Development of an Educational Video Game to Improve Nursing Students' Reasoning With Acute Heart Failure Patients

Two prototypes of a serious game were developed as part of this study. The design of these prototypes is based on the conceptual model by Alexiou and Schippers (2018) linking the instructional design of a serious game to intrinsic motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes. The design of SIGN@L-A will include all elements of the serious game instructional design proposed by these authors which are game mechanics (i.e., objectives to meet, feedback, and rewards), a narrative (i.e., a protagonist, non-playable characters, and narrative events), and aesthetics (i.e., functional and hedonic aesthetics).

The design of SIGN@L-B will include only some of these elements which are some of the game mechanics (i.e., objectives to meet, limited feedback), and a functional aesthetic.