Prototyping Casual Web-Based Educational Game using GDLC method

Abstract

Traditional Indonesian (Nusantara) cuisine is a vital part of the nation's cultural heritage, yet the interest of the younger generation in local culture continues to decline amid the dominance of global digital media, so more adaptive preservation media are needed. Existing culinary educational games generally rely on a single game mechanic and are distributed as installable Android applications, and most report only usability rather than validated learning gains. This study develops and evaluates a casual web-based educational game, Jajan Nusantara, that integrates two complementary mechanics, Drop & Merge and a cooking-simulation mini-game, to introduce the culinary heritage of four regions (Yogyakarta, Bali, Aceh, and Maluku) to elementary-school students. The game is built with the Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) and evaluated with 29 fifth-grade students through Pre-test and Post-test instruments, user-acceptance questionnaires, and an additional teacher evaluation. The average score increased from 6.93 in the Pre-test to 9.69 in the Post-test; a Paired Sample T-Test confirmed a statistically significant difference (t = 10.207; p = 6.11 × 10⁻¹¹), and the normalized N-Gain reached 0.917 (High category). The questionnaire instruments obtained Cronbach's Alpha values above 0.88 (high reliability), with student acceptance of 95.52% (Visual Design) and 95.69% (Satisfaction) and teacher acceptance of 97.50%. These results demonstrate that combining Drop & Merge with a cooking simulation in an accessible web game is highly effective as a learning medium and engaging for children, supporting the preservation of local culinary culture in the digital era.