Category Archives: Serious Game Development

So you mean something else when you say your serious game has been “validated”? Confusion Part 2

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In my previous post on validating serious games (“What do you mean when you say your serious game has been validated? Experimental vs. Test Validity“) I tried to clear up some confusion around what it means when someone says their game has been “validated.” I called for people to specify whether or not their game had undergone a validation process as an intervention or as an assessment measure. Seems that there is even more confusion out there to clear up.

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Do Brain Training Games Work? Yes, No and Maybe.

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I was recently asked on Twitter if I thought brain training games like Lumosity were “any good.” My short Twitter response was that the answer is YES, NO, and MAYBE.  Here is  a more detailed explanation from my perspective as a psychologist, researcher and maker of serious games.

Picture 49

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“Relying on experts in making serious games: It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take…”

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I believe that great serious games embody a balance between the various disciplines that should be collaborating to bring out the best each has to offer. When I give talks about interdisciplinary collaboration in making serious games, I often say that when you Continue reading →

“How Great Entrepreneurs Think about Founding a Serious Game Company”

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I just read an article in Inc. entitled, How Great Entrepreneurs Think. As my colleagues in grad school liked to say, “It was a wonderful read.”

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“Working with researchers who are legendary game designers in their own mind”

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A good serious game is inherently interdisciplinary. It requires multimedia artists, engineers, business people, content experts, behavioral scientists, designers, project managers, quality assurance experts, producers, administrators and members of the target audience to work together seamlessly to produce a product that combines engaging gameplay with learning goals. One of the biggest challenges facing the serious game team is overcoming Continue reading →

“10 Tips for Finding a Developer to Make Your First Serious Game”

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1. Work out your serious game idea and learning goals as much as possible before you approach a development team.

If not, the developers will make the game that they are capable of making which may or Continue reading →

“Warning: Negative Target Fixation Is Dangerous to Your Innovative Serious Game Project”

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I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley before I moved to the Netherlands. In fact, I studied and worked there for 17 years. And while my work-life balance is much better here in Europe, I am grateful to have had the
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Only 1 in 10 play the whole video game: Implications for serious game development

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In the video game industry, an important measure of a game’s success is its sales. Of course the extent to which players of the game are engaged in it and give it positive reviews supports the sales of the game and its popularity. But if a million people buy a Continue reading →

What Grand Theft Auto taught me about the importance of graphics in serious games

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When I was growing up on Lookout Mountain in the great state of Tennessee, there was a tourist shop close to my house that sold items that were supposed to reflect the rural culture of the area. I particularly remember a ceramic trivet you could hang on your wall Continue reading →

10 Tips for Making a Successful Serious Game

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1) Plan from the beginning to do research on your game. It makes everyone stay honest. Start with research on the target group and what they want.

2) Pick a game development team that is passionate about your project and has made Continue reading →

Applying Evidence-Based Management in Making Serious Games for Health

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If our goal is to make serious games for health that “work” as demonstrated by empirical studies, we should be living this value throughout the serious game development process. This is not only good for the alignment of values and practices, but it also makes good Continue reading →

Your serious game team can be geographically dispersed….as predicted by Arthur C. Clarke

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The future is now and Sir Arthur Charles Clarke predicted it in 1964. For those of you who have trouble with math, that is 48 years ago. At that time, there were no fax machines, no copy machines, no office scanners, no overhead projectors (I can hear some of you say, “What’s an overhead projector?”), and no personal computers. Needless to say, it was Continue reading →