An Educational Evaluation of Games for Requirements Engineering Learning: A Rapid Review
Resumo
Introduction: Requirements engineers must combine technical and interpersonal skills to elicit, analyze, and manage software requirements. Consequently, students need opportunities to develop both conceptual knowledge and practical competencies in Requirements Engineering (RE). However, maintaining student motivation and engagement during learning activities remains a challenge, and Game-Based Learning has been explored to create more engaging learning environments. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate how educational games have been designed to support RE learning. Method: A rapid review with snowballing was conducted to identify studies on games for RE learning. Results: Most games focus primarily on requirements elicitation and employ a limited set of learning techniques. These findings highlight opportunities for designing more comprehensive educational games that support a broader range of RE concepts and skills.
Palavras-chave:
Requirements Engineering, GBL, serious games
Referências
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Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P. W., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R. E., Pintrich, P. R., Rathus, J., and Wittrock, M. C. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.
Arnab, S., Lim, T., Carvalho, M., Bellotti, F., Freitas, S., Louchart, S., Suttie, N., Berta, R., and De Gloria, A. (2014). Mapping learning and game mechanics for serious games analysis: Mapping learning and game mechanics. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(02):391–411.
Ayora, C., De La Vara, J. L., Marín, B., and Giachetti, G. (2025). Rethinking how to teach analysis and modelling of business requirements: A serious game integrating genai. In 2025 ACM/IEEE 28th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems Companion (MODELS-C), pages 35–38.
Battistella, P. E. and Wangenheim, C. G. v. (2016). Games for teaching computing in higher education – a systematic review. IEEE Technology and Engineering Education (ITEE), 1:8–30.
Brookhart, S. M. and McMillan, J. H. (2019). Classroom Assessment and Educational Measurement. Routledge, second edition.
Cartaxo, B., Pinto, G., and Soares, S. (2020). Rapid Reviews in Software Engineering. In Contemporary Empirical Methods in Software Engineering, pages 357–384. Springer.
Carvalho Rosa, L. H., Bernardi, G., and Duarte Medina, R. (2021). Mundos virtuais como apoio ao ensino e aprendizagem de engenharia de software: Simulando a técnica de entrevista. RENOTE, 19(1):371–381.
Castro, D., Costa, D. M., and Werner, C. M. L. (2020). Systematic mapping on the use of games for software engineering education. Cited by: 2.
Caulfield, C., Xia, J. C., Veal, D., and Paul Maj, S. (2011). A systematic survey of games used for software engineering education. Modern Applied Science, 5(6):28 – 43. Cited by: 61; All Open Access, Hybrid Gold Open Access.
Daun, M., Grubb, A. M., Stenkova, V., and Tenbergen, B. (2022). A systematic literature review of requirements engineering education. Requirements Engineering, 28(2):311 – 339. Cited by: 0.
De Almeida Souza, M. R., Furtini Veado, L., Teles Moreira, R., Magno Lages Figueiredo, E., and Costa, H. A. X. (2017). Games for learning: bridging game-related education methods to software engineering knowledge areas. In 2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training Track (ICSE-SEET), pages 170–179.
Debacher, N., Kuster, L., Santos, A., Vahldick, A., and Santos, F. (2023). Back to the promotion - evacsim: a serious game to practice requirements elicitation on an agent-based simulation. In Anais do XX Encontro Nacional de Inteligência Artificial e Computacional, pages 169–183, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Delen, M., Dalpiaz, F., and Cooper, K. (2019). Bakere: A serious educational game on the specification and analysis of user stories. volume 2019-September, page 369 – 374. Cited by: 2.
Eduardo Battistella, P. and Gresse von Wangenheim, C. (2015). Engaged: Processo de desenvolvimento de jogos para ensino em computação.
Ernst, M. and Chapin, J. (2005). The groupthink specification exercise. In Proceedings. 27th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2005. ICSE 2005., pages 617–618.
Freitas, S. and Levene, M. (2004). An investigation of the use of simulations and video gaming for supporting exploratory learning and developing higher-order cognitive skills. pages 35–42.
Garcia, I., Pacheco, C., León, A., and Calvo-Manzano, J. A. (2019). Experiences of using a game for improving learning in software requirements elicitation. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 27(1):249 – 265. Cited by: 34.
García, I., Pacheco, C., León, A., and Calvo-Manzano, J. A. (2020). A serious game for teaching the fundamentals of iso/iec/ieee 29148 systems and software engineering – lifecycle processes – requirements engineering at undergraduate level. Computer Standards Interfaces, 67:103377.
Hainey, T., Baxter, G., and Holder, R. (2023). Development of a 3d immersive game for games and systems requirements capture. volume 2023-October, page 225 – 233. Cited by: 2.
Hainey, T., Connolly, T. M., Stansfield, M., and Boyle, E. A. (2011). Evaluation of a game to teach requirements collection and analysis in software engineering at tertiary education level. Computers & Education, 56(1):21–35. Serious Games.
Ibrahim, Z., Soo, M. C., Soo, M. T., and Aris, H. (2019). Design and development of a serious game for the teaching of requirements elicitation and analysis. Cited by: 11.
Ifenthaler, D. and Eseryel, D. (2012). Assessment in game-based learning. In Assessment in Game-Based Learning, pages 1–8. Springer.
Javed, S., Alam, K., Ajmal, S., and Iqbal, U. (2022). Requirements Engineering Education: A Systematic Literature Review, pages 469–480.
Kharbouch, M., Vizcaino, A., García-Berná, J. A., García, F., Toval, A., Pedreira, O., Idri, A., and Fernández-Alemán, J. L. (2025). Uncharted dimensions, gaps, and future trends of serious games in software engineering. Computer Standards Interfaces, 92:103915.
Knauss, E., Schneider, K., and Stapel, K. (2008). A game for taking requirements engineering more seriously. page 22 – 26. Cited by: 38.
Kosa, M., Yilmaz, M., O’Connor, R. V., and Clarke, P. (2016). Software engineering education and games: A systematic literature review. Journal of Universal Computer Science, 22:1558–1574.
Lemos, E., Conceição, M., Nunes, F., Medina, R., and Bernardi, G. (2020). Ad-rpg: Elicitando requisitos na idade média utilizando um jogo educacional. In Anais do XXXI Simpósio Brasileiro de Informática na Educação, pages 1763–1772, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Lima, T., Campos, B., Santos, R., and Werner, C. (2012). Ubire: A game for teaching requirements in the context of ubiquitous systems. Cited by: 9.
Liu, Y., Li, T., Huang, Z., and Yang, Z. (2023). Bara: A dynamic state-based serious game for teaching requirements elicitation. page 141 – 152. Cited by: 8.
Monteiro, F., Carvalho, R., and Gonçalves, E. (2022). Classifiqui: The game for software requirements classification learning. pages 693–702.
Nadolski, R., Hummel, H., Brink, H., Hoefakker, R., Slootmaker, A., Kurvers, H., and Storm, J. (2007). Emergo: A methodology and toolkit for developing serious games in higher education. Simulation Gaming - Simulat Gaming, 39:338–352.
Pacheco, C., Garcia, I., Morales, L., Calvo-Manzano, J. A., and Flores-Ríos, B. (2025). The wonderland mystery: a serious game for supporting education on stakeholder identification in requirements engineering. Requirements Engineering, 30(3):311 – 339. Cited by: 0.
Parrales-Bravo, F., Gómez-Rodríguez, V., Chiquito-Vera, L., Rendón-Quijije, I., Caicedo-Quiroz, R., Tolozano-Benites, E., Vasquez-Cevallos, L., and Cevallos-Torres, L. (2024). Dear: Detecting ambiguous requirements as a way to develop skills in requirement specifications. Electronics (Switzerland), 13(15). Cited by: 5; All Open Access, Gold Open Access.
Parrales-Bravo, F., Jadan-Guerrero, J., Cevallos-Torres, L., Delgado-Olea, G., Lopez-Lozano, A., and Vasquez-Cevallos, L. (2025). Laura: Let’s arrange user requirements accurately. IEEE Access, 13:107154 – 107164. Cited by: 0; All Open Access, Gold Open Access.
Petri, G. and C. Chiavegatti, N. (2015). Um role playing game para o ensino de elicitaÇÃo e anÁlise de requisitos. RENOTE, 13(1).
Plass, J. L., Mayer, R. E., and Homer, B. D. (2019). Handbook of Game-Based Learning. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Pohl, K. and Rupp, C. (2015). Requirements Engineering Fundamentals. Rocky Nook Inc, 802 East Cota St., 3rd Floor - Santa Barbara, CA 93103, second edition.
Rusu, A., Russell, R., and Cocco, R. (2011). Simulating the software engineering interview process using a decision-based serious computer game. page 235 – 239. Cited by: 13.
Sarinho, V. T., Gomes, V. O., and Sarinho, W. T. (2019). Erquiz: A multiplayer multiplatform instant messaging game for the competitive assessment of requirements engineering knowledge. In Proceedings of the XVIII SBGames, page 591–594, Rio de Janeiro – RJ.
Silva, J., Sousa, S., Kulesza, R., and Brito, A. (2012). Uma avaliação do emprego do jogo modelando como apoio ao ensino de engenharia de requisitos. In Anais do XX Workshop sobre Educação em Computação, pages 240–250, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Smith, R. and Gotel, O. (2008). Gameplay to introduce and reinforce requirements engineering practices. In 2008 16th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, pages 95–104.
SWEBOK (2024). Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK Guide), Version 4.0. IEEE.
Thiry, R. and Marcello, G. (2010). Development of a game to support the teaching of requirements engineering: the requirements island. Proceedings of SBGames, SBC, Florianópolis, Brazil, pages 358–361.
Vega, K., Fuks, H., and Carvalho, G. (2009). Training in requirements by collaboration: Branching stories in second life. page 116 – 122. Cited by: 12.
Venâncio, J. and Benitti, F. (2023). Mike, help me!: um jogo para apoio ao processo de ensino-aprendizagem de técnica de especificação de requisitos de software. In Anais do XXXI Workshop sobre Educação em Computação, pages 476–487, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Vieira, M. and Barbosa, M. (2011). Desenvolvimento e avaliação de jogo de treinamento para ensino de técnicas de elicitação de requisitos de software. In II ENINED - Encontro Nacional de Informática e Educação, pages 312–321, Belo Horizonte, MG.
Vilela, J. and Lopes, J. (2020). Evaluating the students’ experience with a requirements elicitation and communication game. Cited by: 4.
Wohlin, C. (2014). Guidelines for snowballing in systematic literature studies and a replication in software engineering. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series.
Yasin, A., Fatima, R., JiangBin, Z., Ali Khan, J., and Ali Khan, A. (2024). Gamifying requirements: An empirical analysis of game-based technique for novices. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 36(6). Cited by: 6.
Zapata, C. (2010). Communication and traceability game: A way to improve requirements elicitation process teaching. Revista Facultad de Ingeniería Universidad de Antioquia, pages 213–221.
Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P. W., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R. E., Pintrich, P. R., Rathus, J., and Wittrock, M. C. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.
Arnab, S., Lim, T., Carvalho, M., Bellotti, F., Freitas, S., Louchart, S., Suttie, N., Berta, R., and De Gloria, A. (2014). Mapping learning and game mechanics for serious games analysis: Mapping learning and game mechanics. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(02):391–411.
Ayora, C., De La Vara, J. L., Marín, B., and Giachetti, G. (2025). Rethinking how to teach analysis and modelling of business requirements: A serious game integrating genai. In 2025 ACM/IEEE 28th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems Companion (MODELS-C), pages 35–38.
Battistella, P. E. and Wangenheim, C. G. v. (2016). Games for teaching computing in higher education – a systematic review. IEEE Technology and Engineering Education (ITEE), 1:8–30.
Brookhart, S. M. and McMillan, J. H. (2019). Classroom Assessment and Educational Measurement. Routledge, second edition.
Cartaxo, B., Pinto, G., and Soares, S. (2020). Rapid Reviews in Software Engineering. In Contemporary Empirical Methods in Software Engineering, pages 357–384. Springer.
Carvalho Rosa, L. H., Bernardi, G., and Duarte Medina, R. (2021). Mundos virtuais como apoio ao ensino e aprendizagem de engenharia de software: Simulando a técnica de entrevista. RENOTE, 19(1):371–381.
Castro, D., Costa, D. M., and Werner, C. M. L. (2020). Systematic mapping on the use of games for software engineering education. Cited by: 2.
Caulfield, C., Xia, J. C., Veal, D., and Paul Maj, S. (2011). A systematic survey of games used for software engineering education. Modern Applied Science, 5(6):28 – 43. Cited by: 61; All Open Access, Hybrid Gold Open Access.
Daun, M., Grubb, A. M., Stenkova, V., and Tenbergen, B. (2022). A systematic literature review of requirements engineering education. Requirements Engineering, 28(2):311 – 339. Cited by: 0.
De Almeida Souza, M. R., Furtini Veado, L., Teles Moreira, R., Magno Lages Figueiredo, E., and Costa, H. A. X. (2017). Games for learning: bridging game-related education methods to software engineering knowledge areas. In 2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training Track (ICSE-SEET), pages 170–179.
Debacher, N., Kuster, L., Santos, A., Vahldick, A., and Santos, F. (2023). Back to the promotion - evacsim: a serious game to practice requirements elicitation on an agent-based simulation. In Anais do XX Encontro Nacional de Inteligência Artificial e Computacional, pages 169–183, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Delen, M., Dalpiaz, F., and Cooper, K. (2019). Bakere: A serious educational game on the specification and analysis of user stories. volume 2019-September, page 369 – 374. Cited by: 2.
Eduardo Battistella, P. and Gresse von Wangenheim, C. (2015). Engaged: Processo de desenvolvimento de jogos para ensino em computação.
Ernst, M. and Chapin, J. (2005). The groupthink specification exercise. In Proceedings. 27th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2005. ICSE 2005., pages 617–618.
Freitas, S. and Levene, M. (2004). An investigation of the use of simulations and video gaming for supporting exploratory learning and developing higher-order cognitive skills. pages 35–42.
Garcia, I., Pacheco, C., León, A., and Calvo-Manzano, J. A. (2019). Experiences of using a game for improving learning in software requirements elicitation. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 27(1):249 – 265. Cited by: 34.
García, I., Pacheco, C., León, A., and Calvo-Manzano, J. A. (2020). A serious game for teaching the fundamentals of iso/iec/ieee 29148 systems and software engineering – lifecycle processes – requirements engineering at undergraduate level. Computer Standards Interfaces, 67:103377.
Hainey, T., Baxter, G., and Holder, R. (2023). Development of a 3d immersive game for games and systems requirements capture. volume 2023-October, page 225 – 233. Cited by: 2.
Hainey, T., Connolly, T. M., Stansfield, M., and Boyle, E. A. (2011). Evaluation of a game to teach requirements collection and analysis in software engineering at tertiary education level. Computers & Education, 56(1):21–35. Serious Games.
Ibrahim, Z., Soo, M. C., Soo, M. T., and Aris, H. (2019). Design and development of a serious game for the teaching of requirements elicitation and analysis. Cited by: 11.
Ifenthaler, D. and Eseryel, D. (2012). Assessment in game-based learning. In Assessment in Game-Based Learning, pages 1–8. Springer.
Javed, S., Alam, K., Ajmal, S., and Iqbal, U. (2022). Requirements Engineering Education: A Systematic Literature Review, pages 469–480.
Kharbouch, M., Vizcaino, A., García-Berná, J. A., García, F., Toval, A., Pedreira, O., Idri, A., and Fernández-Alemán, J. L. (2025). Uncharted dimensions, gaps, and future trends of serious games in software engineering. Computer Standards Interfaces, 92:103915.
Knauss, E., Schneider, K., and Stapel, K. (2008). A game for taking requirements engineering more seriously. page 22 – 26. Cited by: 38.
Kosa, M., Yilmaz, M., O’Connor, R. V., and Clarke, P. (2016). Software engineering education and games: A systematic literature review. Journal of Universal Computer Science, 22:1558–1574.
Lemos, E., Conceição, M., Nunes, F., Medina, R., and Bernardi, G. (2020). Ad-rpg: Elicitando requisitos na idade média utilizando um jogo educacional. In Anais do XXXI Simpósio Brasileiro de Informática na Educação, pages 1763–1772, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Lima, T., Campos, B., Santos, R., and Werner, C. (2012). Ubire: A game for teaching requirements in the context of ubiquitous systems. Cited by: 9.
Liu, Y., Li, T., Huang, Z., and Yang, Z. (2023). Bara: A dynamic state-based serious game for teaching requirements elicitation. page 141 – 152. Cited by: 8.
Monteiro, F., Carvalho, R., and Gonçalves, E. (2022). Classifiqui: The game for software requirements classification learning. pages 693–702.
Nadolski, R., Hummel, H., Brink, H., Hoefakker, R., Slootmaker, A., Kurvers, H., and Storm, J. (2007). Emergo: A methodology and toolkit for developing serious games in higher education. Simulation Gaming - Simulat Gaming, 39:338–352.
Pacheco, C., Garcia, I., Morales, L., Calvo-Manzano, J. A., and Flores-Ríos, B. (2025). The wonderland mystery: a serious game for supporting education on stakeholder identification in requirements engineering. Requirements Engineering, 30(3):311 – 339. Cited by: 0.
Parrales-Bravo, F., Gómez-Rodríguez, V., Chiquito-Vera, L., Rendón-Quijije, I., Caicedo-Quiroz, R., Tolozano-Benites, E., Vasquez-Cevallos, L., and Cevallos-Torres, L. (2024). Dear: Detecting ambiguous requirements as a way to develop skills in requirement specifications. Electronics (Switzerland), 13(15). Cited by: 5; All Open Access, Gold Open Access.
Parrales-Bravo, F., Jadan-Guerrero, J., Cevallos-Torres, L., Delgado-Olea, G., Lopez-Lozano, A., and Vasquez-Cevallos, L. (2025). Laura: Let’s arrange user requirements accurately. IEEE Access, 13:107154 – 107164. Cited by: 0; All Open Access, Gold Open Access.
Petri, G. and C. Chiavegatti, N. (2015). Um role playing game para o ensino de elicitaÇÃo e anÁlise de requisitos. RENOTE, 13(1).
Plass, J. L., Mayer, R. E., and Homer, B. D. (2019). Handbook of Game-Based Learning. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Pohl, K. and Rupp, C. (2015). Requirements Engineering Fundamentals. Rocky Nook Inc, 802 East Cota St., 3rd Floor - Santa Barbara, CA 93103, second edition.
Rusu, A., Russell, R., and Cocco, R. (2011). Simulating the software engineering interview process using a decision-based serious computer game. page 235 – 239. Cited by: 13.
Sarinho, V. T., Gomes, V. O., and Sarinho, W. T. (2019). Erquiz: A multiplayer multiplatform instant messaging game for the competitive assessment of requirements engineering knowledge. In Proceedings of the XVIII SBGames, page 591–594, Rio de Janeiro – RJ.
Silva, J., Sousa, S., Kulesza, R., and Brito, A. (2012). Uma avaliação do emprego do jogo modelando como apoio ao ensino de engenharia de requisitos. In Anais do XX Workshop sobre Educação em Computação, pages 240–250, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Smith, R. and Gotel, O. (2008). Gameplay to introduce and reinforce requirements engineering practices. In 2008 16th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, pages 95–104.
SWEBOK (2024). Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK Guide), Version 4.0. IEEE.
Thiry, R. and Marcello, G. (2010). Development of a game to support the teaching of requirements engineering: the requirements island. Proceedings of SBGames, SBC, Florianópolis, Brazil, pages 358–361.
Vega, K., Fuks, H., and Carvalho, G. (2009). Training in requirements by collaboration: Branching stories in second life. page 116 – 122. Cited by: 12.
Venâncio, J. and Benitti, F. (2023). Mike, help me!: um jogo para apoio ao processo de ensino-aprendizagem de técnica de especificação de requisitos de software. In Anais do XXXI Workshop sobre Educação em Computação, pages 476–487, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Vieira, M. and Barbosa, M. (2011). Desenvolvimento e avaliação de jogo de treinamento para ensino de técnicas de elicitação de requisitos de software. In II ENINED - Encontro Nacional de Informática e Educação, pages 312–321, Belo Horizonte, MG.
Vilela, J. and Lopes, J. (2020). Evaluating the students’ experience with a requirements elicitation and communication game. Cited by: 4.
Wohlin, C. (2014). Guidelines for snowballing in systematic literature studies and a replication in software engineering. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series.
Yasin, A., Fatima, R., JiangBin, Z., Ali Khan, J., and Ali Khan, A. (2024). Gamifying requirements: An empirical analysis of game-based technique for novices. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 36(6). Cited by: 6.
Zapata, C. (2010). Communication and traceability game: A way to improve requirements elicitation process teaching. Revista Facultad de Ingeniería Universidad de Antioquia, pages 213–221.
Publicado
29/09/2026
Como Citar
CORRÊA, Chessman K. F.; XEXÉO, Geraldo.
An Educational Evaluation of Games for Requirements Engineering Learning: A Rapid Review. In: SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO DE JOGOS E ENTRETENIMENTO DIGITAL (SBGAMES), 25. , 2026, Goiânia/GO.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2026
.
p. 1690-1703.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbgames.2026.25326.
