Abstract: Pervasive gaming is a new and emerging gaming genre where the physical and social aspects of the real world are integrated into the game and blends into the players everyday life. Given the nature of pervasive games, it may be possible to use t hat type of game as a tool to support learning in a university course by providing a gameplay where the students, by playing the game, expands the area of learning beyond the lecture hall and lectures and into the students everyday life. If this is possib le, the area for learning will also become pervasive and be everywhere and anywhere at any time. To address this research area, a prototype of a playable pervasive game to support learning in university studies has been designed. This paper presents the e xperimental pervasive game Nuclear Mayhem and how the game was designed to be pervasive and support the curriculum of the course. Analysis of log files showed that 87% of the logins in the game client was done outside of the time period that was allocated to lectures and lab exercises and that logins where registered in all the 24 hours of a day. These numbers indicate that the game became pervasive and a part of the students/players everyday life. Interviews with the players indicate that they found the game exciting and fun to play, but that the academic tasks and riddles that they had to solve during the game were too easy to solve. The paper concludes that games such as Nuclear Mayhem are promising tools to support learning and transform the area for learning to become pervasive relative to the players everyday life and suggest improvements in the game for the next versions.

Abstract: Pervasive gaming is a reality‑based gaming genre originating from alternative theatrical forms in which the performance becomes a part of the players⠒ everyday life. In recent years much research has been done on pervasive gaming (Benford et al. 2005, Cheok et al. 2006, Jegers and Wiberg 2006) and its potential applications towards specific domains. Pervasive games have been effective with regards to advertising (VG 2009), education (Pløhn 2013) and social relationship building (Pløhn and Aalberg 2013). In pervasive games that take place over a long period of time, i.e. days or weeks, an important success criterion is to provide features that support in‑game awareness and increases the pervasiveness of the game according to the playe rs⠒ everyday life. However, given the nature of pervasive games, they also pose challenges when compared to more traditional gaming approaches, namely; 1) How can one make the game pervasive according to the players⠒ everyday life? and 2) How can on e support in‑game awareness?. This paper presents a Dynamic Pervasive Storytelling (DPS) approach and describes the design of the pervasive game Nuclear Mayhem (NM), a pervasive game designed to support a Web‑games development course at the Nord‑Trøn delag University College, Norway. NM ran parallel with the course and lasted for nine weeks and needed specific features both to become a part of the players⠒ everyday life and to remind the players about the ongoing game. DPS, as a model, is oriented t owards increasing the pervasiveness of the game and supporting a continuous level of player in‑game awareness through the use of real life events (RLE). DPS uses RLE as building blocks both to create the overall game story prior to the start of the game by incorporating elements of current affairs in its design and during the unfolding of the game as a mean to increase the pervasiveness and in‑game awareness of the experience. The paper concludes that DPS is a promising approach for creating a game stor y which increases the pervasiveness of the game and supports

Abstract: In 2013 Hedmark University College conducted a research project where students from a game development project/study program developed and tested a Pervasive Game for learning as part of a class in System Thinking. The overall game goal was to t each Sustainability through System Thinking, and to give the students a real world experience with their game;. It was tested on 5th and 7th graders in elementary school, spending one school day in each of the classes. This article focuses on the design o f the project: how the game was developed, how the children played it and how research was designed and data collected.