Towards an Iterative Design for Serious Games
Sergio J. Viudes-Carbonell, Francisco J. Gallego-Durán, Faraón Llorens-Largo y Rafael Molina-Carmona
Grupo de investigación Smart Learning
Cátedra Santander-UA de Transformación Digital
Universidad de Alicante

Special Issue “Design Methodology for Educational Games”
Sustainability, 2021
doi.org/10.3390/su13063290

Abstract:
The design and development of Serious Games is a complex task,including a considerable risk of failure. Many attempts end up in non-fun, non-engaging games that fail to meet the purpose of improving education. Many different proposals have been published in the form of design frameworks, with the aim of helping practitioners succeed. Although these frameworks define and explain relevant concepts and guidelines, there is lack of focus in iterative methodologies. These methodologies have proven valuable in other areas on engineering and are also used by commercial game designers. This work proposes the introduction of iterative design for Serious Games and presents an early stage methodology, along with an example of the core mechanic of a game and a prototype for learning the concept of slope of a line.

Keywords: serious games; education; game design; games; iterative methodologies