Serious games design: A mapping of the problems novice game designers experience in designing games

Abstract

One of the main problems the field of Serious Game Design is facing concerns the gap between game design and educational design. It has become evident that to optimize the learning from serious games, pedagogical experts should be actively involved. There have been few documented systematic efforts to engage teachers in the design process. To address this limitation, the present study examined the designs of 75 student teachers who attended an undergraduate course on game design. The aim of the study was to map out the difficulties teachers experience when tasked with the design of a serious game. The quality of the designs was determined by examining the presence of game elements and their interrelations. The findings suggest that while some of the designs were satisfactory, overall, the introduction of teachers to game design is challenging as pedagogical expertise does not appear to be directly transferable to game design. This study details the types of problems the teachers as novice designers faced and discusses the implications for future work.