Matching Game Genre with Lesson Content – A Development of Blood Circulation Racing Game

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that students pay more attention during game-based learning, which in turn leads to greater levels of learning among students. In addition, the success of students in their academic endeavors is increased when the learning styles or learning objectives of the children are matched with the appropriate game type. This paper describes the development of a digital game for learning blood circulation that maps to a “racing” game genre. The lesson’s objective was for the students to be able to understand how blood flows, and a racing game genre was chosen to match the lesson content. Racing game assets such as racetrack, race path, race car, and obstacles are mapped to lesson-embedded designs such as simplified blood circuit, blood direction, blood cells, and cholesterol lumps. Multiple cues are inserted into the game to help players with content recollections. Common challenges for racing games, such as time limits, energy meters, and obstacles, are tailored to the theme of blood circulation. Usability testing was conducted to measure the ease of use of this game using System Usability Scale (SUS). Five 15-year-old participants took part in the testing at a secondary school in Melaka. Participants were chosen using convenience sampling, and none of the participants had ever played the game before. A SUS standard score of 78 was obtained, which is considered “Good” under the Adjective Ratings when measured against the SUS Score Graph.