Introduction:

The pedagogical literature proposes serious games as effective tools for learning; however, it studies them as if they were homogeneous products that differ only by theme. Thus, their designs are not discussed and are left to the consideration of each teacher-creator.

Objective:

To establish the relationship between effectiveness in learning outcomes and the criteria for the design of games for medical education.

Methods:

Systematic review of the literature about medical games and published between 2011 and 2015, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, following the Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. Based on the literature, a system was constructed with 15 design criteria for assessing the games, and a comparison was established with the reported effectiveness.

Results:

In the 26 final articles that were reviewed, the learning outcomes were generally positive, and the game design criteria did affect the effectiveness of the learning outcomes. The degree of these effects and the level of scientific evidence varied according to the design criteria.

Conclusions:

The relationship found between game design and learning effectiveness should lead to developments of serious game that enhance the proposals made with a conscious usage of technical criteria.

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