Creative learning with serious games [editorial]

This paper, summarises the Creative Learning with Serious Games workshop that took place in the Fun and Games 2010 conference. The workshop discussed innovative methodological approaches to Serious Games for creative learning. A special emphasis was given to state-ofthe- art research work and cross-discipline approaches (e.g. the mix of Storytelling and Serious Games). In addition, different case studies coming from very different European (research) projects were presented and discussed with the participants. Five papers were selected via a peer reviewed process to be presented at the workshop. The authors presented their work and demonstrated their applications during the second part of the workshop

Creativity support in games for motivated learning

A natural extension of play for creative thinking can innovatively drive technology-led changes to the facilitation of creative problem solving, and generate a new genre in serious gaming. Whilst the use of serious games has grown considerably in recent years, support for players to think creatively is often implicit in the game, and does not exploit the wide range of creativity techniques and software tools available. The work reported in this thesis is the first to explicitly integrate creativity support into serious games. The results show that creative serious games can systematically support acquisition of creativity skills, generation of creative learning outcomes, and induction of motivational and learning benefits amongst the players. Therefore, this thesis introduces the concept of explicit creativity support in serious games, with a focus on games for motivated learning in adult professional setting, and reports formative and summative evaluations of new prototype games for this setting, in order to instantiate, refine and validate the concept. The creative learning objective of the prototype games was to train carers in creativity techniques to deliver more person-centred care to people with dementia. The findings are delivered in the form of a new framework, which proposes recommendations for the design and understanding of creative serious games. Four formative evaluations of three prototypes of creative serious games with carers provided results that led to refinements of the framework and the design of more usable and effective games. A subsequent summative evaluation partially validated the framework, delivering both a framework and prototype creative serious game that demonstrated the potential to improve person-centred dementia care training. The thesis provides a proof-of-concept of the value of creative serious games, and shows the potential for the framework to be applied and have impact on other application domains

Alessandro De Gloria

The editorial of this issue of the International Journal of Serious Games is the last one signed by our Editor in Chief and Founder, Prof. Alessandro De Gloria. Alessandro passed away in Genova, Italy, on March 20th, few days after his 68th birthday. He founded the Serious Games Society and served as its first President, then as Honorary President. He founded also the Games and Learning Alliance Conference, of which he was the first General Chair and Honorary Chair. We mourn a great friend, and a pioneer researcher and creative teacher, with a broad, constructive vision and outstanding team-building skills. The good he made will remain in time

Alessandro De Gloria: 1955 - 2023

The editorial of this issue of the International Journal of Serious Games is the last one signed by our Editor in Chief and Founder, Prof. Alessandro De Gloria. Alessandro passed away in Genova, Italy, on March 20th, few days after his 68th birthday. He founded the Serious Games Society and served as its first President, then as Honorary President. He founded also the Games and Learning Alliance Conference, of which he was the first General Chair and Honorary Chair. We mourn a great friend, and a pioneer researcher and creative teacher, with a broad, constructive vision and outstanding team-building skills. The good he made will remain in time

Guest Editorial: Game Based Learning for 21st Century Transferable Skills: Challenges and Opportunities

Digital serious games (SGs) (Gee, 2003; Prensky, 2003) offer a high potential to foster and support learning in educational and training settings. SGs aim at improving learning processes by providing attractive, motivating and effective tools. So far, effectiveness of SGs has been shown by recent studies (e.g., Connolly et al., 2012; Wouters et al., 2013), but the potential of SGs in education is still far to be fulfilled, in particular concerning higher-order learning goals (Connolly et al., 2012) and there is a growing need for educational technology research in this field. Moreover, education, cognitive and engineering methods and tools are needed for efficiently building and evaluating games as means that can provide effective learning experiences (Marfisi-Schottman, Labat & Carron, 2013; Bellotti et al., 2012). This special issue focuses on analysing how digital SGs can contribute to the knowledge society’s higher demand towards acquiring transferable, transversal skills, that can be applied in different contexts, dealing with various scientific disciplines and subjects. Examples of such skills, often referred to as 21st century transferable skills, include, for example, collaboration, critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, reasoning abilities, learning to learn, decision taking, digital literacy (Voogt & Pareja Roblin, 2010). This special issue explores particularly the challenges and opportunities presented by the use of digital SGs in formal learning contexts. The idea is to look not only to the tools (namely, the SGs) but also to the definition of meaningfu

A sweetspot for innovation:developing games with purpose through student-staff collaboration

Within industry as well as academia, developing games that have wider impact on society has been of particular interest in the last decade. The increasing use of terms such as ‘games with purpose’, ‘serious games’ and gamification’ has been mirrored in a flurry of activity in games research. Broader applications of games beyond entertainment are now well-understood and accepted, with universities and companies excelling in creating games to serve particular needs. However, it is not explicitly clear how undergraduates of game design and development courses can be directly involved in serious game creation. With most undergraduates inspired by commercial games development, and the games industry requiring that universities teach specific technical skills in their courses, balancing the research aspirations of academics with the educational requirements of an appropriate undergraduate course can be a difficult balancing act. In this paper, the authors present three case studies of games with purpose developed through collaboration between undergraduate students and academic staff. In all cases, the educational value of the projects for the students is considered in relation to the research value for the academics, who face increasing demands to develop research outcomes despite a necessity to provide a first-rate learning experience and nurture future game developers

Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ