Serious Games Cookbook

The Serious Games Cookbook is now out!

Get a free copy here.

Matthew Whitby, Feng Mao, Katarzyna Stawarz, Shasta Marrero & Jo Lindsay Walton (2024) Serious Games Cookbook: A beginner’s guide to using and designing serious games. University of Warwick Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.31273/978-1-911675-13-6

What is the Serious Game Cookbook?

The Serious Game Cookbook is a resource that aims to support the use and design of serious games with detailed guidance. Each section talks through major topics around the use or design of serious games, supported with tasks, questions, and multiple examples.

Everything within the Serious Game Cookbook supports the two central goals of this resource:

1. Provide a resource for researchers, developers, and practitioners to begin utilising or designing their own serious games.
2. Expand the conversation for how serious games for climate adaptation and resilience building are designed.

Who is the Cookbook for?

The GameBook acts like designerly glue between domain expertise and development. Do you have expert knowledge of climate adaptation or skills in software development, but are unsure of how to effectively use or design serious games? Then the GameBook is designed for you. By the end, beginners should better understand how to use serious games and design their own games.

What topics does the Cookbook cover?

• Using Serious Games – For those who wish to utilise serious games to support their goals, this might include educators, researchers, or moderators.
  • Goals of Play
  • Selecting a Game
  • Game Facilitation
• Designing Serious Games – For those who wish to develop a serious game, from widespread digital applications to bespoke physical board games (and everything in between).
  • Game Content & Themes
  • Mechanics is the Message
  • Remember the Player
  • Strategies for Shifting Attitudes