This paper introduces a comprehensive framework for designing Serious Games (SG) that integrate eXtended Reality (XR)-including virtual, mixed, and augmented reality systems, to create immersive and interactive learning experiences. Key features include a model to define game mechanics and learning content, a specification approach to ensure effective XR integration, alignment with educational goals, and iterative evaluation by designers, educators, and students to ensure continuous improvement. Our design approach empowers educators to define the purpose, mechanics, and XR features of the game while keeping them closely aligned with the pedagogical objectives. The proposed framework provides a step-by-step guide for participants in SG with XR (XR-SG) design, covering all stages from preparation to testing. This work contributes to the workshop’s mission by advancing the use of XR applications in education and fostering multidisciplinary collaboration for the creation of impactful, immersive learning solutions.

As digital technologies continue to evolve rapidly, Serious games (SG) have emerged as powerful tools for education, training, decision-making, and other diverse domains that leverage game-based mechanics to enhance engagement and learning outcomes. However, their effectiveness is often limited by the lack of structured knowledge representation and adaptability to various learning contexts. Ontologies offer a solution by providing a formalized, machine-readable structure that enhances content organization, reasoning, and personalization within SGs. This paper presents a cross-domain ontology for SGs that aims to provide a unified framework for representing the key concepts, relationships, and dynamics within SGs across various domains. It also aims to bridge gaps between different fields by formalizing the diverse aspects of SGs, such as learning outcomes, player engagement, interactivity, and feedback mechanisms. By integrating concepts from multiple domains, the proposed ontology enables better understanding, analysis, and development of SGs, facilitating their application in diverse contexts. Furthermore, the ontology serves as a foundation for semantic interoperability between SGs and related systems, promoting the creation of more adaptive and personalized gaming experiences tailored to specific learning or developmental objectives.

Abstract Serious games (SGs) are valuable tools for learning, training, and improving skills in various domains because they engage and motivate players to achieve planned processes to reach objectives. Several works provided methods, models, and frameworks to support SG development. However, designers, developers, teachers, and researchers face challenges in creating SG with entertainment and learning balance, and many designed games still do not fulfill the main intended objectives. This paper introduces an approach, called SGDA‐IE with phases and steps to follow during the entire SG design process. It was built on literature review and SG design challenges designers need to consider from the early stages when creating SG. The proposed approach is founded on three perspectives: software engineering best practices, video game industry practices, and SG success factors and provides means to overcome the investigated design challenges. These are characteristics taxonomy model, requirements specification approach, and artifacts iterative evaluation by designer, domain expert, and players. To assess our approach efficacy, we conceived a health, safety, and environment (HSE) training SG for workers on fuel storage sites and petroleum installations. The feedback received is positive and indicates a favorable specification method of the SG, effective participatory design, and control over requirements evolution. The SG playtesting reveals a significant involvement of participants and efficient tracking of the knowledge acquisition.