Improving Learning Experiences Through Customizable Metagames

Research has highlighted Digital Games (DG)’ capacity to enhance skill and abilities through their persuasiveness and motivational appeal, which can support immersive, situated and user-centered experiences. DG development remains a challenge both in terms of costs and of the diverse range of advanced, multi-disciplinary expertise required to develop a DG. Developing DGs for such a complex domain as Mechanical Engineering (ME) to better equip engineering students to practice at the intersection of complex systems increases this challenge. An alternative to decrease costs is to capitalize on existing DGs. The paper analyzes opportunities for DG adaptation, in order to enable the reengineer of existing games to fit specific purposes and support knowledge transfer. The authors build upon current research and practices to construct an approach for adapting DG content. Two case studies are presented as a proof of concept to exemplify the different levels of the digital game reengineering process.