Serious Games Information Center

uMed: Your Choice

"uMed: Your Choice" is a serious moral game developed in cooperation with the Institute for Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine and the UZH Digital Society Initiative Zurich (Christen et al., 2021). Players follow the story in the role of young medical assistants and make decisions regarding the well-being of patients and interactions with them, staff and relatives. The main focus is to improve moral sensitivity, integrity and professional decision-making. It was developed for medical students in clinical ethics courses and serves as a complementary educational tool. Its dialog-based gameplay allows participants to make decisions, explore different outcomes (Eichinger et al., 2022). "uMed" emphasizes self-study combined with reflective group discussions, aligning with the ethos of serious games to foster engagement and applied learning (Christen et al., 2021). Therefore, it combines content on medical ethics (educational) with game features like rules/goals, fantasy, challenge, sensory stimuli, and player autonomy. With feedback and reflection, the game fosters sustained motivation and ethical reasoning (Eichinger et al., 2022; Caserman et al., 2020).

Explain It Like An Acrobat

Developed in 2025 by a team of the Game-Didaktik project at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, the taboo-inspired card game "Explain It Like An Acrobat" encourages players to think outside the box. Contrary to the original taboo game, Explain It Like An Acrobat challenges the players linguistically by using ten instead of the usual five forbidden words, requiring flexible descriptive strategies. In teams, the players take turns trying to explain and guess everyday object terms while avoiding using the forbidden words on the cards. It is primarily intended to promote creative expressions and enable participants to define everyday objects from a different perspective. As a serious game, it thus combines playful competition with educational value while also providing the opportunity to develop eloquence and language competence. Designed for diverse groups, the game promotes shared experiences that are both fun and strengthen cooperation.

SupeRPArk

SupeRPArk is a collaborative workshop game developed in 2024–2025. It addresses automation and human factors through narrative-driven problem-solving. Groups of 4–5 participants save a futuristic theme park from complete automation by antagonist Dr. Disruptor. Dr. Disruptor attempts to win over park employees. The game combines digital scenarios with analog puzzle elements and role-based collaboration. The central tension is that if players fail to improve working conditions and digital change through appropriate automation and change management, employees defect to Dr. Disruptor. Success requires balancing technological efficiency with human welfare. The target audience consists of university students and professionals in business administration, computer science, and organizational psychology. A single-player version also exists. This article focuses on the collaborative workshop version. Participants assume expert roles and visit four park stations. Each station features an employee facing automation challenges.

CO-BOLD

CO-BOLD was developed at Leuphana University in Lueneburg to address the main reasons why people often fail to detect and address ethical problems in the usage of artificial intelligence (AI). In this digital single-player game, players slip into the role of a quality assurance manager at a large tech company. Their mission is to assess the quality of an innovative AI assistant for investment consultants (“CO-BOLD”) before it is delivered to a large bank. While controlling the design and performance of the AI with their team, players learn to recognize eight ethical risks and problems that are common in AI applications. Moreover, they learn to think about the quality of AI applications in terms of eight quality dimensions and to develop a vantage of professional skepticism in evaluating AI applications. Finally, the game challenges learners to speak up and address ethical problems with AI against business pressures.

Beyond the Chalkboard

Beyond the Chalkboard is a browser-based serious game released by TH Köln, University of Applied Sciences, in September 2025 (ZLE, n.d.). Its aim is to make Higher Education accessible by raising awareness of the structural and emotional challenges faced by students with mental health issues (Alfeld et al., 2025a). The game is designed primarily for university staff – especially lecturers, professors, and others involved in teaching students. The point-and-click-game lets you experience three days in the life of Sam, a student with a mental illness. You make decisions such as whether to go to university or stay at home, study for an exam or meet up with friends, take a walk or have a shower – shaping Sam’s everyday life. However, your choices and experiences are limited by systemic conditions, the behaviour of teachers and fellow students, as well as Sam’s fears and depressive feelings.