2024

Journal

Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, WILEY_ Volume36, Issue10 October 2024 e2680

Serious games (SGs) are valuable tools for learning, training, and improving skills in
various domains because they engage and motivate players to achieve planned processes to reach objectives. Several works provided methods, models, and frameworks
to support SG development. However, designers, developers, teachers, and
researchers face challenges in creating SG with entertainment and learning balance,
and many designed games still do not fulfill the main intended objectives. This paper
introduces an approach, called SGDA-IE with phases and steps to follow during the
entire SG design process. It was built on literature review and SG design challenges
designers need to consider from the early stages when creating SG. The proposed
approach is founded on three perspectives: software engineering best practices,
video game industry practices, and SG success factors and provides means to overcome the investigated design challenges. These are characteristics taxonomy model,
requirements specification approach, and artifacts iterative evaluation by designer,
domain expert, and players. To assess our approach efficacy, we conceived a health,
safety, and environment (HSE) training SG for workers on fuel storage sites and
petroleum installations. The feedback received is positive and indicates a favorable
specification method of the SG, effective participatory design, and control over
requirements evolution. The SG playtesting reveals a significant involvement of participants and efficient tracking of the knowledge acquisition.

@article{https://doi.org/10.1002/smr.2680,
author = {Ben Amara, Besma and Mhiri Sellami, Hedia and Ben Said, Lamjed},
title = {An approach for serious game design and development based on iterative evaluation},
journal = {Journal of Software: Evolution and Process},
volume = {36},
number = {10},
pages = {e2680},
keywords = {game design challenges, participatory design, requirements specification, serious game design, serious games, serious game characteristics},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1002/smr.2680},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/smr.2680}, year 2024}