A conceptual framework for cognitive game design analysis(CGDA)

With the growing trend of cognitive games, the lack of assessment tools to analyze these specific kinds of serious games is something that cannot be ignored anymore. Most studies dedicated to investigating existing serious games are concentrated on the effects of these games. But the first building block of a good game is its design and If a cognitive game is not well designed it means it is not a suitable game to use in the first place. However, in the literature, there is no specialized framework for analyzing the design of cognitive games. In this study, we present a framework for cognitive game design analysis (CGDA) as a conceptual framework that aims to structure the analyze of cognitive games in terms of their design. The framework is based on an analysis of existing literature and by outlining the background of the serious games, serious games for health and cognitive games, CGDA is introduced. CGDA consist of eight elements: game adaptivity, game adherence, game narrative, game play, game mechanics, goal setting, game genre, and game usability. Some of these elements are based on serious games and serious games for health literature and some are used based on the literature on cognitive games.