The use of games and gamification elements in the construction industry

Gamification and serious games are experiencing a notable increase in application within civil engineering, as they can provide additional value, such as knowledge and entertainment. Therefore, there is interest from academia in studying the use of gamification tools in Civil Construction and Lean Construction. It was then noted that there is a need to develop a systematic literature review on gamification and serious games in the construction industry. This article presents the state of the art through a comprehensive bibliographic search of relevant manuscripts on the topic in question. This study was produced through a systematic literature review conducted with the support of the StArt software, using searches on the Scopus, Web of Science, and Engineering Village platforms. Fifteen manuscripts were selected after excluding those unrelated to the topic or failing to meet the minimum quality criteria. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using the data from these manuscripts to understand the research panorama. Furthermore, an analysis of the groups identified through VOSviewer and a detailed analysis of the 15 selected articles were carried out, which made it possible to identify the particularities of each research and thus answer the research questions. The following research gaps were identified: a) using Gamification elements as a management tool in the construction industry and b) Gamification to bring customers and builders together. Furthermore, it was identified that research has focused much more on using serious games in educational environments than on using Gamification elements on the construction site. Thus, the results presented can serve as a reference and contribute to future research on this topic.