Formulating a Serious-Games Design Project for Adult Offenders with the Probation Service

Abstract

This paper documents an investigation evaluating if adult offenders can benefit from a facilitated serious-games design project as part of their probation program. Research has observed a participatory design group of adult offenders working with their probation managers and a PhD researcher to create a new serious-game for use by the probation service. A voluntary participant group of six male offenders was observed over a five week design process using the game authoring software Game-Maker. Weekly meetings have allowed participants to learn basic game authoring skills and share design ideas within a multi-disciplinary team. Investigators have observed the amount and type of assistance required by participants when interacting with new software, the range and suitability of ideas communicated by participants, and the ability of participants to convert their ideas into functional media. This paper presents qualitative results from this exploratory field study and compares the results to previous investigations with secondary school children.