Tools and Approaches for Simplifying Serious GamesDevelopment in Educational

SettingsAntonio Calvo Morata

GOAL

Real Example: Cytopathology ChallengeGOALS

● Educational application for an Introduction to Cytopathology course

● Train cytologists in resource-poor countries

CONSTRAINTS

● Work in Low-cost Android tablets

● No Wifi-Connection to play on tablets

● Work in Web browsers

● Very limited budget

OPTIONS

COTS Games (Commercial Off-the-Shelf)

Use commercial games designed for entertainment with educational purposes.

COTS Games (Commercial Off-the-Shelf)

PROS

● Can illustrate more topics than teachers

might expect

● External maintenance and updates

CONS

● How to extract this unintended

pedagogical value?

● How use the game in the classroom?

● No learning focus

● No control and monitoring tools

GAAS (Games As A Service)

Hire the services of specialized companies (game and infrastructure).

Learning games as services to train students and employees

GAAS (Games As A Service)

PROS

● Easy integration with the learning

process

● Control and monitoring tools

● External maintenance and updates

CONS

● The collected data is stored on the servers

of the company supporting the game

● Provider server dependency

● Internet connection

Serious GamesThere are thousands of games focused on teach thousands different fields of knowledge

Serious GamesPROS

● Focused on learning

● Easy integration with the learning

process.

CONS

● Usually designed only for a few learning

scenarios

● No control and monitoring tools

TOOLS

Variables to consider in the differents tools

Platforms

Prices

Documentation

Features

Performance

Community

AAA ToolsTeams with the highest development budgets.

Focused on the development of AAA games.

UI is intended for experts, focused on implementation and advanced features.

All in OneTools created for teams with lower budgets.

Frameworks

Lower-level access.

Require advanced game programming knowledge.

Specialized ToolsLess functionality and potential but they simplify the game creation process.

Specialized on a game genre or gameplay.

RESULT

Cytopathology Challenge

● Powered by LibGDX (Framework - Java).

● Works in Android and Web.

● No necessary internet to play it on mobile devices.

● Run in low-cost mobiles dispositives.

● ~60h of development

RAGE

Realising an Applied Gaming Eco-system● Develop applied games assets for game developers

○ Including analytics and many others that

depend on it!

● Assets in online repository

● Build a self-sustainable ecosystem around a

repository, connecting stakeholders

○ Game-developers

○ Education providers

○ Learners

○ Asset contributors

Learning Analytics Asset

Analyze the learner behavior and check the game effectiveness.

Tracker

Tracker

A2 Analytics Asset

Learning Record Store

Users

ArchitectureClients AA Applications

Games

Analytics Frontend

AAFrontend

Pla

yers

Dev

s, S

tude

nts,

Te

ache

rs.

Adm

ins Users

RolesResourcesPermissionsApplications

Aut

hent

icat

ion

Aut

horiz

atio

n

JWTJSON WEB

TOKEN

GamesSessionsResults

TopologyAnalytics Backend

GamesSessions

Collector

Results

Application 1

Application N Kaf

ka Q

ueue

Relating Cytopathology Challenge and Analytics Asset

Increase the value of a serious game adding learning analytics2.Send traces

1.Play Cytopathology Challenge

3.Analyze data

4.Recover results

5.Show analysis to evaluate the students

QUESTIONS?

THANKS

antcal01@ucm.es