A few truths about techies: there are those who are inspired to change the world with the latest developments, and there are those who will make a game of any opportunity. Then there are those who exist in the center of that Venn diagram, and they are the creators of serious games. The definition of serious games may sound oxymoronic, but it has also been referred to as redundant, as many gamers consider themselves serious players. Encouraging play about serious issues shouldn’t be seen as trivializing the topic, but rather encouraging the exploration of systems in a sandbox environment that allows players to gain IRL experience safely in-game.
Policy Playhouse: Program Prototyper (Px4) is a simulation visual novel RPG adventure game that puts you in the position of a policy or program developer, compiling resources and evidence. Each level of the game involves interacting with different stakeholders—victims, employers, professors, activists, government bodies, and more—while strategically building policies, gathering data, and gaining public support. The ultimate goal is to address the crisis, balance competing interests, and ensure long-term success for your organization. At the conclusion of the game, your input will be compiled into a useful report that will serve as a reference for multiple uses, including building resumes, proposals, budgets, and more.
Target Audience: Experienced advocates furthering their professional development in program or policy development.
Primary Objective: Complete All Stakeholder Tasks
As you walk through each scenario, you will meet with a stakeholder. Each stakeholder requires a dependency item before engaging. Once the input item has been obtained, the stakeholder will guide you through a task. The tasks are evidence-based approaches to developing assets for new programs and policies. At the completion of the task, you will receive a new item to unlock the next stakeholder.
These scenarios that combine learning objectives and output assets enable players to benefit from this game, making it a “serious game.” Specific skills like writing and reporting can be evaluated, as well as higher-level skills that involve critical thinking and problem-solving. Soft skills are one measurement, but specific domain knowledge about practices can have tanglible real-world applications. Community and engagement competencies are prioritized in the game, providing the player with experiential learning activities that encourage the player to translate game ideas into genuine deliverables.
To begin the game, you are initialized with 100 health points (HP), and 0 XP (experience points). The tasks will deplete your HP but provide you with XP. At the game start, you have $0 funds, but some stakeholder tasks will contribute funds to your till. Players can monitor their progress by viewing the items left to unlock at the top of their screen, and stats are displayed at the top right. A community menu is provided at the completion of each scenario to allow the player to navigate between stakeholders at their discretion.
The game platform is a visual novel engine that utilizes Python, called Ren’Py. This program has been the topic of a number of research studies, and has been effective at producing outcomes. Conditional logic is used to dictate which stakeholders are available based on the dependencies, and players jump to the Community Menu between each scene to choose their next path.
A non-exhaustive list of stakeholders includes victims, community agencies, academics, data scientists, business owners, funders, community members, lawmakers, and more. Examples of tasks include building a resume, a literature review, a power analysis, a budget, and an evaluation plan. Once these tasks have been fulfilled, output items like statistics, sponsorship pledges, event invitations, and a series of books are presented as rewards.
There are a number of mechanisms that communicate the player’s progress. As XP increases, the player moves through the levels of newb, novice, intern, fellow, professional, and expert. XP can be dynamically added using string comparisons to identify when keywords are input by the player. Or, experience points can be added for each input, once the input has been validated.
The player begins the game with their first stakeholder: the victim. The victim is also their family member, and this serves to create a more personalized buy-in that doesn’t require the player to play as the victim the way some serious games do. Having the victim as a close relation enables the player to obtain sensitive details and insights, and allows the player to dialogue freely and receive constructive feedback.
Three potential endings are tallied at the finale of the game and will explain to the player how their choices categorized them as “The Realist,” “The Revolutionary,” and “The Rogue” based on their narrative choices. Realists choose the obvious selections, while the Revolutionary opts for radical community engagement, and the Rogue pursues their own objectives by any means necessary.