SGS Feature: 'Postmortem - Worky's Challenge'

In today's main feature on Gamasutra sister site Serious Games Source, Josep Vicent Sala from Spanish game developer Exelweiss presents a postmortem of workplace safety-related 'serious game' Worky's Challenge. In this extract, Sala explains the background to his company's taking-on of this educational training-based game: "Worky's Challenge has been our first serious game, a game that was brought to us totally by chance. One day, the phone rang: an advertising company was looking for a game development company in order to develop an educational game. The game was an initiative by a mutual insurance company and the regional government of Valencia and was related to workplace risks. Workplace risks has been a touchy political issue in Spain lately. The number of injuries and deaths during work has skyrocketed in the last years. A burgeoning construction sector (which by itself has higher risks that other economic sectors) and the bad or nil preparation of workers in low-skill jobs have been two of the major culprits for this. Of course, the statistics have enraged the trade unions, a situation that has forced the government to adopt drastic measures to reduce accidents, measures which luckily seem to be working well for now. One of the aspects in which the government has been working hard is in educating the workforce in the importance of following safety rules. Worky's Challenge is part of a multi-pronged campaign that includes several elements like lectures, newspaper campaigns and comic books and which is aimed mainly to young students. The videogame is one more element that completes the big picture and integrates with the rest of the campaign. The Worky character is the icon of the overall campaign, a muscular hero that heralds safe practices at the workplace as a way to improve the world around us." You can now read the full Serious Games Source feature on the subject, including lots more on what went right and wrong during the making of this 'serious game' (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).