Game Designers’ Experiences with Educational Game Design Elements: From Practice to Conception!

Abstract

Educational game (EG) designing processes have adopted various processes and approaches over the last decades. While many articles report EG design elements that can potentially assist in effective EG design, not much research exists on whether game designers use/agree with those elements. In considering the aforementioned, the questions arise with game designers’ practices: how do they approach EG design elements in their process? Are there any core elements they include in their EG designing practices?  Are there any other aspects that influence their EG designing process? Therefore, this paper reports on the above-addressed questions and how game designers and their experiences in designing EGs can present insightful gaming elements associated with EGs. Based in Australia, a phenomenological approach was adopted to conduct semi-structured interviews to gather the essence of their experiences. Seventeen game designer participants attended two-hour interview sessions. Interpretive thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes until saturation was achieved (Braun and Clarke 2012). The analysis was concurrently grounded through the concepts of the theory of experience, including continuity, interaction, situation, freedom, and desire which drives the purpose to apply and contextualize the growth of experience (Dewey 1938). In conclusion, an “Essential” Educational Game Elements (EGEs) framework is proposed with design elements collating all relevant elements/factors, necessary theories, and mechanics suggested by game designers for consideration in the design process as they have practiced. Lastly, researchers in educational/serious games are encouraged to consider the application of the proposed framework in designing EGs to further expand its limitations.