Designing a 3D Serious Game About Career Pathways in the Games Industry

This paper presents the design and development of a 3D serious game intended to teach undergraduate game development students about career pathways in the games industry. Its central aim is to offer a detailed development blueprint for educators creating educational games, documenting how established serious game design principles were applied in practice. The authors position the work as a case study rather than an empirical evaluation: at the time of writing, the game was still under development and no outcome data is reported. The paper combines a scoping review of serious game design frameworks, including the elemental tetrad, the MDA framework, and the Serious Game Design Assessment framework, with a reflective account of how the game's learning outcomes, pedagogy, and assessment were implemented.

The core design decisions centre on embedding learning content intrinsically within gameplay rather than presenting it as separate material. The game uses a hub-and-spoke level structure built in Unity, with a central game studio hub and branching levels each dedicated to a job role such as design, programming, art and animation, and quality assurance. A dialogue system drawn from the role-playing genre conveys role details and hard and soft skill requirements, while collectibles tied to graduate attributes provide incentive and a levelling mechanic. Assessment is integrated throughout, with formative feedback through non-player character interaction and summative quizzes at the end of each level, each adapted to the genre of its level. The pedagogical foundations cited include problem-based learning, reflection, and self-determination theory's account of intrinsic motivation.

The authors acknowledge several limitations and future directions. Initial evaluation with first- and second-year students used mixed-methods post-questionnaires for early levels only, and results were still being analysed. The full game is not yet publicly available, and the authors plan broader evaluation across undergraduate cohorts and other institutions, along with possible adaptation to other career disciplines such as nursing and midwifery.