  In the popular video game Batman: Arkham Knight, produced by Rocksteady
Studios and released in 2015, the primary protagonist of the game is Batman, a
vigilante dressed as a bat, fighting crime from the shadows in the fictitious
city of Gotham. The game involves a real-world player who takes up the role of
Batman to solve a peculiar side mission wherein they have to reconstruct the
clean DNA sequence of a human and separate it from mutant DNA to manufacture an
antidote to cure the villain. Although this is undoubtedly a fascinating part
of the game, one that was absent in previous Batman games, it showcases an
interesting notion of using mini-games embedded within primary games to achieve
a particular real-world research objective. Although the DNA data used in this
case was not real, there are multiple such instances in video games where
mini-games have been used for an underlying motive besides entertainment. Based
on popular case studies incorporating a similar method, this study
characterizes the methodology of designing mini-games within primary games for
research purposes into a descriptive framework, highlighting the process's
advantages and limitations. It is concluded that these mini-games not only
facilitate a deeper understanding of complex scientific concepts but also
accelerate data processing and analysis by leveraging crowd-sourced human
intuition and pattern recognition capabilities. This paper argues for
strategically incorporating miniaturized, gamified elements into established
video games that are mainly intended for recreational purposes.
