Abstract-Within the last years educational games have attracted some attention from the academic community. Multiple enhancements of the learning experience are usually attributed to educational games, although the most cited is their potential to improve students' motivation. In spite of these expected advantages, how to introduce video games in the learning process is an issue that is not completely clear yet, which reduces the potential impact of educational video games. Our goal at the research group is to identify the barriers that are limiting the integration of games in the learning process and propose approaches to tackle them. The result of this work is the platform, an educational game authoring tool that aims to make of video games just another educational tool at the disposal of the instructors. In this paper we describe how contributes to the integration of games in the learning process through three main focuses: reduction of the high development costs of educational games, involvement of instructors in the development process to enhance the educational value, and the production of the games using a whitebox model. In addition we describe the current research that we are conducting using the platform as a test-bed.

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We present EGDA, an educational game development approach focused on the teaching of procedural knowledge using a cost-effective approach. EGDA proposes four tasks: analysis, design, implementation, and quality assurance that are subdivided in a total of 12 subtasks. One of the benefits of EGDA is that anyone can apply it to develop a game since it keeps development as simple as possible and uses tools for modeling and implementation that do not require a highly technical profile. EGDA has been applied to the creation of seven educational games in healthcare, and has been iteratively refined after each experience. EGDA is evaluated on two aspects. First, the effort and cost needed for creating these games is estimated and compared to current industry standards. Second, impact on knowledge acquisition and a student acceptance are discussed. Results suggest that EGDA can make game development more affordable, which is critical for increased adoption and scalability of game-based learning (GBL), while assuring a high educational value of the resulting games.