Finanzmars

Sci-Fi Simulation for Business Process Training.

Year 2021
Genre Serious Game Simulation Strategy
Platform PC
Language German

This project was passed on to other developers. For questions about the current development status please contact Prof. Dr. Marc Ritter: ritter@hs-mittweida.de.

About

Finanzmars is a turn-based science-fiction simulation with strategic elements, in which the player builds a fictional company on Mars and its moons. The goal is to exploit the planet's resources profitably and in an optimized manner. The focus of the gameplay is on the construction, upgrading and maintenance of buildings, the development of future technology through research, the export of resources and the expansion to other celestial bodies. At the same time, the player gradually learns the necessary business processes in order to use his decisions in an effective way.

In addition, theoretical learning content is conveyed using slides and learned knowledge is queried regularly via quizzes. Both are handled through an external editor, where instructors and stakeholders can add their individual content and save it to a shared database. Because of this, the application is suitable not only for verified subjects but for appropriate trainings and exams as well.

Development

This simulation was created by a small team of 3-5 people that worked on it for 5-9 months as part of their study program. 2 members, including myself, continued the development for 9 months as part of a research internship. My job consisted of most engine-related tasks and programming tasks with a focus on business calculations, content management and the external editor. I wrote the underlying code in C# and created the UI, particle effects, shaders and the level within Unity. I also took on project management, game design and level design tasks. The Google Firebase API was used to setup the database.

Publications

Best Paper Award
Finanzmars im Kosmos von Blended Learning (german)
CARF Luzern 2019
Prof. Dr. Marc Ritter, Christian Roschke, Prof. Dr. Volker Tolkmitt

Game-Based Learning Using the Example of Finanzmars
2020 6th IEEE Congress on Information Science and Technology (CiSt)
Simon Josiek, Sebastian Schleier, Tobias Steindorf et al.