Serious game development and educational games, in Corsica
Serious game development means building a game for a serious purpose. Helping people learn, raising awareness, introducing a place, and counting on the fun of playing to get the message through. From Bastia we create educational games and gamified training, as well as heritage discovery games, working with the experts in your organisation.
Serious games, educational games, gamification, what is the difference?
These three terms often get mixed up. A serious game is a real game, with rules and a challenge and some progression, but it serves a goal beyond entertainment. The educational game is its most common form. It aims at a specific piece of learning, which the player picks up by playing rather than by reading.
Gamification, for its part, adds game mechanics (points, challenges, levels, rewards) to something that is not a game, such as a training course, onboarding new staff or a visit. It is lighter to set up. It will not rescue weak content.
In every case, the work starts with game design, the design of the rules and the situations of play. And you start from the end, from what the player should have understood or remembered when they put the game down.
Serious games that train, raise awareness, introduce a place
A serious game can serve a business or a local authority, a tourist office, a museum. An association too, or a training provider. Here are some typical uses.
- 01
In-house training
Procedures, safety rules, job skills or software. Players practise in situations close to reality, with no risk of a real mistake.
- 02
Onboarding newcomers
A gamified route for discovering the organisation at your own pace, with its departments and its rules.
- 03
Awareness campaigns
Cybersecurity, risk prevention, the environment. When the player's choices have visible consequences, the message sticks long after the game, which a poster rarely manages.
- 04
Heritage discovery game
A trail through a historic centre, a village or a natural site, with riddles and stories, played on visitors' phones. Corsica, with all it has to tell, suits this format particularly well.
- 05
Cultural and school outreach
A game to go with an exhibition or a school trip. Teachers and guides can run it without any trouble.
- 06
Quizzes and challenges in training
Team questions, live scores, to refresh knowledge at the start or the end of a session.
Designing an educational game in four stages
The same person follows your project from start to finish. Your experts approve the content at every stage.
- 01
Understand
We set the learning objectives with you, then the intended audience and their level. Then the context of use. In a room with a trainer, alone at a computer, or out in the field with a phone?
- 02
Design
Every game mechanic is tied to an objective. We write the scenario, then build a playable prototype that a small group representative of your audience tries out, before you approve it.
- 03
Build
Development and illustrations, with content supplied or approved by your experts built in. We test whether people understand it. And how hard it is.
- 04
Launch and support
Going live, handover to your trainers or guides. After that come content updates, and a review after the first uses.
What you get on delivery
- 01
A ready-to-use game
It opens in the browser, on a computer, tablet or phone. If needed, it installs so it can work offline.
- 02
A facilitator's guide
So your trainers, teachers or guides know how to introduce the game, run it, then lead a debrief.
- 03
A content management tool, if planned
To correct a question, add a step or translate a text without going through us.
- 04
Results tracking
Progress, successes, sticking points, preferably anonymised. Enough to measure what the game achieves.
- 05
Documentation and code
Handed over according to the rights defined in the contract. You stay in charge of your tool.
So that a serious game actually does its job
- 01
A measurable objective
'Raising awareness' is not enough. You need to know what the player should be able to do, or recognise, once the game is over. Otherwise there is no way to check it.
- 02
The balance between game and content
Too much text kills the game. Too much game drowns the message. Testing with real players is how you find the right dose.
- 03
Accurate content
Historical facts, safety rules, procedures. Your experts answer for the substance, we answer for the form.
- 04
Real conditions of use
No signal at a natural site, sun on the screen, noise in a room. The game has to be tested where it will be played.
- 05
Young participants
With school audiences, no unnecessary data is collected, and informing families is planned in.
- 06
Accessibility
Readable text, subtitles. Several languages if the audience includes tourists.
What drives the cost of a serious game
Each project gets a detailed quote after a first conversation. These are the main factors.
- 01
The format
An enhanced quiz, a discovery trail, a narrative game where choices have consequences. The work is not the same.
- 02
Amount of content
The number of situations, questions, steps or languages to produce, then have approved.
- 03
Visuals and media
Original illustrations, archive photos, sound, voice-over.
- 04
Integration
Connection to your online learning platform or your internal tools. Results tracking.
- 05
Ongoing support
Hosting, content updates, maintenance as the years go by.
Technologies and methods
- Game design
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- PWA
- Offline mode
- Results tracking
Frequently asked questions
Is a serious game more effective than conventional training?
It does not replace it, it adds to it. It is most useful for practising situations, for understanding what a choice leads to, or for reaching people the usual materials leave cold. We set indicators from the outset, so we can check it is doing its job.
Can the game plug into our online learning platform?
Often, yes. An online learning platform (also called an LMS) generally accepts modules in standard exchange formats. We check compatibility with yours at the very start, because it steers some technical choices.
Who writes the educational content?
You bring the subject knowledge, we adapt it to the game. Your experts supply or review the content. We turn it into playable situations, which you approve before going live.
Can a heritage discovery game work without a signal?
Yes. The game saves to the phone before setting off and works offline along the whole trail. A sensible precaution in many villages and natural sites of Haute-Corse.
How long does it take to create a serious game?
It depends on the format and the amount of content. After the first conversation we propose a realistic timetable, with approval stages. If something threatens to shift it, you hear about it early.