A course on the design and development of serious games and virtual simulations

Serious games, that is, the use of video games for education and training purposes, are becoming widespread in a variety of application domains from business management to surgical skills acquisition. With traditional “entertainment games”, game designers are primarily concerned with creating an engaging gameplay experience that will keep the players playing the game; to improve gameplay and engagement, they are free to modify the design throughout the entire design of the game and development process. However, serious games designers must strictly adhere to the content/knowledge base while ensuring that their end product is not only fun and engaging, but is also an effective teaching tool thus requiring knowledge in instructional design. Here, details regarding a course on serious games and virtual simulations that emphasized the importance of instructional design are provided. The course was offered at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.