Academic Games - Learning to play; playing to learn
In one way or another researchers have been using games for decades. It could be, a 'serious game' for learning a skill, such as learning a language or driving. Maybe researchers also choose an off-the-shelf game for user-studies on entertainment. A study may also employ a scary horror game to induce some form of stress or study how game performance relate to certain cognitive-motor skills. Researchers also develop custom-made 'academic game' that are suppossed to evoke (and measure) a specific behaviour or experience.
If you are interested feel free to check out any of the example projects below or ask Max:
Academic game development: a complicated problem
written by Max, based on two Master projects by Tim in 2025
In the first study, we interviewed experts and people with experience developing or designing academic games. Through a thematic analysis we identified nine key challenges and opportunities, including collaboration difficulties, communication barriers, and disparities in gaming experience. We highlight the need for improved documentation, structured collaboration strategies, and critical consideration of how game elements influence research validity. Additionally, we reflect on the potential role of an ‘academic game developer’ specialization to bridge the gap between research objectives and game design, supporting more effective interdisciplinary collaboration. Thus designing academic games for experimental research—and applied games more broadly—introduces a tension between game mechanics intended for player engagement and those necessary to meet research objectives.
In a second study, we developed a academic game in collaboration with the University of Ulm and the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. The task in question that we wanted to adapt was a property verification task (pictures top row) and we reformed it into the "Legend of the Lunchbox" (bottom row).
Based on the documentation and analysis of the game development process, we conclude that among other things designs must carefully consider that variability between the experience of participants may cause concerns regarding comparability between participants. To this end, designing the game to be linear or using hidden manipulations to force the game state to be independent of the player’s actions could help to limit this variability. Developers and researchers should also consider the use case for the game when developing using the previous strategies, as
motivation of the participants in repeat experiments may suffer from negative biases.Can making a task feel like a game improve how we perform it - or can it sometimes hurt our focus?
by Linus, former student at PCRS in 2024
In our recent study at the department of Conflict, Risk and Safety, we explored how light-touch gamification - subtle game elements like immersive stories and powerful avatars - affects performance in a cognitive task called the Stop-Signal Task (SST). This task measures response inhibition, or how well someone can stop an already planned and initiated action. We 'gamified' it, turning it into the Stop-Signal Game (SSG), and asked: Can a story or avatar change how people perform? To test our hypothesis, participants were invited to two sessions of playing the game: Once playing a strong and well equiped hero and once playing a weak and unequiped hero; both either chasing after or fleeing from an evil witch hiding in the enchanted forest.
Key Findings:
Story and avatar strength didn’t impact performance: Contrary to our expectations, whether participants played a “strong” armored hero or a “weaker” character, or whether they were told to chase or escape a witch, their actual task performance remained stable.
More immersion = worse performance: Participants who felt more immersed in the game actually performed worse at stopping their responses. It seems the game elements drew attention away from the core task.
Motivation faded quickly: Across sessions, players reported lower immersion and intrinsic motivation, likely because the narrative didn’t offer enough meaningful goals or choices to stay engaging.
Implications
Our study has shown, that gamification does not always produce performance and motivation enhancing effects. Poorly matched game-like elements can actually lead to contrary effects and distract from a task and reduce motivation. Concluding, gamification does not always lead to improved performance and motivation. Therefore, researchers need to be careful in their design choices and implementation of game-like elements in a cognitive task. Otherwise, performance and motivation, as well as accuracy of results are at risk.
Interested in more? Read the whole study here.
Imagine you are a general at war: writting letters home
written by Max based on student work by Melina, Nico, Marouscha and Joost who were BSc students at PCRS in 2023 and 2024
People enjoy movies, books or games for a variety of reasons; however, all types of media
are capable of pulling one into their story, eliciting certain feelings, and may lead one to self49
reflect. Some stories even transition mediums; for example the true story of the 101st Airborne
Division who landed behind German lines on D-Day has inspired multiple books (e.g., “The
Deuce” by Symm Hawes McCord or “From Frying Pan” to Mittersill by Jos Groen), a movie from
1956 titled “Screaming Eagles”, and the game “Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30” developed by
Gearbox Software. Although undoubtably each medium approaches the subject matter from a
different angle, the dread of the soldiers in those situations and the harrowing consequences of war are tangible in all mediums. Is this enough to prompt media consumers to be equally empathetic towards the soldiers, regardless of the medium? Thus, in the present manuscript we compare reactions, specifically letters written to the family of deceased soldiers, in response to a simple story in the context of an online survey, a naturalistic game-setting, and historical real-world
examples.This study involves a comparative analysis of letters about fallen soldiers written in one of
three different contexts: during a survey after reading a prompt, while playing a commercially
available war game, or authentic historical letters written during war-time. We focus on the
emergence of empathy-related meanings in the letter to the soldier’s families across different
mediums.
Findings indicate a correlation between an individual's empathetic capacity, their ability to
immerse themselves in a narrative, and their sense of connection to humanity, as reflected in the
letters dedicated to fallen soldiers in an artificial study context. Moreover, a notable resemblance
emerges between the content themes of letters from an off-the-shelf war-game, those obtained
through the survey, and real historical letters addressed to the families of deceased soldiers. This
resemblance is particularly evident in the emotional tone, the inclusion of soldier details, and the
expression of a purpose. Notably, the primary disparity lies in the prevalence of “humour” and
“insult”, which are more pronounced in the game-generated letters.
Consequently, this study posits that fictional narratives, as encapsulated in gaming experiences,
offer a valuable avenue for probing empathetic responses in the face of extreme scenarios. Through
a mediated reality lens, our investigation suggests that exploring emotional responses within the
confines of a game environment can yield insights into how individuals articulate and experience
empathy in challenging contexts.For this project they even recorded their own voice-overs in the DIY studio at UT to show to participants.
This project was carried out in close collaboration with Foolish Mortals games studio, the developers of the game Radio General and the inspiration for this study!
