Engineering a Collaborative Framework for Applied Game Development

Carrie Crossley, Alexia Mandeville, Kelsey Binninger, Angelica Garcia and Samantha F. Warta

Abstract

The field of applied game development is highly interdisciplinary, requiring collaboration from many expert groups including game developers, instructional designers, and researchers. Although this collaboration is necessary to create a successful product, it is often difficult for experts to unify their diverse knowledge, opinions, and goals. A comprehensive literature review illustrates that there are many barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration, which frequently lead to communication issues between various expert groups. In an applied game development setting, this often results in experiences that lack effective learning content, engaging mechanics, or proper data collection methodologies. This article examines the roles of various expert groups involved in the development of applied games and identifies the gaps between goals, ideas, and understanding of these groups. The authors propose a solution framework that is designed to close these gaps in order to promote more effective practices for the research and development of applied games.