Research Project

Games are becoming increasingly present in everyday life. Even though their main goal is entertainment, some of them have different purposes. An example of this category are serious games, which may be defined as games that are designed not just for pure entertainment but for other purposes.

However, serious games are both a growing market and an interesting area for academic research in various areas such as psychology, cultural studies, computer science, sociology and pedagogy. Although serious games may have different purposes rather than learning and education, most of them are used for educational purposes.

This paper aims to clarify the concept of serious games and analyzes some design principles that serious games should include to be considered useful learning tools. Moreover, this paper takes as example Skies of Manawak, a video game for the neurocognitive training of children, examining the various development stages it went through.