Serious Game Secrets: Best Practices Revealed

Thosetasked with training at corporations, colleges, and government agencies areseeking ways to increase knowledge retention and engagement with theirlearners. To do this, many turn to web-based training of some kind. However,there are also those who are looking for more than an eLearning module orsimple page turner. Utilizing serious games is a great way not only to educateyour workforce, but also to engage and entertain them at the same time.

The right approach

Whenan organization decides to embark on a serious game project, there can be majorsetbacks if it is not approached properly. For the most part setbacks are theresult of:

• Little-to-noplanning
• Tough-to-pinpointmetrics
• Roughimplementation strategies
• Insufficientplanning for implementation, marketing, or post-deployment strategies—the “ifyou build it, they will come” attitude.

Effectiveserious games are living, evolving things that cannot simply be ignored afterdevelopment and “put on a shelf” to collect digital dust.

Whenconsidering the development of a serious game, the phrase “measure twice andcut once” comes to mind. Before development begins, your learning objectivesmust be clearly defined and in parallel with the rewards and feedback systemsused within the game. What are you trying to teach? After completing theirtraining, what skills should the learner have acquired? By outlining yourmeasurable objectives clearly before the start of the project, you ensure youare investing in a serious game that will reach those learning objectives.There is no real value in a game that looks great but doesn’t reach yourobjectives and doesn’t reinforce the behavior change.

Human nature

Inthe development of a serious game, one must also consider how to inspireinvolvement in the game. Appealing to the competitive nature of humans throughleaderboards, badges, and gamification can spur involvement and get employeesexcited. And when you get good at this, you can disguise training as somethingmuch more fun and entertaining. What’s more exciting than beating your boss ina game and receiving recognition for doing so? Status can be more important topeople than a gift card or catered lunch, so make sure your incentives arerelevant and desirable to your audience. An internal marketing plan is anothergreat way to keep employees up-to-date and interested in their training.

Success metrics

Oneof the most important aspects to consider is how you will measure the successof your serious game. Recording pre-deployment and post-deployment metrics thatexist within your organization, such as sales rates per quarter or even attritionrates over a five-year span, help you gauge the success of your training. Forinstance, sales figures prior to your training game, when compared topost-deployment figures, can provide you an external metric of success. This isnot the end-all result, but it’s one small example of how external metrics cantrack success.

Whatmetrics are important to your organization? How can you utilize the data tomeasure performance and relate that data to the learning objectives? Trackingevents such as how often people play, when they play, and for how long, cangive great insight about your game. However, it does not provide you enoughmetric data to see how successful a serious game is. By recording and analyzingmetrics that make sense to your learning objectives, your organization will farebetter than those who choose to have a game developed and leave it “on theshelf.”

Post-deployment strategies

Soyou have a serious game developed. Now what? As mentioned earlier, seriousgames are a living, evolving entity that require attention throughout the lifeof their deployment. How are you going to keep employees involved? Whatperformance support pieces are available within your game? What can you do toensure the training is continually beneficial? By utilizing an internalmarketing plan, you can keep your learners engaged, in the loop, and excitedabout participating. Making resources available in the game is anotherexcellent way to utilize your project as a performance support piece.