Welcome to Fresh Game Studio!

1741 + confetti to clean up!

Archives: Projects

Projects information pages

Dura Vermeer: Cooperation across divisions

DURA VERMEER DIVISION COOPeRATION

Our challenge

Dura Vermeer has an interesting organizational origin story. It formed following the merger of Dura (a construction company) and Vermeer (a roadworks company). To this day, the two divisions still operate (financially) independently from each other. Anticipating future projects that will combine construction and roadworks, Dura Vermeer asked us to bring its two divisions closer together by increasing connection between their people and raising awareness of what each division has to offer.

Our approach

  • We started the project with an in-depth research phase into the target audience, effects and learning goals, content, and pre-existing ideas.
  • We subsequently developed a multi-stakeholder game in which the two divisions must combine forces to build an entire city together.
  • The game was played with around 70 C-level executives from both divisions.

The result

The game has increased interpersonal connection between the company’s C-level managers, stimulating more effective cooperation at an earlier stage of the process. A specific focus is on winning tenders in the new NOVEX development areas in the Netherlands.

SBE: Escape Room

SBE: ESCAPE ROOM

Our challenge

Samenwerkende Bedrijven Eemsdelta (SBE) asked for our help to attract new talent in the industry cluster of the Eemsdelta to realize its ambitions in the energy transition. SBE requested a digital serious game that would positively portray the industry and raise awareness of the ambitions and potential of the Eemsdelta region.

De aanpak

  • We formulated tangible learning goals and effects based on interviews with and research into the target audience.
  • We then created an immersive storyline that corresponds with the region and target audience. In this storyline, players must connect the different regions in the Eemsdelta and foster collaboration before 2050 to make the region sustainable and circular.
  • We developed and created five different puzzles, with each puzzle representing a different region of the Eemsdelta. All puzzles were made in co-creation with people from these regions, thus ensuring a realistic experience.
  • Players were immersed in the content via video, audio, and photography, and the use of recognizable imagery and issues.

Het resultaat

The puzzles introduced players to the Eemsdelta’s potential, while generating new insights on how the industry cluster can add to sustainability and circularity.

ASML & ZEISS: A New Home

ASML & ZEISS: A NEW HOME

Our challenge

ASML asked us to design a game that would allow ASML and ZEISS’ top 100 executives to experience the ASML-SMT collaboration framework.

Our approach

  • Together with an ASML and ZEISS team, we defined the game dynamics required to experience this collaboration framework. The game setting needed to mainly focus on behavior, and not the substantive content of either of the companies.
  • Based on our research, we customized an existing game which contains dynamics such as the prisoner’s dilemma, team collaboration, and the balance between transparency and trust.
  • In addition, we developed a custom storyline that resonates with the drive and ambitions of both ASML and ZEISS. In this storyline, players are required to collaborate to set up a successful colony on Mars.
  • The game challenges players to balance achieving their more obvious individual goals and their less tangible, but still highly important, collective goal. During a post-game debriefing, players discuss the behaviors from the framework they observed and how these affected the outcome of the game.

The result

The game was launched at the ASML-SMT leadership event and was played by 100 participants in eight game sessions. Each session was hosted by an ASML facilitator, who was supported by someone from Fresh Forces. The game was subsequently rolled out by various other teams.

Aegon: The Future of Aegon

AEGON: tHE FUTURE OF AEGON escape room

Our challenge

Aegon wanted a fun and engaging way to introduce students to a career at Aegon. Using an online escape room, students are introduced to Aegon’s culture and its four departments.

Our approach

  • We formulated tangible learning goals related to Aegon’s culture, all of which feature at multiple points in the game.
  • We created an immersive storyline that asks players the question: “If I could determine the future of Aegon in twenty years, what would I change today?”
  • We created four puzzles, each representing one of Aegon’s four departments. All puzzles were developed in co-creation with employees from these departments to make sure that their content mirrored reality.
  • Players were immersed in the content through a professional introduction video. All puzzles started with a video call with an Aegon colleague, who introduced the challenge and its importance in relation to Aegon’s culture.

The result

Seventy-five percent of the players who played our game expressed a desire to work at Aegon. All players said they preferred the escape room to other types of introductory activities, such as slideshows or case work.

Kalmar: The Supply Chain Game

Kalmar World class supply chain game

Our challenge

Due to the scale and geographical diversity of its operations, Kalmar needed our assistance to help its employees understand its (end-to-end) supply chain, to prevent silo thinking and promote collaboration. To optimize the entire supply chain, Kalmar needed to increase its employees’ willingness to embrace the changes involved in technological solutions and their accompanying ways of working.

Our approach

  • We started the project with an in-depth research phase into the target audience, effects and learning goals, content, and pre-existing ideas.
  • During four sprints, we created an escape room featuring the supply chain’s major links that challenges players to solve the most recognizable issues caused by miscommunication.
  • Each team of four or five players must work together to solve the puzzles and move along the supply chain. Each player is part of a different department, thereby enhancing interdepartmental awareness.

The result

Kalmar’s escape room is played by all the organization’s 7,000 global employees globally. The organization even organizes frequent LAN parties to promote the game.

Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations – Unchained: The Justice Experience

Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations Unchained: The Justice Experience

Our challenge

Following several national scandals and crises, the Netherlands’ Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations  wanted 14,000 government officials to reflect on their role in the “Just Government.”

Our approach

  • Working in co-creation with BZK, we started off with a design sprint in which we examined the target audience, effects on the organization, and learning goals.
  • We created a high-energy roleplaying game that gives players a lot of creative freedom. In the game, players are faced with restricted communication options, as all government postal communication is rapidly abolished, resulting in some citizens no longer being able to take part in society.
  • During the game, players come face to face with the pitfalls that often remain unnoticed in daily practice.
  • We spent a lot of time testing the target audience to make sure they were learning the right things.
  • During a professional debriefing session, players reflect on the implications of the lessons they learned for their jobs.

The result

Players felt energized after playing the game, and the debriefing created the appropriate balance between the theory of justice and its practical application. Players expressed that they gained new insights and felt excited about putting them into practice.

SPDE – The Thermos Dilemma

Spde - heat-transition game: THE THERMOS DILEMMA

Our challenge

The heat transition is characterized by an extensive and complex stakeholder field. Mutual understanding and insight are crucial to achieve more effective collaboration and better decision-making. SPDE, the Netherlands’ service point for questions about sustainable energy, asked us to develop a serious game to kickstart the conversation about collaboration, role divisions, and participation in the heat transition.

Our approach

  • The Thermos Dilemma is a multi-stakeholder board game in which between 8 and 16 players take on the roles of important stakeholders in the heat transition.
  • Over the course of four rounds, players collaborate to resolve fictional island Thermos’ dependency on natural gas. Although they share this common goal, players also have their own objectives and concerns. To win the game, players need to set aside their differences and work together.
  • The boardgame, its storyline, and the game dynamics were developed in co-creation with SPDE and correspond with the heat transition’s current challenges.
  • The game was developed using an Agile approach and reached its final form after many iterations and extensive testing among the target group.

The result

The game is currently being used among groups of stakeholders and decision-makers in the heat transition. In the game, players learn about the importance of collaboration and gain new insight into the different roles and stakes at play in the heat transition.

Friesland Campina – Unleash your nature

Friesland Campina - Unleash your nature

Our challenge

FrieslandCampina asked us: “Can you build a personality test to boost our employer branding and introduce our company?”

Our challenge

  • We used our own platform for narrative games to tell an engaging story.
  • Working together with FrieslandCampina, we included as much FrieslandCampina energy and relevant information as we could in a fun and engaging experience.
  • Grouping possible outcomes together, our test was able to generate meaningful results about twelve “natures” using only eight questions.
  • People immediately recognized themselves in these natures, underlining the success of our approach.

The result

With over 10,000 respondents, the Nature Fit Test we created for FrieslandCampina has become one of our most-played games. The test snowballed on LinkedIn, leading to huge player numbers. It was even played by a lot of people from outside the organization.

Philips DA – Dare to Onboard

Philips DA: Dare to onboard

Our challenge

Philips Domestic Appliances (DA) asked us to give a boost to the onboarding experience of new hires. No longer a part of former mother company Philips, Philips DA needed an onboarding experience to introduce new employees to its core activities, products, and customer portfolio.

Our approach

  • We started the project with an in-depth research phase into the target audience, effects and learning goals, content, and pre-existing ideas.
  • We then created an online hidden-object game, played over a period of several weeks, in which players travel to different DA locations and visit the homes of their customers.
  • Finding the right objects unlocks information and real-world challenges.
  • The outcomes of these challenges are uploaded in the game (user-generated content), ensuring the game and its challenges becomes a powerful learning experience.
  • The game is completed by combining the right DA products with customers’ needs.

The result

Philips DA has incorporated the game we created into new employees’ onboarding journey and uses it to bring every new hire up to speed with the company’s activities, products, and customers.

ASML – Campus Experience App

ASML: Campus experience app

Our challenge

In 2024, ASML will relocate all its activities to the De Run 6500 central campus. This tremendous logistical challenge requires excellent communication. ASML challenged us to find a way to immerse its employees in the future of this large-scale project.

Our approach

While the desire to give employees an immersive experience was clear, the content and form were still completely open. Working in co-creation with ASML and based on extensive research, we came up with the concept of an augmented-reality experience.

We turned existing Revit/BIM models into real-time 3D using Unity, and then incorporated this into a mobile app that could be downloaded from ASML’s internal app store.

  • The app contains several unique features:
    An augmented-reality (AR) model of the campus that can be placed on a flat surface in someone’s room.
  • Accessible information icons that can be used to learn more about the different locations on campus.
  • 360-degree images of the inside of new and existing buildings.
  • Multimedia (videos, interviews, etc.) that introduces users to the new features on campus.
  • An easter-egg minigame that challenges the users to look for hidden gems across campus

The result

The result is a unique internal-communication tool that uses innovative technology and a novel context to deliver a strong message. At present, almost 1,000 ASML employees have experienced the future campus through the app we developed, and this number will only grow as we bring out new releases and develop new content.