SUSMile – Serious Game: conceptual design of the last mile logistics game

We are already in 2022… it seems that it was yesterday when the year ended and we are already in April, thinking about the Easter holidays 😉…  The entire consortium of companies keep working the SUSMile project, where we have already defined in more detail the Serious Game that will ease the learning of  competences and skills within the field of sustainable logistics.

Before we start showing the conceptual detail of the game, let’s do a flashback to remember its main objective. The Serious Game will be a decision-making game, in an urban scenario and its main objective will be to facilitate the understanding of the training material that the consortium of the project is generating on last-mile logistics.

For this purpose, we have already built the virtual city where users will practice with the knowledge acquired.

Here you can see the city of SUSMile. In this city we will define different zones, and each one will have its own characteristics: traffic, number of orders to deliver, time-tables…  or for example, access restrictions for some vehicles (perhaps only accessible with electric cars, for example).

ok, understood but, how do I play?

In this screenshot we can see the main screen of the game.

At the top of the screen we can see the indicators of the game. These are the main indicators that will show the result of our decisions during the simulation.

• Customer satisfaction: measures the satisfaction of our customers with our services.
• Environmental impact: measures the level of pollution we generate in the city.
• Budget: shows the money we have available to make our decisions.
• Today’s Total Orders: Shows the number of orders we need to deliver.

What is the structure of the game/simulation?

It is important to explain the structure of the game:

1. The game is divided into different rounds or turns.
2. Each round consists of 4 phases.

Below I will explain in more detail each of these phases, showing the screens of the game.

Phase 1: Decisions

In this phase we can make different decisions, and for this we will use the buttons that we can see in the lower left part of this screen.

For example, the green buttons will open options to buy technology, vehicles, training courses… or even hire new employees.

With the blue button we will have access to information and data of our business. First of all, the idea is to analyze the current situation of the business, looking for this data in order to take the best decisions.

Phase 2: Operations

The second phase is the operational phase.  On the map of the city we will see the information of the area inside a sign: number of orders to be delivered and level of pollution. In this example, we can see 4 posters floating over each area of the city.

On the left side of the screen, we will see our drivers.  In this phase we will basically have to equipe our drivers with technology and vehicles that we have purchased, and assign each driver to an area of the city, with the goal of delivering all the orders requested in each area.

Phase 3: Simulation

The third phase is the simulation phase. We don`t have to make any decisions; we will simply see how time progresses. As time goes on, the city’s poster data will be updated.

In this way we will be able to know how many orders have been delivered and if the level of pollution increases or decreases, with the decisions that have been taken.

Phase 4: Analysis

Once the simulation is finished, we will move on to phase 4, the analysis phase, where the results of the round will be shown in a report format or graphs that we will have to analyze.

And well, once the analysis phase is closed, we will return to phase 1 of the next round.

And all starts again.

This is the main dynamic of the game: go through phases 1, 2, 3 and 4, and return to phase 1 of the next round. In the new round, we will have to analyze the new objectives and take the decisions again.  In this way we simulate the evolution of our logistics company.