SeriousGXcraft: An Innovative Framework for Multidisciplinary Serious Game Development Powered by XML

In the landscape of Education 4.0, Serious Games have gained traction as an engaging learning tool, blending entertainment with pedagogy. However, developing serious games poses multidisciplinary challenges, requiring a delicate balance between learning objectives and entertainment. Existing literature highlights significant gaps in addressing these challenges, with many frameworks adopting narrow perspectives that overlook the holistic nature of serious game development. This paper aims to fill these gaps by introducing SeriousGXcraft, an innovative eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based framework for the development (design, implementation and evaluation) of serious games. Born from a collaborative effort between technology and psycho-pedagogy experts, this framework overcomes the limitations of existing ones by leveraging the flexibility of XML and providing a comprehensive and integrated solution. It promotes multidisciplinary collaboration and ensures a harmonious balance between the playful and learning aspects of serious games. By harnessing the capabilities of XML schema, SeriousGXcraft empowers the development team to effectively browse and provide visual support for the complex facets of the serious game development process.