Ingenious Game: Insights Into Evolving From a Learning Card Game to a Learning Software Application Game

Ingenious is a collaborative and competitive learning game application in which groups of students compete against each other in a product design and development (PDD) scenario where each group is responsible for a multidisciplinary team of engineers. The game has been used since 2020 to support a mechanical engineering master course. In this period, the game evolved from a card game to a software application. During the four game rounds representing the PDD phases, the players learn when to use over 80 different engineering design techniques. By choosing varying engineers and techniques, a student group creates a design strategy with a cost to execute and might be proven more effective than the competitors' strategies. Winning the game is about effectiveness in solving the challenges posed in the PDD scenario at a minimum cost. Once the game allows scenario customisation, new PDD scenarios can be created with different complexity levels. In the gamified classroom, grading is not a result of winning the game but a reflection of the group's choices and consequences while playing the game. This article presents the different game versions, describes the Ingenious game mechanics and dynamics and reflects on the game evolution and coverage of the Octalysis dimensions.</p

Overcoming the product-service model adoption obstacles

Product-Service Systems (PSS) benefits are not limited to its providers and costumers, but the whole society might also take advantage from its sustainability impact. Nevertheless, many PSS projects still fail, and lots of customers stick to buying mere products or services in a transactional rather than a relational context. Shifting to the PSS paradigm requires a mind-set/organizational culture change both from the PSS’ provider and customer. On one hand, the manufacturing companies should change from production scale to use scale, therefore producing fewer products that will be more used, and the profit will be rather based on the services they provide. On the other hand, the customer must be flexible to give up product property in favor to product use when it pays off in the long term. Not surprisingly, this paradigm shift creates some obstacles that could deter companies from adapting the product-service concept, as a successful PSS will require different societal infrastructure, human structures and organizational layouts in order to function in a sustainable manner. This paper analyses the benefits and obstacles from/for PSS and proposes a self-assessment questionnaire that point to the needed business model changes in companies interested in adopting PSS