Medical education faces the challenge of promoting learning activities that develop clinical reasoning, decision-making, and the application of knowledge in real healthcare contexts. In this scenario, serious games are a promising tool, offering a safe, low-cost environment in which learners can explore clinical decisions and observe their consequences. However, two rapid literature reviews, a survey with game development professionals, and a case study conducted in this dissertation converge on the same finding: a lack of game design methods that formally integrate clinical protocols into the development process of serious games. To address this gap, this dissertation proposes, develops, and evaluates the Play Your Protocol (PYPr) method, a digital game design method for visual novel games based on clinical protocols, aimed at structuring serious game development in healthcare and supporting communication among multidisciplinary teams, including physicians, artists, and developers. The Action Design Research (ADR) methodology proposed by Sein et al. (2011) was adopted as the main research strategy, given its support for continuous intervention and evaluation of the artifact throughout its construction. PYPr was iteratively developed and refined across three cycles during the development of the serious game SOS SCA, in partnership with UFRJ’s medical team. The method was evaluated through a form combining Likert-scale and open-ended questions, analyzed using Bardin’s (2011) Content Analysis method. Results indicate that PYPr positively contributed to the development process: clinical cases emerged as the primary artifact bridging medical and game design knowledge, communication among multidisciplinary teams improved, and intermediate validation cycles reduced ework across game versions.
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