Reference Task-based Design of Crisis Management Games

Link Daniel, Meesters Kenny, Hellingrath Bernd, Van de Walle Bartel


Abstract
Serious games are an effective tool for giving players a hands-on, immersive experience of crisis situations. To simplify the design of such games while ensuring their relevance, we propose a design method that is based on reference tasks. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by the improved design of the serious game “Disaster in my Backyard” that has been played during ISCRAM Summer school 2013. The design incorporates humanitarian logistics, search-and-rescue and coordination tasks. We also present the lessons learned from this instantiation of the game and give an outlook towards future research, such as the evaluation of tools for crisis response and management through the use of serious games and reference tasks.

Keywords
Disaster Management; Training; Serious Games; Game Design; Humanitarian Logistics; Evaluation; Information Management



Publication type
Research article in proceedings (conference)

Peer reviewed
Yes

Publication status
Published

Year
2014

Conference
11th International ISCRAM Conference

Venue
State College (PA), USA

Journal
Proceedings of the International ISCRAM Conference

Language
English

ISSN
2411-3387