Serious game design

Game design is all about balance. (Photo: Tomas van Dijk)

Casper Harteveld, one of the pioneers of serious gaming, has recently published a book on the holy trinity of game design: reality, meaning and play.

It’s one of those books that can easily be summarised yet endlessly elaborated upon. In short, Casper Harteveld (faculty of Technology, Policy and Management) argues that each serious game (that is, a game used for non-entertainment purposes) has aspects of reality, meaning and play. The trick – and perhaps also the art – is to balance these three aspects. A game can be very realistic and utterly educational, but if playing it is no fun, who will bother going through with it? The purpose of triadic game design then is to achieve balance, even harmony, between the constituents.

Harteveld wrote the book based on his Master’s thesis, which was awarded the 2007 thesis prize by Hollmij (Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen). Harteveld graduated on the game, Levee Patroller, which he jointly developed with Deltares and which aims to train dike inspectors in their job. His supervisor, Professor Hans de Bruijn (TPM), advised Harteveld to aim high for a publisher, which he did, eventually reaching an agreement with Springer. From then on, the project ‘got a little out of hand’, since both Harteveld and the gaming industry kept on developing.

“Serious gaming is so much more than education and training,” Harteveld explains. Having people categorise pictures, for example, qualifies as a serious game as well (and as a form of crowd sourcing). Using games instead of queries, because people are more motivated to stick with games, is another example. As is using games to help veterans deal with their war traumas.

Harteveld’s book offers a theoretical framework for this expanding variety of serious games. Its steep cover price however tends to dissuade other game developers from purchasing it, but the book can be read freely online on the university network.