Comparing Developmental Approaches for Game-Based Learning in Cyber-Security Campaigns

Digital game-based learning (DGBL) has been viewed as an effective teaching strategy that encourages students to pick up and learn a subject. This paper explores its viability to help increase the reach and efficiency of the existing cybersecurity awareness spreading campaigns that find adolescent students as their demographic. This work intends to reinforce the benefits of multimedia learning in schools and universities with the use of video games and further find the ideal type and genre of game that can be developed to spread awareness about cybersecurity to students in grades 8th to 12th (tailored towards the Indian context). Game genres were compared on the basis of having a simple gameplay loop, being easy for instructors to train themselves in, being inclusive to special needs children, being able to be published as an independent title, and having very low hardware specification requirements. Ideally, the paper proposes that this game would be a single-player experience that would follow a game-based learning approach to maximize the game’s reach. Once identified, the model of the game was assessed using already existing implementations. Finally, the ideal model, a single-player visual novel is proposed. A future iteration of the paper will implement the proposed model of game design and perform an analysis of the effects the video game had on the learning experience of the students surveyed.