The game industry is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. Out of this gaming industry a new phenomenon has arisen: serious gaming. Serious gaming is used to educate people in an entertaining way and in a safe environment. An important benefit of educating people through a serious game is that this can be much cheaper than in real life. To be cost effective it is really important to make the games generic so they can be used for a larger target group. Serious gaming is rapidly becoming one of the hottest topics for governments, companies and educational institutes. The so-called Einstein generation (young people) learn in a different way: online, doing things simultaneously and through games. We need to incorporate this change into our way of teaching.
In this IP the students will create a serious game to educate future employees of an industrial plant about safety regulations. The students will work in separate groups producing different solutions for a safety “situation” at the industrial plant.
The game will incorporate the cultural aspects of each participating European country so the game will be educational to European citizens. This is really important as people from different countries react differently to signs, instructions, etc.
Students will learn how to create a serious game for an international audience, learn how to work in an international team, learn how to work with computer graphics, work on their programming skills and will have closer contact with industry.
The first rounds of the IP took place in different countries: 2013 in Dornbirn, Austria, 2012 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and 2010 in Tronheim, Norway. The final IP will take place 2014 in Carlow, Ireland. Serious games have been developed to teach safety regulations in a plant typical for the host country. In Norway this was related to safety procedures in an oil plant (industrial partner: Statoil). In the Netherlands this was related to making life in deltas, coastal areas and river basins safe, clean and sustainable (industrial partner: Deltares). In Austria this was related to how to safely run a Hydro Power Plant (industrial partner: Vorarlberg Kraftwerke Illwerke). In Ireland this will be related to how the Casement Air Base operate (industrial partner: the Defense Forces Ireland).
