Simulation and Gaming

Balancing play, meaning and reality: the design philosophy of levee patroller

Casper Harteveld, Rui Guimaraes, Igor Mayer, and Rafael Bidarra

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Most serious games have been developed without a proper and comprehensive design theory. To contribute to the development of such a theory, this article presents the underlying design philosophy of LEVEE PATROLLER, a game to train levee patrollers in the Netherlands. This philosophy stipulates that the design of a digital serious game is a multiobjective problem in which trade-offs need to be made. Making these trade-offs takes place in a design space defined by three equally important components: (a) Play, (b) Meaning, and (c) Reality. The various tensions between these three components result in design dilemmas and trilemmas that make it difficult to balance a serious game. Each type of tension is illustrated with one or more examples from the design of LEVEE PATROLLER.

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@article{bib:harteveld:2010,
    author       = { Harteveld, Casper and Guimaraes, Rui and Mayer, Igor and Bidarra, Rafael },    
    title        = { Balancing play, meaning and reality: the design philosophy of levee patroller },
    journal      = { Simulation and Gaming },
    volume       = { 41 },
    year         = { 2010 },
    pages        = { 316--340 },
    doi          = { 10.1177/1046878108331237 },
    url          = { https://publications.graphics.tudelft.nl/papers/591 },
}