Evaluating Customizable Serious Games for Scientific Dissemination through Thematic Analysis

Daniel Duarte Ckagnazaroff; Milena Soares Barreira; Raphael Ramos D. Costa; Lucila Ishitani

doi:10.5753/jis.2026.7357

Authors

Daniel Duarte Ckagnazaroff Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8930-4184
Milena Soares Barreira Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3858-1284
Raphael Ramos D. Costa Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8541-8118
Lucila Ishitani Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8565-8386

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5753/jis.2026.7357

Keywords:

Serious Games, Customizable Games, Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Background: Serious games are a category of games developed with goals beyond entertainment, such as knowledge transfer and skill development. These games have already been proven as a successful means of knowledge transfer and scientific dissemination. They aim to share knowledge by engaging players through the ludic elements of a game. Despite that, the time, effort, and knowledge required to fully develop a game are not trivial and may limit the possibility of different researchers sharing their research through them. Based on this, it is possible to see benefits in the development of a straightforward tool allowing researchers to create serious games related to their specific research. Purpose: This study aims to evaluate a simple tool for creating simple games based on scientific research from the players’ perspective and provide recommendations, as well as gauge the interest of the players in the research shared through the games. The goal is to provide information on the players’ needs and preferences for games with the purpose of scientific dissemination. We hope with this research to promote interest in scientific content and provide ecommendations for other researchers interested in using serious games as a means of scientific dissemination. Methods: The evaluation was realized through 20 structured interviews with students of a game development undergraduate course. Each participant played three different minigames customized to share three different researches: Article, Data, and Categories. These interviews were recorded and transcribed to be analyzed through the process of thematic analysis. Results: After the realization of thematic analysis, the selected quotes were separated into 83 different codes. These codes were then grouped into one of eight defined themes: Game type, Positive perception, Negative perception, Scientific dissemination, Suggestions for the games, Design accomplishments, Design flaws, and Theme impact. Participants reacted positively to the games format of emulating simple daily games and the purpose of sharing research results, while providing valuable insight into how to improve the games. Results also showed that the games did promote interest and curiosity from the participants about the shared studies. Conclusion: The interviews showed that there is interest from the players in this type of serious game. They also provided evidence that these types of games can promote curiosity in scientific content and even the active pursuit of knowledge. This research shows that this approach to scientific dissemination can stimulate interest while broadening the reach to different audiences by lowering the technical barriers that researchers would have to go through to make a game about their scientific results.

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