Design and development process of a digital game to acquire preschoolers’ self-care skills: a model practice

This study aims to clearly describe how to design and develop a digital game with a concrete example for preschoolers to acquire Self-Care Skills (SCS). The study is in the model of design-based developmental research and includes such participants as subject-matter experts, practitioner teachers, and preschoolers in the development steps. RETRO game development model was adapted and followed in the game development process by integrating Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) approach with entertainment game development. Each step of the model involves gathering, analyzing data and yielding informative findings that guide the next step. The views of participants indicate that some behaviors in SCS can be cognitively acquired and internalized by the game with latent learning. While realizing learning outcomes, the developed game succeeded in motivation, engagement and design features as in commercial entertainment games. As the model recommends, if all the bases are covered, the design and development process may be executed right. Since the study reports the entire process of the concrete example, it can help guide novice digital game developers (can be a teacher, a trainer as well) repeat the game development or develop a new one based on DGBL. Keywords: Digital games, digital game-based learning, early year’s education, mobile games, self-care skills.