Gamification with the Universal Game Heuristic to Develop a Mobile Web Game for Learning Viena Karelian Dialect and Culture University of Oulu Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering / Information Processing Science / INTERACT Master’s Thesis Triando Damiri Burlian 2 May 2019 2 Abstract Learning Viena Karelian dialect and culture require an innovative approach to increase the willingness of learners to learn in a fun and an effective way. Karelian is an endangered language with only around 35,000 speakers, in contrast with 640,000 people who live in the Republic of Karelia. If the number of speakers slowly decrease every year and there are limited ways to learn, then those problems may lead this endangered language to be extinct in the future. Therefore, gamification approach was used to design and build an educational game from non-gaming contexts. In this research, a functional prototype was built to learn Viena Karelian dialect and culture, where the beginner learners, from English and Finnish speakers, can learn with desktop, tablet, and smartphone devices. Design science research was used as the research method and the universal game heuristic was used as the design cycle. A functional prototype that can be accessed by using web browsers was built with Laravel PHP framework and Bootstrap frontend framework. Learners can play the game and explore various features to learn Viena Karelian dialect and culture. Testing phase was conducted in the 3rd international GamiFIN conference with 38 players and 12 received feedback, and the result shown that the game motivated the test participants to play, with 91.7% positive engagement. The feedback is available for further improvement of Viena game development project and as a foundation to develop similar games for other Karelian dialects and culture. Keywords bootstrap frontend framework, design science research, gamification, karelian culture, karelian language, laravel php framework, universal game heuristic, viena karelian dialect Supervisor Dr. Leena Arhippainen – University of Oulu Dr. Xiaofeng Wang – Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Published paper Damiri Burlian, T., Sharmila, P., Alavesa, P., & Arhippainen, L. (2019). Revitalizing Viena Karelian Dialect and Culture with Gamification. In The 3rd International GamiFIN Conference. Levi, Finland: CEUR Workshop Proceedings. April 8 – 10, 2019. Research-In-Progress paper Damiri Burlian, T., & Arhippainen, L. (2019). Gamification of Learning Viena Karelian Dialect and Culture with a Mobile Web Game. To be submitted: The 2019 International Conference on Advanced Computer Science and Information Systems. Bali, Indonesia: IEEE. October 12 – 13, 2019. 3 Foreword Foremost, alhamdulillah (all the praises and thanks be to Allah). I would like to sincerely thank my supervisors, Dr. Leena Arhippainen and Dr. Xiaofeng Wang, who supported, guided, and helped me to complete my master’s thesis. I would like to thank Dr. Mikko Rajanen, who helped me for the feedback as the master’s thesis opponent. I am thankful to Prof. Barbara Russo, Ph.D., Ovais Ahmad, Elena Gabardi, and all staff of the European Masters Programme in Software Engineering (EMSE) who contributed to my study and scholarship in Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Italy) as my first year university and University of Oulu (Finland) as my second year university. Thanks to Karjalan Sivistysseura – Karelia Cultural Society (established in 1906) for funding the VIENA-PELI project and Febyola Tiara Putri as a UI/UX expert who helped me in the design phase. I would like to express my thanks to all my family and friends who give direct and indirect contributions to me. Finally, special thanks to Indah Ayu Fauziah. Triando Damiri Burlian Oulu, 2 May 2019 4 Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 2 Foreword ........................................................................................................................... 3 Contents............................................................................................................................. 4 Figures ............................................................................................................................... 5 Tables ................................................................................................................................ 6 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 7 2. Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Gamification ...................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Game Heuristics ................................................................................................. 11 2.3 Similar Language and Culture Learning Games ................................................ 12 2.4 Laravel PHP Framework and Bootstrap Frontend Framework ......................... 13 3. Research Methodology ............................................................................................... 15 3.1 Research Objective ............................................................................................ 15 3.2 Research Method ............................................................................................... 16 3.2.1 Design Science Research Components and Activities ........................... 16 3.2.2 The Universal Game Heuristic as the Design Cycle .............................. 17 4. Implementation ........................................................................................................... 19 4.1 Context Phase..................................................................................................... 19 4.2 Design Phase ...................................................................................................... 21 4.3 Production Phase ................................................................................................ 24 4.4 Testing Phase ..................................................................................................... 26 4.5 Release and Support Phase ................................................................................ 29 5. Evaluation ................................................................................................................... 30 5.1 Target User......................................................................................................... 30 5.2 Game Engagement ............................................................................................. 32 5.3 Gameplays.......................................................................................................... 33 6. Discussion .................................................................................................................. 35 6.1 Revisiting the Research Questions..................................................................... 35 6.2 Practical Implications......................................................................................... 36 7. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 39 7.1 Limitations ......................................................................................................... 39 7.2 Future Research ................................................................................................. 39 References ....................................................................................................................... 40 Appendix A. Game Wireframes ...................................................................................... 45 Appendix B. Game Prototype ......................................................................................... 51 5 Figures Figure 1. Model-view-controller in Laravel PHP Framework (adapted from Verma, 2014) ....................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 2. Knowledge Contribution Framework (adapted from Gregor & Hevner, 2013) ................................................................................................................................. 15 Figure 3. Design Science Research Cycles (adapted from Hevner, 2007) .................... 16 Figure 4. Phases of Game Heuristic ............................................................................... 17 Figure 5. Game Flow ...................................................................................................... 19 Figure 6. Landing Page Wireframe ................................................................................ 22 Figure 7. Home Page Wireframe in English and Finnish .............................................. 23 Figure 8. Reading - Easy ................................................................................................ 23 Figure 9. Listening - Medium and Writing - Easy ......................................................... 24 Figure 10. Home Page on a Desktop Device ................................................................. 25 Figure 11. Home Pages on a Tablet and Smartphone Devices ...................................... 25 Figure 12. Weekly Rank on the Leaderboard (April 10th, 2019) ................................... 27 Figure 13. How much do you