This paper described a study of simulation games requirements that can help instructors and designers during selection and creation of Software Engineering simulation games. The research took into account the best practices of simulation games development, their main characteristics and the learning theories related to Constructivism. Based on these requirements, we analyzed eight simulation games and we defined a framework, with three main components, that can be reused in new developments.
We observed that some learning theories, such as Learning through reflection, Elaboration Theory and Aptitude Treatment Interaction, were not completely addressed by the analyzed simulation games. The identified requirements and the corresponding framework can support designers of new simulation games to address important learning theories during the initial development phases.
As a future work, we plan to enhance the framework evaluation considering, for example, other learning theories, and the interplay between requirements, implementation and validation. During FASENG development, we identified three roles: simulation game developer (who adapts the interface and creates the Java classes), simulation model designer (who specifies the behavior), and developer (who creates the XML file). We are planning to create guidelines for each of these roles and supporting tools, for instance, a tool to help simulation model tailoring and XML file creation.