Co-creative Serious Games Design Process using

Nonlinear Storyline Editing

Mika Letonsaari, Jukka Selin and Mikko Lampi

South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Patteristonkatu 3, Mikkeli, Finland

Keywords: Serious Game, Virtual Learning Environments, Game Development, Collaborative Development, Unity,

Twine.

Abstract: Here we present a serious game development process. The process is characterized by the collaboration in

the development by contributors of wide range of skills, including end-users with no special skills in

information technology. The aim of the game is to teach a broad range of information and communication

technology skills as well as general practices required in the working life. For this purpose a rich content

open world multiplayer game has been developed. The game design is highly modular allowing concurrent

and continuous development process. Modular tasks are learning experiences crafted by experts in certain

aspect of target skills. But tasks themselves can be customized easily without special skills. Especially,

interactive non-linear dialogues between user and computer controlled characters inside the tasks can be

created by end-users.

1 INTRODUCTION

This paper is based on work and research done in an

on-going project Competent Employees for

Digitalizing Work carried out by the Workers'

Educational Association of Finland (WEA) with the

South-Eastern Finland University of Applied

Sciences (XAMK) and the University of Eastern

Finland (UEF). The aim of the project is to enhance

ICT-skills and working life skills of people who

have no or a very low level on ICT-skills

accordingly to the demands required in working life

today.

The target group is people over the age of 30

years who are either unemployed or in transition of

losing their jobs, who have no vocational

qualification, or whose vocational qualification is no

longer coherent with the requirements of work.

Participants with low qualification are at risk of

social exclusion, which can lead to staying

completely outside the labor market. With its

objectives the project will raise the skills,

competences and courage to search for jobs or

further learning possibilities.

The project will create a comprehensive training

which ensures all participants with basic ICT-

competencies and additional learning possibilities in

areas of digital storytelling, digital media, social

skills at work, knowledge of employee rights, social

media, and mobile games. Traditional classroom

teaching is mainly used in teaching, but it is

complemented by an online multiplayer learning

game described in this paper. The game provides

alternative methods of learning and improving

information and communications technology skills

as well as other skills required in today’s work life

such as work ethics, interaction in the workplace and

maintaining learned skills by self-learning.

In this paper we present the methodology of

developing a serious game with high level

collaboration between experts and end-users. The

game is developed with agile and user-centered

methods. End-users are involved throughout the

complete development process.

Collaboration is an important feature because the

end-users often know best the environment where

they will apply the knowledge in practise. In

classroom situation students can ask teacher

questions and clarify their view of the subject. This

is not possible in educational games, unless teacher

assistant is specifically provided. Therefore taking

the end-users as participants already in the

development phase of the game is important.

Furthermore, participation improves motivation and

self-confidence of the target audience as well as

empowers them.

582

Letonsaari, M., Selin, J. and Lampi, M.

Co-creative Serious Games Design Process using Nonlinear Storyline Editing.

DOI: 10.5220/0006320305820588

In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2017) - Volume 1, pages 582-588

ISBN: 978-989-758-239-4

2 METHODS

2.1 Game Design

The traits of a good serious game design can be

traced back to designing good learning materials and

to efficient teaching methods in general. It can even

be what is it to be a good teacher. The topic is vast

and we only make here a reference to different

learning theories (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2016;

Mayes & de Fretas 2004) and Shulman’s concept of

pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986).

In a more focused and practical approach we

study the relationship between the subject matter and

the learning process, and how this affects the game

design. Therefore we are interested in theories of

knowledge. In the seminal research by de Jong and

Ferguson-Hessler (de Jong & Ferguson-Hessler,

1996) knowledge is classified by its qualities of

level, structure, automation, modality and generality.

Especially the level and the structure of the

subject matter define the cognitive learning process.

As de Jong and Ferguson-Hessler conclude, these

qualities are not independent: "It is evident from this

discussion that depth [level] and structure of

knowledge are not independent. Only the

introduction of deep elements makes possible the

generalizations and abstractions that are required

for the construction of (problem) schemata and the

building of a hierarchical structure." (de Jong &

Ferguson-Hessler, 1996)

From this we derive terms progressive and

scattered knowledge, or progressive and scattered

skill set in the context of applicable practical

knowledge. Progressive knowledge has both depth

of level and hierarchical structure. Learning more of

a progressive skill set relies heavily on earlier skills.

The hierarchical nature makes learning process a

sequential task.

Skill set can alternatively be formed of skills that

are largely independent of each others and require

little prerequisites. This kind of knowledge or skill

set lacks the depth of level and has simple structure

and can therefore be described as scattered

knowledge or skill set.

For example arithmetics is a highly progressive

skill set. Methods of mathematical expression

manipulation rely on simpler techniques, and

mathematical proofs often use earlier results.

Another common example is learning a language.

The process of expressing complex ideas requires

earlier knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.

Grammatically correct use of language requires the

knowledge of basic grammar rules which are then

completed by exceptions and context dependant

subtleties.

Learning geography or identification of wild

animals are examples of more scattered skill sets.

Scattered knowledge can be organized in groups by

association. For example the identification of wild

animals can be studied according to their

commonness (young children), their ecological

significance (elementary school), or taxonomy

(higher education). But grouping is not a strict

property of the skill set but a chosen arbitrary

method to organize the subject.

No subject is purely progressive or scattered of

course. But this rough division can be seen as a

major component in the serious game design.

Progressive skill set is something that makes

gamification natural as there is implicit progression

in the subject of learning. This progression can give

an increasing challenge to the player which can be

translated into a game engagement.

For a scattered skill set, such natural engagement

by increasing challenge is not available and it must

be created separately. The learning content can for

example be embedded using more traditional

computer games techniques such as storylines or

challenges not directly related to the learning

content.

In this project, the end-users are unemployed or

in transition of losing their jobs with low level

information technology skills. Basic information

technology skills and general working life skills are

the essential learning content of the game. This skill

set is fairly scattered by nature and does not provide

a progressive approach by itself.

We wanted the game development process to be

modular, so an episodic structure (Baranowski et al,

2008) of game was chosen. The constructed game

world is an open world game world. This means that

player has a great freedom in exploring the game

world (Juul, 2002). In this world player can find

tasks. Tasks are small minigames concentrating on

certain subject of the learning (Van Geit et al, 2015).

Access to tasks is controlled by rule based system,

which makes it possible to create progression. In this

way the structure of the game resembles the subject

matter of learning.

2.2 Technology

We chose the Unity game engine (Unity 3d Website.

2016) to be the technology of choice for the game

project. Unity is used because of its multi platform

capabilities and popularity. It can support all most

common device platforms, including game consoles,

smartphones and tablets.

Unity game engine is also used in the

Co-creative Serious Games Design Process using Nonlinear Storyline Editing

583

information technology department computer game

development courses which allows us to enable

participation of more advanced students to the

project. Permissive licensing allows anyone to install

and use fully usable software on any computer.

License will restrict only notable commercial

development.

The game will be released with an open source

license, as is appropriate for a publicly funded

software development project. This allows us to

utilize resources with open licenses.

An extensive study of suitable open license 3d

world models was carried out (Letonsaari, 2016).

There is significant amount of open license 3d

models, including real buildings and even sizeable

parts of real cities. However many of these models

are not suitable to be used in game engines without

modifications. For example models for city planning

often do not have textures. Automatically generated

3d models on the other hand often do not scale well

but loose detail.

The user interface of the game utilises an open

licence 3d city model from the centre of the city of

Mikkeli, Finland. This was largest available textured

3d city model. It is constructed with 3d primary

objects with photographed textures attached to them

and is highly compatible with 3d game engines. An

overview of the city model is presented in figure 1.

Figure 1: The Open 3D City Model from the centre of the

city of Mikkeli, Finland (in Unity editor).

The city model works in the game as the framework

of the UI. The players walk to different educational

events in the gamified city model. As an example

they can enter an interactive job interview by

opening a door of a building in the city model. The

user interface to the city with player character and

minimap is presented in Figure 2.

For the 3d character customization we use open

source Unity add-on Unity Multipurpose Avatar,

UMA (UMA 2 Website, 2016). UMA is a platform

for dynamically modifiable avatars and allows users

to create a playing character they enjoy to play. This

Figure 2: The user interface (UI) of the game.

increases the engagement of the game and makes

characters distinguishable for multiplayer purposes.

The open 3d game world allows multiplayer

participation to the game. Players can see each

others and communicate in the game world. For

multiplayer functionality we use Unity Networking

(UNET) technology which is an integrated part of

Unity game engine.

2.3 Collaboration with End-Users in

the Game Development

End-users in this project are people with low level

information technology skills attending to a course

on basic training on using computers. Therefore

collaboration should require minimal amount of

technical knowledge from the end users.

A non-integrated method of collaboration with

end-users and experts is to collect stories, use-cases

and ideas before the development process and

integrate the knowledge to the development process

(All et al, 2013). Experts and end-users can also

operate in software testing and validation and

provide feedback to developers (Bossavit & Parsons,

2016; Cosma et al, 2015).

Simple integrated method for co-operation with

low skill level participants in the game development

is often implemented by enabling editing visual

components of the game. Users may be able to

modify characters by customizing physical attributes

and for example by choosing the clothing and

accessories. There may be possibility to edit the

game world with graphical editors such as level

editors. Graphical editing of characters and the game

world is an engaging activity as the results are easily

recognizable in the game. Graphics are easily

separated from the game logic and require very little

understanding of the game design.

Here we wanted deeper and more conceptual

involvement of end-users. To this end, a

participation method for creating dialogs between

player and computer controlled characters was

SGoCSL 2017 - Special Session on Serious Games on Computer Science Learning

584

developed. Dialogs between player and computer

controlled characters are important plot devices.

Interactive computer controlled characters create

another, social dimension to the game world, even if

computer controlled characters work with seemingly

simple logic. By letting end-users to create dialogs

we let them to retell the story with their own voice.

This is not only an engaging activity, but lets user to

understand game logic more deeply.

The idea here is to let end-users to create dialogs

for several different types of interaction: how to

communicate with a random encounter person, in

job interview with the interviewer, or with your

boss, coworker or customer in different working life

situations. The player can choose good or bad ways

to interact and feedback is given accordingly.

Planning these interactions makes the end-user to

consider different aspects of the situations. Subject

of the dialogs can of course be changed to

accommodate the target user needs.

To create dialog for a game, it must be coded

into computer understandable format. Writing can be

done with free form, and coding can be done

manually. There also exists automated tools for

writing dialogs which provide speed for the

workflow and save manual work. In this project we

use open source software Twine, which is a tool for

writing interactive non-linear stories (Klimas, 2016).

Stories or dialogs generated with Twine can be

easily integrated into Unity game engine using

UnityTwine addon.

Writing a passage or single part of the dialog

with Twine is not different than filling a form in web

browser. Passage window is shown in Figure 3.

Each passage has title and passage text. It is also

possible to add tags to the passage.

Figure 3: Editing a passage of a nonlinear story in Twine.

Links to other passages are marked with double

brackets. These work quite similar as HTML links.

When text, as shown in Figure 3, is written, Twine

automatically creates new passages using the names

of the links text, here “Yes, I do.”, “No, I don’t” and

“Maybe”. The link name can also be changed to

something more convenient using an arrow notation

as shown in the last link.

Linked passages are shown as a directed graph in

the story editing mode of Twine, as shown in the

Figure 4. The story or dialog structure is clearly

visible. User can move passage boxes and edit them

by using doubleclick. User interface is very intuitive

and Twine has been used for a writing workshop for

children (Davis, 2013).

Figure 4: The story structure in Twine. Interactive

passages and possible transitions create an easy to

understand visual representation of the story structure.

Figure 5: User generated game content inside the game.

The story file must then be imported to Unity using

the UnityTwine addon, which generates a C# script

from the Twine code. When generated script is

Co-creative Serious Games Design Process using Nonlinear Storyline Editing

585

connected to a Unity scene, the dialog script can be

played in 3D game world as seen in Figure 5.

3 VALIDATION, USER

PROFILING AND RESULTS

A process for developing a serious game was

developed in this project. The project is interesting

in that the game is created by many contributors of

diverse fields. It takes the learning subjects and ideas

from the experts in information technology and

working life. These are implemented in a game

world with latest gaming technology by university

students supervised by computer game programming

experts.

Open source materials and components are used

to create a rich game world. Depth is created to the

game by enabling the end-users to collaborate with

game development in creating interactive dialogs

between the player and computer controlled

characters. The complex process is summarized in

Figure 6.

The game and development participation has

been piloted with a group of students attending to

Figure 6: Flowchart of the process for developing a serious game used in this project.

SGoCSL 2017 - Special Session on Serious Games on Computer Science Learning

586

the basic information technology and working life

skills course. The target group for the course was

people over the age of 30 years who were either

unemployed or in transition of losing their jobs, who

had no vocational qualification or whose vocational

qualification were no longer coherent with the

requirements of work.

The course had 14 participants in this group and

their age distribution in ten year cohorts is given in

Table 1.

Table 1: Test group age distribution.

Age group (years) Percentage of participants

from 36 to 45 23 %

from 46 to 55 31 %

from 56 to 65 46 %

For each participant, a questionnaire was sent

before the start of the course. Out of 14 participants,

13 answered the questionnaire (n = 13).

All of the participants did have an access either

to a computer, a tablet computer, or a mobile phone.

And almost all had access to an Internet connection.

All participants had mobile phones and 69% had

Internet connectivity on their phone. 85% of the

participants had a computer with Internet

connection. 61% of the participants had a tablet

computer, but only 64% of the tablet computers had

Internet connection.

Relevant to the development of the learning

game, participants’ previous experience with

electronic games was surveyed. None of the

participants had any experience with console

gaming, including hand held consoles, downloaded

games, or multiplayer online games. Participants did

have some experience with single player computer

games with 42% of the participants, mobile gaming

with 34% of the participants, Facebook games 20%

and other games played with Internet browser 25%.

At this phase, only qualitative testing was

performed. Participants with little experience with

gaming were given opportunity to try the game. The

game did not have any tasks, but was a open world

city, where player could learn character control

(walking, running, jumping) and explore the world.

It was recorded by observation and interviews

that the game was user friendly and had low learning

curve due to responsiveness and logical operation.

All participants quickly learned how to move around

in the game using the keyboard. Participants were

fascinated with the possibility of exploring the city

they already knew in real life.

Participation to the game development generated

excitement amongst the participants.

Figure 7: Testing the game in a classroom environment.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Games are used in many kinds of learning tasks and

in education. They provide an engaging activity

which can be directed into learning activitíes.

Usually these games have a certain well defined

domain and they are created using traditional

software development methods.

In this project our goal was to develop a

computer game to teach some basic information

technology and working life skills to adult students.

The topic is informal and not well defined. We have

therefore developed a flexible method for game

creation. In this method participants of very different

skill levels can contribute to the development

process: minigames or tasks can be created by

advanced users who can use Unity game engine.

Anyone without specific skills can participate by

creating dialogs to interaction between players and

computer controlled characters.

Co-creation in the game development is a way to

create rich content. It is not one or few developers

who create the game content, but expertise of end-

users is taken into account. This expertise can be

surprisingly important as end-users have often the

best knowledge on what working environment the

skills will be applied in practise.

The game development process is also

educational itself. In this project some participants

are information technology students and some

students learning basic computer skills. For both the

game creation process is an integral part of the

learning. Analyzing and designing the learning

subject in game development gives new insights and

provides deeper understanding of the subject.

The end-product is richer in the sense that it is

less conventional than when produced with

traditional methods. This is an alternative method of

game development and can be considered to have

similarities with crowdsourcing. Several fields such

as open source software or Wikipedia we can see

Co-creative Serious Games Design Process using Nonlinear Storyline Editing

587

that crowdsourced content can sometimes as

desirable as, or even superior to professional or

commercial efforts. These differences may not be

clearly quantifiable but qualitatively accounting for

a wider range of use-cases.

The next step after this pilot study is to explore

further possibilities of co-creative game

development. We have seen lately a great success in

popularity of serious games. This has happened due

to more advanced tools for computer game

development, more accessible playing platforms

such as laptops, tablet computers and smartphones,

and raise of the popularity in online gaming.

As more online learning possibilities, and wider

range of serious games is required, serious game

development processes will gain more importance.

Methods of co-operative development for non

information technology professionals should

therefore be developed and tested.

The computer game developed in this project

will be released as an open source software later in

2017.

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