Development of an Instrument to Analyse Gameplay Features Promoting Complex Problem-Solving Conditions

Developing complex problem-solving skills and attitudes to survive and thrive in our uncertain and unpredictable world requires engaging in meaningful activities within appropriately designed learning environments. Even though serious games have the potential to satisfy these needs, there is a specific demand for additional research tools that offer a better and functional understanding of the relationships between gameplay features and desired impacts on players. Therefore, in this article we present the development and preliminary validation process of a theory-based analysis instrument of game elements, gameplay features, and their functions suitable to promote complex problem-solving conditions (GEFF-CPSC). The instrument integrates concepts from the theory of intention regulation for complex problem-solving and the theory-based complex problem-solving game based-learning model. The GEFF-CPSC instrument was created to analyse how core game elements promote core gameplay features and how core gameplay features promote each of the four complex problem-solving conditions for effective intention regulation processes: (i) acceptance of self-incompetence; (ii) prioritisation of important problems; (iii) routinisation of actions; and (iv) recollection of correct mental representations. The three stages for the design and preliminary validation of the analysis instrument were item creation, scale development, and instrument testing. The objectives of the stages were to ensure content validity, construct validity, and instrument reliability, based on preliminary item assessment, scale evaluation, and instrument pre-test performed by expert reviewers. The theoretical background, the development process, and the results from the preliminary validation suggest that the GEFF-CPSC instrument can be a significant contribution towards the comprehensive analysis of the relationships between core game elements and core gameplay features suitable to promote core complex problem-solving conditions required for managing complex problems.