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The QUARTIC Process Model for Developing Serious Games: ‘Green My Place’ Case Study

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Digital Da Vinci

Abstract

Software engineering for pedagogy and game design for entertainment produce very different requirements and generate unique kinds of practical difficulties. The design and development of serious games relies heavily on the experience of practitioners to overcome the pitfalls inherent in joining these two distinct processes into one, but experience in tackling these problems is not widespread. This creates a requirement for a process model to guide any development of integrated game-like and education-like elements, helping to manage risk in areas of hidden difficulty such as tightly integrating the mechanics of play with the formal pedagogy. This paper presents a process model for developing contextualized educational games. Parallel streams of pedagogy and game development are married to streamline the process of deriving appropriate educational games from client requirements. The process model is illustrated in action using the case of Green My Place, a serious game developed as part of the SAVE ENERGY EU project to teach energy efficient knowledge and behaviour to users of public buildings around Europe. Our evaluation highlights the positive outcome of the project and the functioning of the serious game; this evidence also suggests a positive benefit from using the model.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    First ‘European Best Learning Game Competition’, first place prize in the category ‘Best Non-professional functional game’.

  2. 2.

    To Access Green My Place, go to http://greenmyplace.net.

  3. 3.

    For more on SAVE ENERGY, see http://www.ict4saveenergy.eu.

  4. 4.

    We define ‘client’ as the commissioners of production of the serious game – be it a company, institution or end-user.

  5. 5.

    The client’s original requirement provides the schematic of what must be produced. The developers’ expertise and judgment must fill out the details, but always stepping back up a level to check that progress is in line with requirements.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Chris Bateman for advice on the design of Green My Place and considerable feedback on drafts of this paper; Jose Moutinho for collaboration in developing the Behavlet concept; and Tuija Heikura for helping to conceive of the QUARTIC process model . Additionally, Aki Jäntti, Zhang Jiongkai , Eva Szadeczky-Kardoss and Heikki Silanpää all contributed to the development of the components of Green My Place pictured above.

Part of this work was supported by the European Union through the SAVE ENERGY project (CIP-ICT-PSP-238882).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Benjamin Cowley

  2. Brain and Work Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland

    Benjamin Cowley

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Correspondence to Benjamin Cowley .

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  1. Newton Lee Laboratories, LLC, Tujunga, California, USA

    Newton Lee

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Cowley, B. (2014). The QUARTIC Process Model for Developing Serious Games: ‘Green My Place’ Case Study. In: Lee, N. (eds) Digital Da Vinci. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0965-0_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0965-0_8

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