Factors Driving and Influencing the Development of Serious Games

There are a large variety of serious games aimed at providing knowledge for both
teams and organizations. Some games aims at supporting the team in a given project
or development process, whereas others aim at widening the knowledge, skills and
competences in an organization on a more general level. In the serious game
literature attention is either given to the design and development of serious games
or to the development of the serious games’ business models. In this study, we explore
the interaction and linking between the development of the serious game and the
development of the game’s business model. The paper investigates the development
and business models of 24+ analogue serious games and learning tools in the Danish
market. Empirically, the paper is based on close interaction and semi-structured
interviews with some of the key serious game developers in Denmark (plus one in the
US), some of them with a portfolio of up to ten serious games. Besides from
uncovering some of the basic motivations to design and develop serious games, the
paper will explore, how the game developers’ interaction with the costumer and their
different business strategies, influences the way the game is developed.