The art of gamification; teaching sustainability and system thinking by pervasive game development

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 teach Sustainability through System Thinking, and to give the students a real world experience with their game;. It was tested on 5^th and 7^th graders in elementary school, spending one school day in each of the classes. This article focuses on the design of the project: how the game was developed, how the children played it and how research was designed and data collected.