Classifying Learning Objectives in Commercial Games, Proof of Concept

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to advance a framework for understanding and teaching game design in higher education, in order to address complexities inherent in teaching game design courses. Everyday teaching and learning game design often deviate from the standard textbook model of game design. In reality everyday teaching and learning operate with handling game design curriculum, how to think games, and how to organise the development process. The presented framework merge curriculum, thinking, and process guided by the game design concept of juiciness. The framework will be presented by dismantling the standard textbook model of game design into three; game design (curriculum), game design thinking (thinking), and game development (organisation). In this perspective game design is concerned with game mechanics, game design thinking preoccupied with paper prototyping, metaphor, and framing, while game developments addresses player experience including play and game testing. This article will coin vertical design as juiciness as opposed to horizontal design understood as expanding system layout. Juiciness will be placed as a guiding principle in the relationship between designers and designed content as an aspect of designer intentions and motivations. Lastly, the content centric framework will be presented by merging game design, game design thinking, game development, vertical design with selected aspects of accepted software development strategies as an approach to teaching and learning game design in higher education.

Previous studies have found that educational games (EG) provide immersion, motivation, fun and high level of engagement. Studies also found that EG are able to teach 21 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">st</sup> century skills. Thus, it is worth studying how this form of entertainment can be adapted into our teaching and learning strategies in order to develop our students' motivation and engagement, which is crucial in successful learning. However, designing and development of educational games with authentic learning content while maintaining the fun criteria can be challenging. Hence, a good design methodology and guideline is needed in assisting games development team to design an effective learning game. Our main attention is to produce a framework in educational games design for higher education. This paper analyses and compares a few frameworks available, then suggests a few criteria needed both from game design and pedagogy points of view. Hopefully it will shed some light in educational games design issues for higher education students.

We describe and illustrate the beginnings of a general framework for the design and analysis of educational games. Our students have used it to analyze existing educational games and to create prototype educational games. The framework is built on existing components: a method for precisely specifying educational objectives, a framework for relating a game's mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics, and principles for instructional design grounded in empirical research in the learning sciences. The power of the framework comes from the components themselves, as well as from considering these components in concert and making connections between them. The framework coordinates the many levels at which an educational game must succeed in order to be effective. We illustrate the framework by using it to analyze Zombie Division and to generate some redesign ideas for this game.

Digital games can be used as educational tools for tackling structural inequalities and promoting social justice. Designing games with these purposes is often a complex task that requires a myriad of combined expertise, including games’ mechanics, software development, educational game design, pedagogy, and knowledge of the educational topic (which can target very specific social issues). Democratising the design of educational games is used to increase the agency and participation of diverse and novice groups throughout design processes - and can be used to improve the efficiency of such games as it directly leads to the inclusion of broad voices, knowledge, experiences and perspectives. This research adopted a Design-Based Research methodology to create, evaluate and validate 13 design principles to democratise the design of educational games for social change. Three research phases were implemented in turn: a preliminary research, prototyping and evaluation phase. The preliminary research phase was based on creating these principles by grounding them on fundamentals of Critical Pedagogy, a theory of education which presents pedagogical techniques to accelerate learning, engagement and social change. The prototyping phase was based on conducting semi-structured interviews to assess and improve these principles with educational and game design experts. During the evaluation phase, these principles were applied and evaluated during two weekend-long game design events, which were mostly attended by diverse groups who had never designed a digital game before. This research presents theoretical and practical contributions related to how to democratise educational game design for social change. It evidenced the relevance of facilitating design principles that addresses what could be done to trigger learning in games by presenting design principles; why this learning could be facilitated, from both educational and gaming perspectives; and how to implement these principles into an educational game.

Video gaming is now available as a fully immersive experience that creates responsive inputs and outputs concerning the user, and some experimental developers have integrated the use of the voice, brain, or muscles as input controls. The use of physiological signal equipment can provide valuable information regarding the emotion of a player or patient during gameplay. In this article, we discuss five of the most common biosignals that are used in gaming research, and their function and devices that may be used for measurement. We break down those individual signals and present examples of research studies that implement them. We also discuss the usage of biological signals within commercial gaming and conclude with some possible future directions for the use of biological signals in gaming and game research.

This study aimed to investigate how digital games affected college students’ creativity development. A sample of 60 college students participated in the digital game design and play instruction, grounded in the playful constructivism theory. The data incorporated the students’ pre- and post-creativity scores in game design, the first and final versions of game design, and the students’ responses to the open-ended questionnaire. The findings revealed that the students’ creativity was developed after digital game design and play instruction, facilitated by three key creative learning processes, including collaborative digital game design, digital game-playing for providing peer feedback, and redesign of the games after receiving peer feedback. These collaborative processes encouraged the students’ role-reversal between designers and players, enabling the students to provide and receive peer feedback for the exchange of creative ideas. Through reflecting on received peer feedback, the students refined their initial ideas and tailored their reflections to redesign the games for the target learners, thereby cultivating their creativity in educational digital game design. This study suggests collaborative digital game design and play instruction is an effective strategy to facilitate college students’ creativity development.

Egitsel bilgisayar oyunlarina yonelik yapilan arastirmalar incelendiginde arastirmalarin oyun ortamlarinda ogrenmenin nasil gerceklestigi ve oyunun ogrenen uzerindeki etkileri uzerinde durdugu gorulmustur. Egitsel ogrenme ortami ve oyun kavramlarini birlestiren egitsel bilgisayar oyunlari yapisi itibariyle her ne kadar diger egitsel ortamlarin tasarim sureciyle benzerlik gosterse de oyun ortaminda etkili ogrenmenin gerceklesebilmesi icin farkli noktalarda yogunlasilmasi gerekmekte; bu baglamda egitsel bilgisayar oyunlarina yonelik gelistirilmis tasarim modellerine ihtiyac duyulmaktadir. Calisma kapsaminda egitsel bilgisayar oyunlari tasarim surecine yonelik olarak yapilan alanyazin taramasinda varolan tasarim modelleri incelenmis, belirlenen oyun tasarimi bilesenleri dogrultusunda alanyazina dayali olarak bir egitsel oyun tasarimi modeli onerilmistir. Anahtar Kelimeler: egitsel bilgisayar oyunu tasarimi, oyun tasarimi modeli Abstract Examination of studies on educational computer games shows us that most of them investigates the way of learning in game environments and the impact of the games on learners. Since educational computer games combine educational learning environments and game concept, educational computer game design process have similarities with educational media design. In spite of the similarities, educational computer game design models should focus on specific issues for providing effective learning in game environments. For this reason, game design models are needed for designing educational computer games. In this study, the existing literature was examined in the field of educational computer game design process and an educational computer game design

The design of effective educational games has proven itself difficult for many years, leading to sparse and somewhat inconsistent insight into the principles governing such systems. While attempts at constructing frameworks for educational games certainly exist, their nature is often quite general (limiting the practical utility) or noticeably specific (limiting the scope of projects to which that framework might be applied). We present a design framework for a broad, but well-defined genre known as experiential games. We have named our framework the Experience, Experiment, Evaluate (EEE) framework and believe it to be an adequate lens under which to analyze such games. This article presents the EEE framework in detail and provides example analyses of three games (a U.S. Civil War history game, a medical diagnosis game, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time). We present empirical results for two of these games showcasing evidence that presumed adherence to EEE provides benefits in the classroom. In particular, the medical diagnosis game, Rashi, is shown to elicit higher quantity and quality of student responses when features were added that more tightly bound the game to our framework. Additionally, we provide evidence that activities within our U.S. Civil War game, ‘A Nation Divided’, are more successful in providing learning gains to students when those activities more carefully apply the ideas within our framework. We do not present any empirical results regarding Ocarina of Time, but include it as an anecdotal example of how commercial games have applied these principles successfully in order to teach the mechanics of the game to players, and argue that this is, in many ways, an exercise in pedagogy. We end by offering suggestions for strategically incorporating elements of our framework in the development and design of future systems.

Educational board games are a promising tool for implementing game-based learning to improve the teaching-learning process. However, the absence of comprehensive scholarly guidance on designing educational board games impedes the effective implementation of game-based learning in classrooms. The sparsely available studies on game design frameworks often confine themselves to the design of the educational game itself, without including guidelines for the classroom integration of such games within the design framework. Additionally, the literature often neglects that teachers, burdened by limited time and excessive workload, are often the sole participants in the game design process. To address these gaps, we introduce a practical framework for educators to design and seamlessly integrate educational board games in their classrooms. Our approach prioritizes minimizing additional teacher workload while using game-based learning to foster student-led problem-solving sessions and game revision. Drawing from game design principles and existing literature on game-based learning, we propose a comprehensive framework that guides educators through the design and implementation of educational board games tailored for conducting problem-solving sessions. The framework is validated and refined using qualitative analysis of teacher and student feedback after its seamless integration into the regular mathematics instruction and curriculum of a Philippine K-12 high school. Results indicate positive student experiences and highlight the framework’s efficacy in promoting student engagement, learning outcomes, and teacher convenience. Thematic analysis of student feedback highlights key design preferences and game features that enhance student experiences in GBL sessions. The study contributes to the advancement of GBL methodologies by offering practical guidelines for independent use by educators and promoting exchanges between teacher colleagues. Overall, the proposed framework offers a systematic and feasible approach to designing and implementing educational board games, fostering effective learning experiences in diverse educational contexts.

Educational games are one prominent type of Serious Games that are designed for educational purposes. One goal of evaluating their benefits is ensuring that they meet these objectives. Some measures for this purpose are defined in fields like Learning Analytics and Technology-enhanced Learning. However, unlike other educational methods, meeting learning goals is not the only success measure of Serious Games. Contrary, complex requirements arise from their nature as games which are discussed in fields like Game User Research and Game Analytics and need to be considered. This thesis investigates how the use of new data collection opportunities enabled by smartphones as an interaction platform can benefit research in the field of Serious Games evaluation. Unobtrusive integrated sensors are used for observing user interactions in natural contexts. This can be vital for capturing factors that can help evaluate a Serious Game from multiple perspectives and with deeper insights. With the lack of theoretical frameworks covering this area of research, a need for establishing foundations regarding the capturing and use of data from different modalities for Serious Games evaluation was found. First, a model describing the different evaluation aspects of Serious Games and their relations is laid down. Based on a study of available frameworks, it classifies the four dimensions learning, gaming, using and context. Additionally, sets of feature states related to these dimensions, observable during evaluation, are defined. These are needed to examine aspects when traditional logging techniques are insufficient, and when additional data modalities from smartphone sensors are required. Based on a requirement analysis, a multimodal evaluation platform for Serious Games that supports remote mobile data collection is implemented as a proof of concept. Challenges in multimodal synchronization, linking of quantitative and qualitative data, and quality of data obtained in mobile settings are discussed. Possible solutions are provided. Finally, studies evaluating this platform and using it to evaluate educational games are carried out and demonstrate the potential of such techniques for Serious Games evaluation.

Extensive research in AI has raised various questions, including how AI transformers can advance teaching and learning practice. Typically, ChatGPT is employed for tasks like content creation, research assistance, and language learning, including coding in computer languages. The main objective of this study was to examine the possibilities of teachers designing and developing teaching material based on educational games, assuming they lack coding competencies. This study presents the development and implementation of an easy educational card game known as the Memory Game (also called Matching Pairs or Concentration) using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. The game aims to enhance memory retention and cognitive skills through a classic card-matching game. The method used here is to create a carefully designed prompt using natural language. The prompt suggested here can be classified as a software development task prompt focusing on educational game design using web technologies. It provides a mix of functional requirements (game mechanics, grid layout) and non-functional requirements (aesthetic consistency, performance). Such prompts are commonly used in software engineering to guide developers through structured feature implementations for applications that have both educational and entertainment value. The first significant finding of this study highlights ChatGPT’s remarkable capacity to emulate programmer-like responses. Secondly, the results obtained indicate that a carefully tailored prompting approach can be the preferred strategy for teachers with a lack of coding competencies when generating educational games using ChatGPT. In conclusion, the research suggests that slight modifications and adjustments of the presented prompt can be used in the design of similar educational card games. The continuation of this research should demonstrate the possibilities of ChatGPT and similar AI tools in designing more complex educational games.

This chapter aims to propose educational games development to facilitate learning and maximizing joy during the learning process. The joy of learning through games has been tested in many subjects of teaching. Most of them show an improvement in the effectiveness of the learning process. However, developing a proper education game requires adequate analysis and methodology. The methodology in developing an education game combines expertise in specific knowledge areas regarding the learning objectives and content of the game, including rules, rewards, challenges, difficulty, and environment. Despite the growing research related to leadership, the application of experiential learning for leadership education to corporate participants is currently limited. This chapter presents the methodology of development and implementation of an educational game “Chaotic Company” to a corporate participant who has learning objectives of execution focus, concern for order, adaptability, and organization awareness. The developing process starts with analyzing the knowledge area and determining the learning objectives and delivery strategies. These analyses relate to the concept of the game environment, elements of game used, and the levels of the game. The result revealed that the game’s case, “Chaotic Company (CC),” has direct relevance in increasing understanding and analysis of the learning objectives.

To support the improvement of the quality of education through digital content, a few years ago the Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB) has launched a portal Crayonpedia (Create Your Open Encyclopedia) Education Echo-system (CEE) as one of the places of manufacture and open education content authoring and presenting. Crayonpedia content development to date is still being developed by one of the features that the development is Vidyanusa thematic educational game that raised the level mathematics courses Junior High School (SMP). Game Vidyanusa resemble conventional math learning into the digital activities without reducing the quality of learning for students achieve basic competency standards. The learning process using the game Vidyanusa represented in Learning Implementation Plan (RPP) that the activities of students to achieve basic competency standards are controlled through role games. Design and implementation of educational games Vidyanusa through stages, namely studying literature, analysis of requirements, design of the game, making the observation sheet a questionnaire and carry out the implementation and testing in SMP Nusantara Raya Bandung with students as many as 22 students. The results showed that all the parameters of the test which consists of assessment of learning satisfaction, ease of studying and playing the game. Results of the questionnaire for testing aspects of usability and user experience have an average score of 3.2 which is in the interval 3.27 to 4.00, which means agree that this educational game to help and facilitate the teacher in delivering the subject matter of math materials.

The growing capabilities of large language models (LLMs) have inspired recent efforts to integrate LLM-generated dialogue into video games. However, evaluation remains a major challenge: how do we assess the player experience in a commercial game augmented with LLM-generated dialogue? To explore this question, we introduce a dynamic evaluation framework for the dialogue management systems that govern the task-oriented dialogue often found in roleplaying video games. We first extract dialogue from the widely-acclaimed role-playing game *Disco Elysium: The Final Cut*, which contains 1.1M words of dialogue spread across a complex graph of utterances where node reachability depends on game state (e.g., whether a certain item is held). Using this dataset, we have GPT-4 perform *dialogue infilling* to generate grounded utterances based on game state represented via code. In a statistically robust study of 28 players recruited from the r/DiscoyElysium subreddit, the LLM outputs are evaluated against the game designers' writing via both preference judgments and free-form feedback using a web interface that recreates the game's core conversation functionality. Overall, the game designers' prose is significantly preferred to GPT-4 generations, with participants citing reasons such as improved logical flow and grounding with the game state. To spur more principled future research in this area, we release our web interface and tools to enable researchers to build upon our work. https://pl.aiwright.dev

Globally, depression and anxiety are the two most prevalent mental health disorders. They occur both acutely and chronically, with various symptoms commonly expressed subclinically. The treatment gap and stigma associated with such mental health disorders are common issues encountered worldwide. Given the economic and health care service burden of mental illnesses, there is a heightened demand for accessible and cost-effective methods that prevent occurrence of mental health illnesses and facilitate coping with mental health illnesses. This demand has been exacerbated post the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent increase in incidence of mental health disorders. To address these demands, a growing body of research is exploring alternative solutions to traditional mental health treatment methods. Commercial video games have been shown to impart cognitive benefits to those playing regularly (ie, attention control, cognitive flexibility, and information processing). In this paper, we specifically focus on the mental health benefits associated with playing commercial video games to address symptoms of depression and anxiety. In light of the current research, we conclude that commercial video games show great promise as inexpensive, readily accessible, internationally available, effective, and stigma-free resources for the mitigation of some mental health issues in the absence of, or in addition to, traditional therapeutic treatments.