Abstract

Serious games are games that are designed to educate rather
than entertain. The game outlined and evaluated here was
commissioned and designed as a tool to improve the group
decision making skills of people who manage real-world
emergencies such as floods, fires, volcanoes and chemical
spills. The game design exploits research on decision making
groups and applies pedagogically sound games design
principles. An evaluation of the game design was carried out
based on a paper prototype. Eight participants were recruited and assigned to two groups of four participants each. These groups were video recorded while playing the game and the video was analysed in terms of game actions and member participation. Results indicate that the group who behaved in a more appropriate manner for a decision making group were rewarded with more positive feedback from the game state. These findings suggest that the game itself delivers appropriate feedback to players on their collaborative behaviour and is thus fit for the purposes intended in the current project.