Prototyping a Waste-Sorting Game using Phaser 3 Framework

Abstract

Waste sorting at household level is playing a crucial role in improving solid waste management in Vietnam. Despite recent legal reforms aimed at enforcing sorting practices, non-compliance remains widespread. Along with low motivation, one underlying cause is the public’s limited knowledge of how to sort waste correctly. This product-based thesis explores the effective use of serious games to guide the public in waste-sorting practices as well as investigates the technical feasibility of using Phaser 3 to develop a 2D educational game. To achieve these goals, the study first reviews previous prototypes of other waste-sorting games to understand their approaches and limitations. Insights from the review are then utilized to inform the design of a Tetris-like waste-sorting game. Finally, the game design is implemented using the Phaser 3 framework.

The theoretical review of serious game designs suggests that games with purposeful designs tend to produce positive educational outcomes. The basic design principles involve improvements of goals, feedback, reinforcement, guidance and gameplay experience. Among these, timely feedback is highlighted as the most influential design principle for supporting learning in waste sorting. In parallel, the prototyping process reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the Phaser 3 game framework. Its scene-based structure and extensive toolkit significantly contribute to the development efficiency for 2D web games. However, technical limitations are identified in user interface components, visual layout support, and native text input handling.

Based on these findings, the study recommends conducting a user test to further validate the educational outcome of the waste-sorting game. To better support the user test, back-end services could be implemented to enable data collection. The user test results should be then used to strengthen the game’s core mechanic before applying more advanced design principles to extend the game features