How can serious gaming become tool for science communication? What fundamentals and specific considerations must be taken into account during prototype development—and how can such games be marketed on a non-commercial basis? Game developer Johannes Mattmann from Andarion Games worked on these questions with emergenCITY Wimis and office members during a two-day workshop.

The workshop was organized in connection with the development of the serious game eHUB cities: Blackout, which Mattmann is currently setting up for emergenCITY in close collaboration with researchers. In this story-based computer game, players take on the role of an eHUB resident and experience a power outage from that person’s perspective. The eHUB is an energy-self-sufficient smart home on the Lichtwiese campus, where emergenCITY researchers are actually conducting research on the scenario of a prolonged power outage and its consequences.

Combining Storytelling and Science

Following a presentation by Mattman on serious gaming as a field in science and science communication, the team tested the game’s first prototype and discussed its connection to the condcuted research. In a brainstorming session, the participants gathered ideas for a website that would clearly summarize and explain the research content presented by the game. The balance between state-of-the-art facts from emergenCITY research and a certain utopian character of the game—in which eHUBs are already an established part of urban infrastructure—was the most important consideration for the workshop participants here.

Learn more about the serious game eHUB cities: Blackout: https://ehubcities.de/

Learn more about the emergenCITY Mission Serious Games: https://www.emergencity.de/missions/seriousgames/