Serious Game Secrets What, Why, Where, How, Who Cares?

Andrew Hughes, Designing Digitally

SERIOUS GAME SECRETS What, Why, Where, How, Who Cares?

Andrew Hughes President Designing Digitally, Inc.

Why Serious Games? Serious games and gamification are all the buzz in our industry. But do they actually provide a return on investment? What do they do for our training needs:

• They can engage an ever immersed workforce • They can make learning fun, rather than a requirement • They can Engage the socializers in your organization • They provide a sugary approach to the bad tasting cough medicine

We must stop looking at ROI and look at ROE! Return on Engagement!

• A Serious Game is not: • Badges • Trophies • Leader Boards • Themes • Gamification

• A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, and politics.

Other names used in the industry: • Game-Based Learning • Edutainment Games • Learning Games

• There are key items that make up a good serious game. While there are many other components we can discuss, this is an overview of must have list to make any game successful.

COMPONTENTS TO A GOOD GAME: • Continuous Challenges • Interesting Storyline throughout • Flexibility of attaining goals with multiple outcomes • Immediate, consistent and useful rewards • Combining Fun and Learning together • Tracking Player Data and Trends - Analytics

Continuous Challenge: Provide the players continuous challenges at each level of the game that then leads to another challenge, to keep them "hooked" on playing a game.

• The setting is clear, short-term goals • Appropriate challenges to the level of the player • Learn your audience and their motivational factors • Level challenges aimed at achieving a learning objective

Interesting Storyline throughout: This isn't essential to every kind of game (for example, not for a scavenger hunt), especially when players are competing against each other. However, a good storyline can liven up the experience and provide the player with a sense of wonder.

• Used best when applying single player experiences • Leave the player with a sense of wonder and mystery • Use the storyline throughout the game to entice • Fantasy context makes players more motivated to succeed

Gameplay Flexibility: Make sure that there are many different ways to accomplish each goal. Simply plotting out a step-by-step progression through the goals can be stifling and boring.

• Encourage branching outcomes and multiplayer collaboration • Allow for players to work out their own pathway to the endpoint • Create level appropriate challenges and motivation • Provide multiple approaches to achieve learning objectives

Immediate, useful rewards: Instead of just points towards victory, successful players (or the pieces or characters they're in charge of) can be rewarded with new capabilities, a new part of the board to explore or even a new task.

• Provide immediate rewards to spark encouragement • Provide badges for status and achievement • Create level appropriate rewards without making it too easy • Unlock additional features, levels, and tools while playing • NOTE: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction - Newton’s 3rd law applies to games!

Serious Game Secrets: What, Why, Where, How, Who Cares? – Andrew Hughes – Copyright © 2015 – Designing Digitally, Inc. Serious Game Secrets: What, Why, Where, Who Cares? – Andrew Hughes – Copyright © 2015 – Designing Digitally, Inc. SERIOUS GAMES – WHAT?

Combining Fun and Realism: Excessive realism can lead to a boring game. Good games often incorporate incorrect assumptions or reward unrealistic behaviors, such as giving players too much time to make decisions.

• Make the game fun! Fun must be a metric! • Don’t replicate exact realism, that’s a simulation! • A game doesn’t do everything for everyone, focus on the issue • Use exaggeration, and reaction to show impact not mimic real life • If it’s real and exactly like real life, it’s a simulation not a game!

SERIOUS GAMES – WHERE?