Digital game for teaching and learning: An analysis of usability and experience of educational games

Abstract

Desbravadores is a 3D game, available for web, which is about History. The game is in first person, with focus on survivor, where the player is a time traveler and needs to save old artifacts, which was lost in our history. To achieve this goal the team proposed an artifact whose interface simulates a time machine, able to take students/players to meaningful moments of different historical periods, immersing it in a realistic environment, initially in 3D and future in “virtual reality”. Both are educational games for awake the interest of Brazilian students and be an interactive tool for teachers in classroom. This study set out to investigate the gameplay and usability of these two games, grounded on the concepts set out by Huizinga, Preece, Rogers and Sharp, and by observation the interactions that users engaged on laboratory tests.