A Methodology for Digital Game Design Research

This paper outlines a research methodology for investigating the process of digital game design. This methodology has been successfully developed and applied during a doctoral inquiry investigating the design of games and simulations to promote conceptual learning in physics. A key challenge of that inquiry was to both outline and legitimate the design process as one of research. This paper follows the essential path taken in responding to this challenge: (i) detailing the nature of design; (ii) outlining how design can become research; (iii) detailing a methodological framework, including evaluation criteria; (iv) synthesizing the methodology into one in which design and research are entwined and inseparable; and (v) outlining further implications of the methodology.