SERGE. SERious Gaming, Evolved

Serge is a browser-based war-gaming tool used by the British Navy.

Objectives:

• Provide a platform for game designers to create any type of wargame scenarios
• Design a user-friendly web interface for players to interact
• Record every in-game move and interaction for future analysis

Target Users:

• Wargame designers and analysts
• Navy trainees to high-rank officers

Challenges:

• Only one interface to support multiple functions: mapping, communications and admin
• Multiple displays: touch table, interactive whiteboard, laptop screen and large monitor
• Capabilities need to be as close to reality as possible: this is used for training or simulation purposes, not for fun.

Team members

Core Team

• Product owner & developer (PO)
• Lead developer (LD)
• UX designer (UX - me)

Process:

First phase: basic framework & communication channels

I worked closely with the product owner on the first steps:

- User flows for game designer, player, umpire

- Game admin architecture

- Layout of player & umpire UI: 2 different and flexible options

- Low-fidelity wireframes of communication channels

Both PO and lead developer developped the back-end and front-end. A graphic designer suggested different high-fidelity designs before we settled on a version of a material design dark theme.

The first release was tested during a wargame in July 2019. PO and LD could attend thanks to their security clearance (I could not unfortunately). They were able to observe the game in real-time and identify additional needs as well as the pain points users were facing.

Second phase (on-going): mapping capabilities & task groups

A first workshop allowed us to review the way players and designers interact with a map and to discuss the best options to implement digital mapping.

A very quick implementation (one month) followed by testing with trainees gave us valuable feedback to refine the mapping features. We are now working on adding task groups.