Battle Shapes: A Gamified Approach to Enhancing Metacognitive Skills Through Interactive Mobile Gaming

Abstract

Mobile games have been shown to develop the metacognitive skills of players as they immerse in challenging interactive scenarios. With the growing significance of gamified learning in cognitive growth, there is a need to explore innovative game ideas that promotes skills improvement through entertainment. Hence, this study proposes Battle Shapes, a 2D mobile game that combines traditional gaming elements with cognitive exercises to promote entertainment and skills development and improve metacognitive skills through an interactive experience. The game has a dynamic environment and offers unlockable characters, arena skins, and achievement-based progression. Unlike many mobile games, a unique aspect of the game is the gyroscope-controlled system that introduces a physical exercise schematic. Battle Shapes was developed using the Unity3D game engine following the Agile methodology. It offers three battle environments, including Void, Forest, and Desert, each with unique obstacles to promote engagement. Thirty gamers were recruited to assess the game and its mechanics. This assessment yielded positive mean scores ranging from 4.38 to 4.66 among four key measures: game design, user engagement, interactivity, and usability. These imply that Battle Shapes has effectively achieved its goal of combining cognitive skills improvement and entertainment while ensuring an optimized and immersive gaming experience.