GAS_2022_panel.pdf

Transcript

1. Top five lessons learned in entertainment games, serious games, and gamification R&D.... is there a ray of sunshine? Jeremy S. Bradbury Software Engineering & Education Research Lab Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON, Canada http://www.seerlab.ca GAS 2022 Panel
2. GAS 2022 PANEL Top five lessons learned in entertainment games, serious games, and gamification research and development... is there a ray of sunshine? GAS 2022 - 2
3. Before creating my ”Top Five” I discussed lessons learned with colleagues and students in my lab GAS 2022 - 3 (t-b, l-r): Dr. Michael Miljanovic, Kashif Husain, Nadia Goralski, Niranjan Girhe, Stacey Koornneef
4. GAS 2022 - 4 1. SERIOUS GAMES HAVE TO BE FUN! boring frustrating engaging replayable
5. GAS 2022 - 5 2. KNOW YOUR PLAYERS (LEARNERS) • Know their capabilities and limitations • Know how to engage them • Design with equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in mind I’m a gamer! I’m a gamer! I’m a gamer! I’m a gamer! Checklist for Evaluating Software in Terms of Gender Bias (by Ambika Bhargava) – https://wpassets.ncwit.org/wp- content/uploads/2021/05/17191344/howcan unbiasedsoftwarefacilitategirlsinterestinit_0.p df
6. GAS 2022 - 6 2B. LEARN ABOUT YOUR PLAYERS AND ADAPT TO THEIR NEEDS • Machine learning can be used to model player behaviour and adapt elements of the game during play (e.g., game data, game play, feedback) M.A. Miljanovic, J.S. Bradbury. “Making Serious Programming Games Adaptive,” Proc. of the 4th Joint Conference on Serious Games (JCSG 2018), pages 253-259, Darmstadt, Germany, Nov. 2018. M.A. Miljanovic, J.S. Bradbury. “GidgetML: An Adaptive Serious Game for Enhancing First Year Programming Labs,” Proc. of the 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2020), The Software Engineering Education and Training (SEET) track, Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 2020.
7. GAS 2022 - 7 3. GAMES ARE SOFTWARE • Games are unique from many software applications and require specialized techniques and knowledge (e.g., game engines, play testing) • Games are STILL software and benefit from Software Engineering best practices • Have a maintenance plan • Design for robustness • Value code quality, comments and documentation • An ad-hoc process can lead to uneven results (we use agile!) • Need a team – game development is ideally not a solo endeavour
8. GAS 2022 - 8 4. FAILURE IS HOW WE LEARN • You need to plan for failure: GAME OVER Try again? Feedback Recovery Comprehension
9. GAS 2022 - 9 5. DON’T FORGET TO EVALUATE! • Many serious games are developed but few are rigorously evaluated • How do you know if a serious game is helping players learn? Is fun? Consider your evaluation plan early in development. You will need to build in logging, etc. to support the evaluation M.A. Miljanovic, J.S. Bradbury. “A Review of Serious Games for Programming,” Proc. of the 4th Joint Conference on Serious Games (JCSG 2018), pages 204-216, Darmstadt, Germany, Nov. 2018.
10. GAS 2022 - 10 WHAT LESSONS DIDN’T MAKE THE LIST? [BUT ARE STILL IMPORTANT J] • Teams make game development better • Design for replayability • Design for portability • Tutorial levels are essential for serious games • Gamers don’t read • Developers aren’t the best play testers
11. GAS 2022 - 11 https://www.seerlab.ca