Participatory Design of Educational Escape Room Video Games: A Media Literacy Case Study

Abstract

Arising challenges in digital media literacy regarding recognizing and handling misinformation demand the development of innovative educational tools. Educational escape rooms (EERs) are already established as engaging learning solutions for related topics, but their design often lacks meaningful involvement of end-users. In this paper, a participatory design (PD) approach for the development of media literacy EER video games is presented. As a part of the ENDGAME project, an international multi-stage workshop was conducted with 41 diverse participants from Finland, Serbia, and Spain, utilizing collaborative design methods including breakout sessions, brainstorming activities, and stakeholder feedback collection. The results illustrate different views and preferences on visual style, narrative themes, skill mapping, puzzle mechanics, and accessibility topics. Our findings contribute to the understanding of PD value in the creation process of immersive, adaptable, and engaging educational ERs.