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

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.Online first; published on 27 May 2021.CC BY 4.0"Funding has been provided by: University of Skövde, Länsförsäkringar, Sten A Olssons stiftelse för forskning och kultur, Church of Sweden, World Childhood Foundation, Region Västra Götaland, Swedish Rescue Services Agency research fund."Corresponding author: Email: henrik.engstrom@his.se