sg 22(1): e4

Research Article

Serious games design knowledge - Experiences from a decade (+) of serious games development

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  • @ARTICLE{10.4108/eai.27-5-2021.170008,
        author={H. Engstr\o{}m and P. Backlund},
        title={Serious games design knowledge - Experiences from a decade (+) of serious games development},
        journal={EAI Endorsed Transactions on Serious Games},
        volume={6},
        number={1},
        publisher={EAI},
        journal_a={SG},
        year={2021},
        month={5},
        keywords={serious games, game design, game development, utility systems, information systems},
        doi={10.4108/eai.27-5-2021.170008}
    }
    
  • H. Engström
    P. Backlund
    Year: 2021
    Serious games design knowledge - Experiences from a decade (+) of serious games development
    SG
    EAI
    DOI: 10.4108/eai.27-5-2021.170008
H. Engström1,*, P. Backlund1
  • 1: University of Skövde, Department of Game Development, University of Skövde, Box 408, 542 28 Skövde, Sweden
*Contact email: henrik.engstrom@his.se

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Serious games is an effort to combine the engagement and motivation from games with some sort of utility beyond mere entertainment. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this paper is to revisit and analyse six projects to explore the design space for serious games and derive design guidelines for serious games. METHODS: We analysed our project portfolio to identify a set of projects which satisfied well-established guidelines for design science research. By analysing these projects as well as their outcomes we generated a set of design principles for serious games. RESULTS: The results from this study is a conceptualisation of the design space for serious games and seven design principles. CONCLUSION: By explicating the game design component in serious games and relating it to the utility dimension we add to the understanding of the serious games from a game perspective, which is relevant to any development effort intending to use the persuasive and motivational power of games.