An Evaluation of the Added Value of Co-Design in the Development of an Educational Game for Road Safety

Serious Games Design

From the perspective of these adolescents gaming is primarily seen as entertainment. However, several authors agree that a lot of games are intrinsically based on learning principles (Van Eck, 2006). To make progress in the game one needs to rely on knowledge gathered or skills learned in earlier stages of the game (Kelly et al., 2007). Games challenge players to solve problems and offer them the opportunity to learn by doing, letting them experiment, fail and try again until they succeed while they constantly receive feedback on their progress. This claim is associated with the constructivist or experiential perspective on learning. Several game researchers and theorists have used experiential learning theory to understand game-based learning. As people play they encounter obstacles, need to solve problems and gain understanding of the, at times highly complex, game system to make progress. Authors such as Garris, Ahlers and Driskell (2002) and Ulrich (1997) refer to the game cycle of continuously adjusting action to feedback given during game play and to the combination of game play and reflection as ways in which the learning process takes place.