An explorative analysis of gameplay data based on a serious game of climate adaptation in Aotearoa New Zealand

Serious games play a crucial role in educating and engaging the public on environmental management issues, such as climate change. These games also generate valuable data that can be used in understanding players' climate change decisions. However, there is a notable gap in the literature on serious game analytics to address the significance of scrutinising the usefulness of utilising gameplay data to explore player behaviours. This paper explores this gap through descriptive and quantitative analysis of gameplay data from ‘The Township Flooding Challenge’ in Aotearoa New Zealand to obtain data insights and data gaps in understanding players' behaviours and decisions on climate change adaptation. The findings suggest that gameplay data can offer insights into players' decisions on climate change adaptations amid uncertainty, but also highlights data gaps such as unclear definitions and incomplete data. Leveraging gameplay data can aid in data collection, decision-making modelling, and improving serious game design. • Gameplay data analysis of climate change serious games offers a new way of understanding climate change adaptation decisions. • Data gaps are identified regarding using gameplay data from serious games. • Advances in game data collection and analysis suggest new methods to enhance serious games for climate adaptation decisions.