Key Aspects of Game Design Research: A Scoping Review

Key insights

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Key number

614 articles were screened from three game research venues.

The scoping review drew on the International Journal of Computer Games Technology, GAME: The Italian Journal of Game Studies, and DiGRA proceedings. Two researchers independently screened the articles.

614

articles screened by title and abstract

narrowed for full-text assessment: 249
articles included in the review: 241

Open questions

Research gaps were grouped into seven areas, ranging widely in scope.

Gaps include design aims, game analysis, social interactions, and serious games. Examples range from player-ethics-based matchmaking to genetic manipulation of cells for biotic games.

Work in progress. The authors present the taxonomy as an opinionated recommendation, not a definitive classification, and the work remains in its final iterations.

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Summary

This scoping review aims to provide a holistic perspective on the state of game design research by identifying key aspects and research gaps. The study employs a qualitative and iterative methodology, drawing from scoping review frameworks by Arksey and O'Malley, and Levac et al., with adaptations for researcher availability. The reporting framework utilizes the 22 PRISMA items for scoping reviews.

The research process involved scraping publications from three major game research conferences (International Journal of Computer Games Technology, GAME The Italian Journal of Game Studies, and Digital Games Research Association) and supplementing with single sources to account for multidisciplinary overlaps. Two researchers independently screened titles and abstracts for novel aspects of game design and research gaps. Out of 648 initial articles, 241 (37%) were deemed crucial or novel contributions.

Key research categories extracted from the included articles form a taxonomy of game design research. These include design aims, design process, serious games, forms of representation, character design, game design taxonomy and ontology, gameplay, gamification, narratology, social interactions in play, and game analysis. Each main category contains at least four subcategories. The review also identified a wide variety of research gaps, categorized into seven areas: Design Aims, Game Analysis, Social Interactions in Play, Design Process, Serious Games, Gameplay, and Character Design, ranging from matchmaking based on player ethics to genetic manipulation for biotic games. This taxonomy is presented as an opinionated recommendation for categorizing game design research.