Instructional And Gaming Elements: What Are They And Where Do They Intersect?

Serious game design presents a unique challenge to researchers and developers alike. The most successful games are designed by integrating two disparate bodies of knowledge: training and education, and high-quality game design. Simply pairing instructional elements with traditional game elements, however, is often inadequate. In an attempt to improve serious game design, we review several effective instructional mechanisms extracted from the science of learning literature and discuss ways that they can be directly implemented in games. We make explicit suggestions as to how serious games should be designed with respect to core elements of gameplay, sensory and perceptual elements, and cognitively focused elements