From critical game analysis to pedagogical redesign: A qualitative multiple-case study in undergraduate plant science education

Background : Research on game-based learning in science has predominantly examined students as players, while less is known about how critical analysis of existing games can function as a preparatory design task. This study investigated how undergraduate biology students evaluated plant-related educational games and translated that critique into redesign decisions. Methods : A qualitative multiple-case study was conducted in an undergraduate Plant Propagation course at a public university in Brazil. Nine students working in three groups critically analyzed one existing game or teaching resource using a structured 12-prompt guide and subsequently developed a redesigned game. The corpus comprised student-generated critical analyses, presentations, manuals, prototype documentation, and the published or institutional source materials that had been analyzed. A hybrid deductive-inductive content analysis combined within-case mapping with cross-case synthesis. Results : Students evaluated games not only for scientific accuracy but also for whether disciplinary knowledge affected play, the balance between knowledge and chance, cognitive demand, participation structure, teacher mediation, feasibility, and evidence of learning. Three redesign logics were observed: change of medium, interface/interaction transformation, and pedagogical-mechanics transformation. The clearest critique-to-redesign alignment occurred when a speed-based true/false activity was transformed into a turn-based game using contextualized problems, graded difficulty, and mandatory scientific justification. Other groups selectively preserved competition or rapid response while changing the technological interface, showing that redesign was not a linear process of correcting every identified limitation. Conclusions : Critical game analysis can serve as a design-oriented learning task in undergraduate biology by making trade-offs between disciplinary representation, gameplay, participation, and school feasibility visible. Student-generated artefacts provide evidence of design decisions, although they do not by themselves establish individual learning gains.