Engineering & Computer Simulations, Inc. (ECS) is this year’s finalist in the Best
Business Developed Serious Game category of the Serious
Games Showcase & Challenge with
Installation
Deployment Officer (IDO) Training Simulation.
The IDO
Training Sim is a real-time, conversation-based simulator revolving around
the people management and swift decision-making challenges experienced as a day
in the life of a USAF (United States Air Force) Installation Deployment
Officer.
This IDO
Training Sim is intended to be a capstone experience that students play
after completing a full traditional classroom course and curriculum on the
roles and responsibilities of being an Installation Deployment Officer (IDO). Therefore this does not explicitly teach concepts directly, but allows the
students to apply the knowledge they have acquired and exercise their critical
thinking skills, based on the learning objectives.
The IDO
Sim is built to be played in a classroom environment. It can be played
either in offline mode or as a multiplayer networked system, which allows each
student (client) to progress at their own pace and experience in unique
training situations (in the form of scenario branches and sequels), while the
instructor console (server) allows the facilitator to view each student’s
progress and modify difficulty on the fly.
The goal of the game is to resolve any issues
that are presented, manage personnel resources, and problem solve all
logistical challenges in order to keep all flights on time.
Gameplay and the scenario dynamically adjusts
to the player’s performance, giving them more challenges if they are doing
well, and reducing complexity or giving extra injects or reminders if they are
doing poorly. The After Action Review interface also gives them positive and
negative indicators so they can self-assess their performance, as well as give
the instructor/facilitator a record of their performance.
The game scenario combines periods of task
overload with ‘dead time’ for the student, adding additional events and
outcomes, enhancing variety, and challenging their decision making skills and
problem solving. While most of the activity takes place in the Deployment
Control Center (DCC), the player can also travel to additional environments
around the base, as well as observe live security camera feeds of those
environments. There is also an extensive after action review interface that
shows all scenario events and player actions (or inactions) on a timeline that
can be reviewed after the scenario is complete.
