Balancing Act: Leveraging ‘PARAMETERS’ Serious Game as a Tool for Mastering Game Design in Higher Education

This paper introduces “PARAMETERS”, a serious game implementation, as a novel pedagogical tool for enhancing game design and balancing education within higher education settings, specifically in game development courses. Recognizing the complexity and educational value of game balancing—a process crucial for ensuring fairness, engagement, and replayability in games—this research aims to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application in academic curricula. By integrating PARAMETERS into a game design curriculum, we examine its effectiveness in facilitating active learning and mastery of game design principles among students. Our methodology leverages PARAMETERS' simplified RPG mechanics, focusing on numerical interactions and stat management, to allow students hands-on experience with core game development tasks without the distractions of complex graphics or narratives. The outcomes of this integration, evaluated through a detailed case study, indicate a significant enhancement in students' comprehension of game balancing concepts and their application in real-world scenarios. Our study contributes to the discourse on game-based learning in technical education by demonstrating the pedagogical benefits of using serious games like PARAMETERS. It offers insights into effective strategies for embedding practical game design exercises into higher education, underscoring the potential of serious games to complement and enrich traditional learning approaches in this field of game development.