Many designers, policy makers, teachers, and other practitioners are beginning to understand the usefulness of using digital games beyond entertainment. Games have been developed for teaching, recruiting and to collect data to improve search engines. This book examines the fundamentals of designing any game with a serious purpose and provides a way of thinking on how to design one successfully. The reader will be introduced to a design philosophy called “Triadic Game Design.”; a theory that all games involve three worlds: the worlds of Reality, Meaning, and Play. Each world is affiliated with aspects. A balance needs to be found within and between the three worlds. Such a balance is difficult to achieve, during the design many tensions will arise, forcing designers to make trade-offs. To deal with these tensions and to ensure that the right decisions are made to create a harmonic game, a frame of reference is needed. This is what Triadic Game Design offers.

Along with the rise of digital games over the past decades came an increased interest for using games for other purposes than entertainment. Although a few successes are known, much research seems to suggest little evidence for games' advantages. Existing literature claims that more studies are needed that investigate the effective design and use of games and especially studies that are comprehensive, rigorous, and innovative. To contribute to this emerging field, the author investigated the case of Levee Patroller. The target audience of the game, levee patrollers, are considered the "eyes and ears" of the Dutch water authorities. They inspect levees and report any risks they encounter. Similarly, in the game players have to find all virtual failures in a region and report these. If they do not find the failures in time or report them incorrectly, it could result in a levee breach that floods the whole virtual region.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance, GALA 2015, held in Rome, Italy, in December 2015. The 33 revised full papers and 15 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 102 submissions. The papers presented cover a variety of aspects and knowledge fields. They are grouped around the following topics: games for health, games for mobility, pervasive gaming and urban mobility.

"This book explains how digital environments can easily become familiar and beneficial for educational and professional development, with the implementation of games into various aspects of our environment"--Provided by publisher.

The Routledge Companion to Games in Architecture and Urban Planning aims to identify and showcase the rich diversity of games, including: simulation games, game-like approaches, game scenarios, and gamification processes for teaching/learning, design and research in architecture and urban planning. This collection creates an opportunity for exchange and reflection on games in architecture and urban planning. Theoretical discussions, descriptive accounts, and case studies presenting empirical evidence are featured; combined with reflections, constructive critical analysis, discussions of connections, and various influences on this field. Twenty-eight international contributors have come together from eleven countries and five continents to present their studies on games in architecture and urban planning, pose new questions, and advocate for innovative perspectives.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th Joint International Conference on Serious Games, JCSG 2023, held in Dublin, Ireland, during October 26–27, 2023. The 18 full papers presented together with 9 short papers and 14 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 53 submissions. They are grouped into the following topics: technology and systems; theoretical and design aspects; health and wellbeing; extended realities; soft and social skills; academic skills; and posters and exhibits.

These proceedings represent the work of contributors to the 14th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL 2020), hosted by The University of Brighton on 24-25 September 2020. The Conference Chair is Panagiotis Fotaris and the Programme Chairs are Dr Katie Piatt and Dr Cate Grundy, all from University of Brighton, UK.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance, GALA 2016, held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in December 2016. The 27 revised regular papers presented together with 14 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 55 submissions. The papers cover topics such as games and sustainability; games for math and programming; games and health; games and soft skills; games and management; games and learning; game development and assessment; and mobile games.

A definitive guide to contemporary video game studies, this second edition has been fully revised and updated to address the ongoing theoretical and methodological development of game studies. Expertly compiled by well-known video game scholars Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, the Companion includes comprehensive and interdisciplinary models and approaches for analyzing video games, new perspectives on video games both as an art form and cultural phenomenon, explorations of the technical and creative dimensions of video games, and accounts of the political, social, and cultural dynamics of video games. Brand new to this second edition are chapters examining topics such as preservation; augmented, mixed, and virtual reality; eSports; disability; diversity; and identity, as well as a new section that specifically examines the industrial aspects of video games including digital distribution, game labor, triple-A games, indie games, and globalization. Each essay provides a lively and succinct summary of its target area, quickly bringing the reader up-to-date on the pertinent issues surrounding each aspect of the field, including references for further reading. A comprehensive overview of the present state of video game studies that will undoubtedly prove invaluable to students, scholars, and game designers alike.

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the 48th International Simulation and Gaming Association Conference, ISAGA 2018, held in Delft, The Netherlands, in July 2018. The 19 revised full papers included in the volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 27 submissions. The contributions to this book range from design thinking related to simulation gaming, the analysis of the consequences of design choices in games, to games for decision making, examples of games for business, climate change, maritime spatial planning, sustainable city development, supply chain, and much more.