Abstract for: System Thinking in Game Design: Advanced game design for entertainment games, serious games and gamification

This article describes how system thinking can be used in advanced game design to make design drawings and simulate the game design before the game coding starts. This can save time and simulation code can be extracted and imported to the game engines (unity, unreal etc.) The article shows examples from an advanced game design course taught in the Game School at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences which demonstrate which elements of game development can benefit from this methodology. We discuss the course design and how students have used system analyses and system dynamics to design games and to balance game assets and resources by simulating game outcomes.