A model driven serious game generator : a case of Android quiz game

Abstract

Computer games are used in several areas encompassing fun and serious contexts. Game development however is a complex technical undertaking with resulting financial costs exploding into millions of dollars for the most complex games. As a result , Model Driven Development (MDD) has been used in several studies to simplify software development and develop domain specific artefacts. This study explored the use of Model Driven Development (MDD) in serious game development with a focus on quiz games. Quiz games are a simple game domain that can easily be modelled. Corresponding graphical and other tooling can also be developed to ease game development. With existing evidence of the effectiveness of games in effecting positive learning outcomes and policy shifts allowing learners to have digital devices in schools, serious games hold great potential to shape positive learning outcomes. This study identified serious game features, identified the features missing from the existing quiz game modelling languages, modelled select features missing from the existing languages and developed a model editor to facilitate a no code approach. The study found out that while there were existing modelling languages for quiz games, they did not incorporate several serious games features despite the applicability of the said features to the quiz game domain. With the new features added to the existing modelling language AskMe, five games were prototyped to reflect the applicability of the features to quiz games. A formal verification tool (Microsoft z3) was also used to check the generated models for correctness covering both positive and negative outcomes. Finally this study developed a model editor for the extended language. Through analysis of quiz game requirements specified in existing serious quiz games, this study found out that the extended language covered the specified requirements in a more robust manner. The major contributions of this study include the extension of the quiz game modelling language AskMe to make it more suitable for serious game applications. This study introduced progress tracking, level based game challenges among others that were missing from AskMe. This study also introduced a graphical model editor as an additional tool to enable creation of quiz game models with little to no programming skills.