Imparare a giocare giocando: un serious game per lo sviluppo di competenze di game literacy

Game literacy, or ludoliteracy, which is sometimes identified as a subset of either media or digital literacy, has been defined as the ability to play, understand and make games. Stemming from Poulsen and Gatzidis’ assumption that these three dimensions — operational, critical and creative — should be investigated in their interrelationship, this study proposes a novel approach to game literacy focused on interactivity. The aim of this project is to develop a serious game that can foster the acquisition of game literacy skills in all its three areas: thus, the operational dimension is acquired through the activity of playing, while the critical one is embedded in the game’s content; the game is also designed to present the player with creative affordances. This thesis details the research and design process behind the creation and development of the serious game Game on Games. Chapter 1 explores the state of the art concerning game literacy, by comparing several theoretical and practical contributions and developing a framework of what this new form of literacy should entail. Chapter 2 retraces the history of the video game genre chosen for the serious game — the visual novel genre — defining its main aesthetical, narrative and gameplay conventions. The game design process is then extensively documented in Chapter 3. Finally, the fourth and final chapter, presents and analyses the results of the testing and evaluation conducted.