the learning outcomes of 64 students by using serious game learning compared to traditional video learning in an experimental setting. Changes in knowledge acquisition, intrinsic motivation, cognitive load (extrinsic load vs. germane load), and engagement were collected through a series of tests and scales. Experimental results show that digital adventure games have better learning performance and knowledge retention effects, higher intrinsic motivation, germane load, and engagement than traditional video learning. The reasons affecting academic performance were analyzed from the data, and it was found that intrinsic motivation and germane cognitive load positively affected game performance, and external cognitive load hurt game performance. This study provides experience on the design of serious games in cultural heritage learning.

EndGame for Corruption - A DPE-Based Framework to Support the Design of Serious Games for Fight Against Corruption

Corruption, a pervasive issue that affects societies globally, is closely linked to inequality and the inadequate provision of public services. In this context, where the population is the primary victim, serious games are utilized to raise awareness, aiming to empower individuals and strengthen their role as vigilant citizens. Game designers strive to develop solutions that facilitate learning and reflection on corruption. This article proposes an adaptation of the Design Play and Experience Framework, referred to as the Endgame for Corruption Framework (EgC Framework). This adaptation incorporates the reflection process and is guided by the learning objectives mapped from Bloom’s Taxonomy. The EgC Framework is the basis for designing a game that immerses players in a corrupt context. We conducted a quasi-experimental study to evaluate the game’s effectiveness and gathered participants’ perceptions through a survey questionnaire. The collected data underwent both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The results demonstrated clear indications of player dissatisfaction and reflection on the situations presented in the game. These findings provide valuable evidence of the game’s impact in prompting players to engage critically with corruption. Overall, this research showcases the potential of serious games in addressing the issue of corruption. The EgC Framework, combined with thoughtful design choices and evaluation methods, contributes to the development of games that foster awareness and reflection among players.

Tools to help teachers and designers complete individual tasks when co-designing industrial engineering games – Application to the design of an innovation management game

ABSTRACT Serious games (SGs) offer an engaging format for teaching industrial engineering (IE) methodologies. IE methodologies involve people following a process in a set of conditions to design, improve and install systems, which are easily scripted into gameplay. The scholarship has proposed co-design approaches for teachers and SG designers. However, teachers are not always ready to engage, and designers can readily create SG elements rapidly alone. We propose a co-design framework to distinguish their roles and four tools for them to better embed relevant expertise in the SG design process. A first tool is a domain decomposition model, which helps teachers create the knowledge repository for an IE methodology. Then, a specification vector is provided to define clear learning objectives. The third tool is a mapping table that inspires designers building gaming elements based on the learning objectives. The final tool is a verification table that helps check whether the learning experience offered by a SG is aligned with its learning objectives. A game on innovation management was designed that adopts the co-design framework. It was tested in three sessions with 23 players, resulting in a playful learning experience .

Elementium: design and pilot evaluation of a serious game for familiarizing players with basic chemistry

Serious games (SGs) about Chemistry have the potential to cope with challenges, such as students’ low performance and lack of motivation for the subject. However, the majority of existing SGs for Chemistry have the form of educational applications infused with some elements of entertaining games. The aim of the study presented was to design and evaluate a new SG with rich game mechanics for Chemistry. The game is called Elementium and revolves around basic topics of Chemistry, such as chemical elements and compound terminology, creation and everyday usage of such elements. The main goal of the game is to familiarize junior high school students with the aforementioned subjects. The design of Elementium was carried out implementing the dimensions described in the Four-Dimensional framework, as proposed by de Freitas and Jarvis in 2006. After the development process, Elementium was evaluated by people in the field of education that are currently teaching or have taught Chemistry in the past. The participants play-tested the game at leisure in their homes and evaluated it based on the key criteria for SGs design proposed by Sanchez in 2011, as well as other quality indicators established in the literature. Elementium was positively evaluated by Chemistry teachers in terms of its acceptance, usability, didactic utility, and game environment. The positive results concluded from this evaluation show that Elementium is fulfilling its main purpose and can be used as a supplementary tool in the teaching process. However, its true didactical effectiveness has to be confirmed through a study with high school students.

Design of a serious game for participatory planning of nature-based solutions: The experience of the Edible City Game

Serious games have been proposed by several studies as a tool to foster civic participatory processes. However, such an endeavour is often prone to failure due to lack of funding or lack of skills on designing serious games. In response to this problem, this paper provides a novel framework for the design of serious games for participatory planning of nature-based solutions, which provides guidance for the definition, content, and evaluation steps. The usefulness of the framework is illustrated with the design of the Edible City Game (ECG), a digital serious game for participatory planning of edible city solutions (urban nature-based solutions with a food component). The designed ECG was then implemented in Tygron, a platform which provides a graphical interface for serious games for urban planning. However, although Tygron provides a user-friendly software to design serious games, our thesis is that the final product still needs a proper design-orientated process to fulfil its purpose. We believe that this framework, as well as our experience using the Tygron platform, can be of great utility to both researchers and practitioners that have considered using serious games in their projects but discarded the idea because of the foreseen resource intensity of the endeavour.

RehaBEElitation: the architecture and organization of a serious game to evaluate motor signs in Parkinson's disease.

The use of serious games (SG) has received increasing attention in health care, and can be applied for both rehabilitation and evaluation of motor signs of several diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the use of these instruments in clinical practice is poorly observed, since there is a scarcity of games that, during their development process, simultaneously address issues of usability and architectural design, contributing to the non-satisfaction of the actual needs of professionals and patients. Thus, this study aimed to present the architecture and usability evaluation at the design stage of a serious game, so-called RehaBEElitation, and assess the accessibility of the game. The game was created by a multidisciplinary team with experience in game development and PD, taking into consideration design guidelines for the development of SG. The user must control the movements of a bee in a 3D environment. The game tasks were designed to mimic the following movements found in the gold-standard method tool-Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS)-for the assessment of individuals with PD: hand opening and closing, hand extension and flexion, hand adduction and abduction, finger tapping, and forearm supination and pronation. The user interacts with the game using a wearable interface device that embeds inertial and tactile sensors. The architecture of RehaBEElitation was detailed using the business process model (BPM) notation and the usability of the architecture was evaluated using the Nielsen-Shneiderman heuristics. Game accessibility was evaluated by comparing the overall scores of each phase between 15 healthy participants and 15 PD patients. The PD group interacted with the game in both the ON and OFF states. The system was modularized in order to implement parallel, simultaneous and independent programming at different levels, requiring less computational effort and enabling fluidity between the game and the control of the interface elements in real time. The developed architecture allows the inclusion of new elements for patient status monitoring, extending the functionality of the tool without changing its fundamental characteristics. The heuristic evaluation contemplated all the 14 heuristics proposed by Shneiderman, which enabled the implementation of improvements in the game. The evaluation of accessibility revealed no statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between groups, except for the healthy group and the PD group in the OFF state of medication during Phase 3 of the game. The proposed architecture was presented in order to facilitate the reproduction of the system and extend its application to other scenarios. In the same way, the heuristic evaluation performed can serve as a contribution to the advancement of the SG design for PD. The accessibility evaluation revealed that the game is accessible to individuals with PD.

Meaningful learning: motivations of older adults in serious games.

Social sustainability is the generation of significant behaviors through balanced levels of education, learning and awareness so that the population has a good standard of living, achieves self-improvement and supports society. This can be achieved with various strategies, one of which is learning through games, which has gained popularity in recent years due to positive results. This is effectively achieved through serious gaming, which is growing steadily, mostly in education and healthcare. This type of strategy has been typically used in young populations with a transparent interaction with technological processes that facilitate its application. However, one cannot neglect other populations such as the elderly, who may experience a technology gap and may not perceive this type of initiative in the best light. The purpose of this article is to identify the different motivations that can encourage older adults to use serious games to encourage learning processes through technology. For this purpose, different previous research on gaming experiences with older adults has been identified, from which it was possible to categorize a series of factors that motivate this population. Subsequently, we represented these factors by means of a model of motivation for the elderly and, to be able to use it, we have defined a set of heuristics based on this model. Finally, we used the heuristics by means of a questionnaire to evaluate the design of serious gaming for older adults, obtaining positive results for the use of these elements to guide the design and construction of serious games for learning in older adults.

The Impact of Story Structure, Meaningfulness, and Concentration in Serious Games

This contribution analyzes the impact of factors related to story structure, meaningfulness, and concentration in the design of Serious Games. To explore them, the authors carried out an experimental evaluation aiming to identify relevant aspects affecting the cognitive-emotional impact of immersive Virtual Reality (VR), specifically Educational Environmental Narrative (EEN) Games. The experiment was designed around three main research questions: if passive or active interaction is preferable for factual and spatial knowledge acquisition; whether meaningfulness is a relevant experience in a serious game (SG) context; and if concentration impacts knowledge acquisition and engagement also in VR educational games. The findings highlight that passive interaction should only be encouraged for factual knowledge acquisition, that meaningfulness is a relevant experience and should be included in serious game design, and, finally, that concentration is a factor that impacts the experience in immersive games. The authors discuss potential design paths to improve both factual and spatial knowledge acquisition, such as abstract concept-oriented design, concluding that SGs should contain game mechanics explicitly supporting players’ moments of reflection, and story structures explicitly aligned to educational facts.

Can people’s brainhex type be changed with serious games? Evidence from the banking industry

Abstract The BrainHex model is one of the most researched models to represent player profiles in games. In this paper the author examines how serious games can be used to change the player profiles over time, even in heavily regulated environments, such as the banking industry. To understand if player archetypes change over time, I have conducted an exploratory study with 2531 bankers over the course of three years. Our results indicate that the players ‘archetypes can potentially be changed with the help of serious games Age of the players and their role in the organization do not influence the change of the main archetypes, but can determine the amplitude of that change. The change appears to be significant across all age groups and roles in the organization and also persistent. A slight decrease in Y3, however, could indicate that the change could be reversible with the passing of time. The statistical analysis of the data collected indicates that the desired change in the main archetype can be obtained by having the players spend between 10 and 20 hours playing personalized serious games that facilitate the desired archetype and that those games should be designed to facilitate an easier level up mechanism. My results both confirm existing studies on the subject and have practical implications for the designers of serious games and gamification mechanisms, by indicating how serious games should be personalized to achieve the desired change in behaviour.

How to get the girls Gaming: A Literature Study on Inclusive Design

Gaming is a ubiquitous activity today where many children spend considerable amounts of time playing various games. Serious games have also become a mainstream educational tool in a wide variety of school subjects. Despite this, many games still have a design that mainly appeals to boys where girls are less frequent players. The aim of this study was to gather requirements for a design of serious games where girls should not feel excluded. The research question to answer was: "Which design concepts are important if girls should be engaged in serious gaming?". Furthermore, the results from this study could be useful for future implementations of educational games. This study strives to address the research gap in the field of inclusive game design, and to gather important requirements for games where girls and boys want to play together. This study was carried out as a scoping literature review to map literature in the field of game design to identify key concepts that can attract the younger girl audience. Scoping literature reviews offer a method of mapping key concepts in a research field to identifying the main sources and types of evidence available. A central aim of a scoping literature review is to synthesise research results to a specific target group as a foundation for future research. For this study, the future research will consist of implementing the found design factors in an educational game on computer science. Findings indicate that there are specific game design concepts that girls find appealing. Important main themes to consider are Creativity and customisation, Character diversity, Collaborative interaction, and Exploration without violence. However, there seems to be several challenges related to the concept of designing specific girl games. The conclusion from this study is rather to choose a more inclusive game design where girls and boys would like to play together. A concept for game design that could be described as having a low threshold, wide walls and a high ceiling. The recommendation for a girl inclusive design is to carefully consider factors such as narration, backstory, social interaction, game graphics, sound design, and personalisation.