What makes a game serious? Hint: when it wins an (Emakina) award

The answer is actually quite simple. According to the “Le jeu sérieux en Belgique francophone” annual conference (French for “the serious game in French-speaking Belgium”), the development of games has become more and more common in “serious” contexts, such as public-awareness campaigns, marketing a new product or service, or even for educational purposes. Every year, during the “Serious Game” event (which took place last week), prizes and awards are granted for outstanding so-called “serious” games.

The new game developed by Emakina for Electrabel has just been recognised as such, winning the Bell.Now award for the best “adver-game”. Participants of the “Serious Game” conference were asked to rank the best examples of the past year.   The Electrabel “Switch Off/ Smart Energy Game” was thus voted as the best case for marketing purposes. As suggested by the category name, the purpose of the game, developed entirely in-house by Emakina, was to promote the new Electrabel application which is part of the company’s wide-scale campaign.

The organisers might think it’s very “serious”. We still think it’s fun…!