GAMEVAL (TIN2017-89238- R), Improving Serious Games through Integrated Authoring, Evaluation and Learning Analytics, seeks to improve the creation and applicability of serious games in different domains. Both the development and exploitation phases are being targeted, through better integration of educational design, game authoring, and their validation and evaluation, using innovative techniques such as learning analytics. Traditionally, serious game development has been a bespoke and labor-intensive process, with no systematic way to check whether the game conforms to its initial educational goals. This results in few validated games, and has hindered serious games deployment in education or business training. GAMEVALs goal is to improve the quality of serious games, while reducing their high costs both in terms of time and effort.

To meet its goals, GAMEVAL proposes an authoring tool that includes, as an integral part of the process, elements of validation and evaluation. This authoring tool is to be integrated with an analytics platform to interpret results. In this way, authors and stakeholders can evaluate results from the very first prototypes, identifying and fixing problems early and improving educational and game designs early.