The heuristics have been organized along five dimensions:
Download the design heuristics as a handy 2-page pdf file.
The last column contains links to related design patterns.
| Dimension | Heuristic | linked to pattern | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Game general design | ||
| 1.1 | Exploit metaphors from real-life games, activities, stories | Based on videogames Based on street games Based on performance | |
| 1.2 | Minimize the changes to the physical places (e.g. modifications to the physical structure, installation of special equipment like projectors, big displays, etc.) | ||
| 1.3 | Create a multidisciplinary design team (including e.g. HCI, cultural heritage, educational experts) | ||
| 1.4 | Perform formative evaluations and pilot studies to check if tasks’ difficulty is appropriate for the intended players | Target group | |
| 1.5 | Consider the social conventions of the place (e.g. not laughing in a church) | ||
| 1.6 | Consider to extend the game experience beyond the game session (e.g. participating in a web community) | ||
| 1.7 | Consider to include activities/events that are not part of the game, but happen in the real world (e.g. the ceremony of change of the guard at noon) | ||
| 1.8 | Consider to include a game master (e.g. tutor, supervisor, coordinator) and her role: e.g. enforcing the rules, narrating the story | Narrative Coordinator / game master | |
| 2. | Control / Flexibility | ||
| 2.1 | Let players become familiar with the equipment and the game rules/structure (e.g. by including an introductory phase) | Help and support Balance challenge and available options | |
| 2.2 | Facilitate game learnability (i.e. tasks, rules, constraints, etc. should be easy to understand and to learn) | Help and support | |
| 2.3 | Player should be free to switch between different tasks | Interactinng with the digital world | |
| 2.4 | Reflect on whether to allow players to correct their mistakes: it could be useful to force them to evaluate the consequences of their actions | Interactinng with the digital world | |
| 2.5 | Provide help or hint mechanisms to assist players | Help and support | |
| 2.6 | Consider to provide increasing difficulty levels (either automatic adaptation or human-generated adaptation) | ||
| 2.7 | Prevent rule breaking by either discouraging it (e.g. with penalties) or by incorporating cheating into the game | Rewards / penalties | |
| 2.8 | Make clear the game goals (e.g. earning points, completing tasks, being the winner) | Player goals Ending condition | |
| 2.9 | Make clear the game ending condition/s (e.g. maximum time, target score, end of resources, …) | Competing for limited resources Score Against time Ending condition | |
| 2.10 | Consider to provide alternative ways for performing a task or completing the game | Actions influence narrative | |
| 2.11 | Make clear the goal of each task and its effects on the overall game | Interactinng with the digital world Player goals | |
| 2.12 | Provide immediate feedback about task execution showing its impact on the overall game | Interactinng with the digital world | |
| 3. | Engagement | ||
| 3.1 | Consider to integrate a back-story that is at the basis of game tasks | Narrative flow Narrative Climax Non-player character - NPC | |
| 3.2 | Consider to exploit role-playing (i.e. impersonating a character) to meaningfully link tasks to the back-story (if any) | Player differentiation Narrative | |
| 3.3 | Provide contextual cues linked to specific places or events to convey additional information (e.g. sounds reproducing noises of daily activities in an ancient city) | ||
| 3.4 | Consider to allow players to interfere with competitors (e.g. stealing points, sabotaging, bluffing etc.) | Competition Stealing Bluffing Sabotaging Obstructing Strategy | |
| 3.5 | Let players practice different skills by including in the game a variety of tasks, such as: perform a quest, identify/visit certain locations, shoot a picture from a specific angle, videotape a route, search for a certain object, perform a certain action/gesture, search/identify a physical mark, answer a question, collect and classify a material | Primitive actions Puzzle Against time Locate and/or identify an object Exploring Dexterity Path finding Hot-cold Stealing Transporting Bluffing Sabotaging Collecting Co-locality Economic transactions Combining Obstructing Interacting with the physical world Immersion | |
| 3.6 | Minimize the interaction with the game tools. Players' attention should be focused on the game and the environment instead | Interactinng with the digital world Interacting with the physical world Equipment Tools Immersion | |
| 3.7 | Tune the level of awareness of other players' activities (hide/provide/delay information, e.g. showing the score and the progress of competitors) | Competing for limited resources Competition Information awareness Fog of war Score Common space Ending condition | |
| 3.8 | Consider to include rewards in order to improve players' motivation/satisfaction (e.g. providing multimedia information as a prize for a successful task); integrate rewards tightly with the game tasks and back-story; consider when to provide the rewards to the players (during/after the game) | Narrative flow Narrative Actions influence narrative Rewards / penalties Motivation Target group | |
| 4. | Educational aspects | ||
| 4.1 | Consider to include a pre-game activity to prepare players (e.g. some lessons in classroom explaining the historical context in which the game is set) | Target group Interacting with the physical world Spatial structure Temporal structure Learning trajectories | |
| 4.2 | Game should emphasize either vertical or horizontal exploration of a place/topic, i.e., deeply exploring a limited space (or few objects or a specific topic) vs. more superficially exploring a broad space (or many objects or several topics) | Learning trajectories | |
| 4.3 | Tasks should require players to link areas, locations, physical objects to concepts, topics, etc. | Learning trajectories | |
| 4.4 | Balance between competition and knowledge acquisition. Too much competition may have a negative impact on knowledge acquisition | Balance cooperation and competition Competition Cooperation Learning trajectories | |
| 4.5 | Include a debriefing phase after the game to allow players to reflect on the game experience. Design it as an individual/collaborative game/activity that supports players to clarify and consolidate the game experience | Cooperation Temporal structure Learning trajectories | |
| 5. | Social aspects | ||
| 5.1 | Team players (if any) should be selected based on players’ social relations (e.g. friends to maximize collaboration) or according to their skills. Involve in this process a person that knows them very well (e.g. a teacher) | Competition Player differentiation Team forming Target group Coordinator / game master | |
| 5.2 | Assign responsibilities and tools (e.g. mobile devices, maps, etc.) among team members to induce collaboration. Consider to force, forbid or allow responsibilities exchange among team members | Player differentiation Cooperation Equipment Tools Strategy | |
| 5.3 | Consider to permit, force or neglect the competition among players/teams | Balance cooperation and competition Competition Cooperation Competing for limited resources | |