Design and Development of Training Games: Practical Guidelines from a Multidisciplinary Perspective

The multidisciplinary nature of learning-games development is key to successful projects. In this book, field leaders in serious games and professionals in entertainment games share practical guidelines and lessons from their own experiences researching and developing learning games. This volume includes: • The key elements of design and development that require particular attention from multiple disciplines to ensure success • An overview of successful models and methods, and the trade-offs made throughout the process, to guide development • Cohesive, multidisciplinary views of the issues that arise and of the techniques applied in order to produce effective learning games grounded in specific experiences, community consensus, and analysis of successful learning games that have already been released • The stories behind the games, to illustrate how final design and development decisions were reached. Aimed at professionals and academics interested in developing and researching learning games, it offers a comprehensive picture of the state of the art.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Talib S. Hussain and Susan L. Coleman; 1. Learning-game disciplines: their methods, strengths, and challenges Talib S. Hussain, Ellen Menaker, John Lee and Wallace Feurzeig; 2. Communication for stronger learning-game design Susan L. Coleman, Ellen Menaker, Jennifer McNamara and Tristan E. Johnson; 3. Instructional and gaming elements: what are they and where do they intersect? Katelyn Procci and Clint Bowers; 4. Story for learning and gaming Caroline Masse, Kelly Pounds, Eric Church, Robert Waters and Vance Souders; 5. Authenticity in learning games Michael Anthony, Erin Heiser and Terry Chandler; 6. Design better games!: Flow, motivation and fun Curtiss Murphy, Dustin Chertoff, Michael Guerrero and Kerry Moffitt; 7. Bridging the gap from design to implementation Talib S. Hussain and John Ostwald; 8. Integrating games into learning environments Jo MacDonald, Perry McDowell, Daniel Siegel and Jesús R. De Leon; 9. Multidisciplinary learning-game development method Talib S. Hussain; 10. Game review criteria Susan L. Coleman and Talib S. Hussain; 11. Game review: VESSEL Damage Control Trainer Alicia Sanchez; 12. Development methods: VESSEL Damage Control Trainer Talib S. Hussain; 13. Game review: Quest Atlantis Jesús R. De Leon and Janine McGrath; 14. Development methods: Quest Atlantis Jesús R. De Leon and Janine McGrath; 15. Game review: Computer Based Corpsman Training System Susan L. Coleman; 16. Development methods: Computer Based Corpsman Training System Howard Mall; 17. Game review: Virtual Dental Implant Trainer Dustin Chertoff; 18. Development methods: Virtual Dental Implant Trainer Robert E. Waters, Jennifer McNamara, Ed Fletcher and Isaac Jeppsen; 19. Game review: DARWARS Ambush! Howard Mall; 20. Development methods: DARWARS Ambush! Bruce Roberts and David Diller; 21. Game review: Procurement Fraud Indicator minigame Michael Freeman and Vance Souders; 22. Development methods: Procurement Fraud Indicator minigame Alicia Sanchez and Dustin Clingman; 23. Game review: Practice Marketing Krista Langkamer Ratwani and Kara L. Orvis; 24. Development methods: Practice Marketing David Martz and Tyler Vogel.

About the Author :
Dr Talib S. Hussain is a senior scientist at Raytheon BBN Technologies with more than a decade of experience in developing and testing training solutions for both humans and machines. He has developed serious games for the army, the navy and the intelligence community, among others. As principal investigator for the ONR-sponsored Virtual Environment for Ship and Shore Experiential Learning (VESSEL) project, he led the development of authoring technology for games, the development and deployment of the VESSEL Damage Control Trainer game for navy recruit training, and several empirical studies on games and learning. Dr Susan L. Coleman is the chief performance officer for Intelligent Decision Systems, Inc. (IDSI). Although she began her career as a teacher in the public school system, she has spent more than twenty years analyzing and designing training systems for the military. Her designs have won the Award of Excellence from the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), the Best Game Award in the business category at the 2009 Serious Games Showcase and Challenge, Training magazine's 2010 Outstanding Training Initiative Award, and the 2010 Outstanding Achievement in Modeling and Simulation for Training Award from the National Training and Simulation Association. She has written more than thirty-five technical reports and twelve published articles, and has given numerous presentations at national conferences.