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A frequent motivation behind the development of serious games is the notion that game play provides a greater level of motivation or engagement that encourages players to perform better or complete more difficult challenges. There are in truth many aspects to concepts such as engagement, immersion, flow or other terms used to motivate the use of games in place of more traditional didactic training approaches. In this paper we discuss some of the issues of usability and its relation to engagement. This discussion is framed in relation to a usability study of a serious game that is being developed to support psychological counseling of individuals with comorbidity of depression and alcohol use disorders. We compare issues of usability and engagement in the serious game called Shadow directly with a more traditional online intervention program called SHADE. The study uses previously established surveys, namely, the System Usability Scale, the Perceived Usefulness and Ease of Use, and a modified survey for measuring Engagement to compare the two approaches. Results from a pilot study with 10 participants frame a discussion of the role usability plays in designing for engagement in serious games such as Shadow. Categories and Subject Descriptors Human-centered computing → Laboratory experiments • Human-centered computing ~ Laboratory experiments • Software and its engineering➝Interactive games • Applied computing➝Computer games

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The widespread popularity of computer games have led to their expanded use in more serious applications for training and education. In many cases serious games are being advanced as more compelling than traditional face-to-face or interactive online training. A typically reported motivation for developing serious games is to try and increase engagement of participants and thus ultimately the effectiveness of the training experience. In this paper we discuss the relation of affect to engagement. The training reported in this study relates to a psychological counseling program developed to assist patients with comorbidity in depression and alcohol use disorders. A pre-existing online intervention program, called "SHADE", had been found to provide effective treatment when participants completed the program. However, a significant number of participants failed to complete the program, with most exits occurring when Cognitive Based Training (CBT) was integrated into the online program. To try and increase the number of participants completing the program a serious game, called "Shadow" is being developed to cover similar material. This paper reports on a study that uses the startle reflex modulation measure to try and objectively quantify the affective engagement of players in the two treatment approaches, Shadow, the serious game, versus SHADE, the online intervention program. Also reported are the issues associated with using affective processing, as measured by the startle probe technique, as a means of evaluating engagement in serious games.