Table 1 Phase 1 Structure to Design a Palliative Care Stay Room

1. Theme and storyline

- Defining a clear goal: what experience must participants go through to incite empathy and acquire knowledge?

- Choosing a story (using storytelling technique to write the beginning, the body, and the end of the story)

- Imagining the scenario (using storyboarding technique to visualize details)

- How many rooms do we have in our history? (assuming that a Room represents a moment of progress in the story)

- Selecting one specific aim for each Room and linking it to the final message

2. Game ground-rules

- Playing duration

- How many players per game (minimum and maximum)

- Rules for players during the game

- What and how players will gain versus lose

- Selecting two or three enigmas to solve per Room

3. Practical Issues

- Create a list of objects we need in each Room

- Where we can get and buy it (budget)

- Which materials do we need to create or select so that the gaming experience can be as dynamic as possible (e.g., videos, sounds, music, light effects)

- Consider selecting spaces that feature electricity and technology

- Contact some volunteers to help with logistic issues (instructions, assembly, disassembly, maintenance, observation…)

- Consult different people from different fields (companies that create escape rooms, audio-visual experts, interior designers, actors, gamers, other researchers with experience in gamification, etc.)

- Involve civic and political stakeholders

- Select ten people from your target group to run the pre-test