It’s 7.30 pm, long after Sahil should have logged out for the day. What’s keeping him at work isn’t an assignment or a report; it’s a simulation game on Agility that he is trying to master and get a high score on.

The game that Sahil is hooked on is one of the 100+ games in the Flogames learning games library. He is one of the many learners who are actively upskilling themselves on critical, soft skills necessary for professionals today. 

Speaking about a similar experience, a learner from one of the largest banks in Asia remarked that they were very excited to play the games. “The games taught me how to understand human behaviour better,” they said. The bank is one of the many companies to have introduced Flogames for employee upskilling and learning. 

What exactly is Flogames?

Flogames is a suite of competency-mapped games and simulations that help learners master critical behavioural skills. Flogames is built on the premise that:

• Learners like to be challenged and, at the same time, guided while discovering new concepts.
• Games create an environment that allows failure with safety.
• Games provide an environment where learners can receive immediate feedback and guidance.
• Games are fun and engaging and increase learner motivation, which impacts learning outcomes.

Flogames can be short or long, ranging from 10-15 minutes to 1-hour games that are more complex with deeper storylines and decision structures.

“What I love about these games is that at every stage, it encourages us to get more and more engaged. It always makes us think about the best possible answers,” said one learner from an infrastructure company.  

Currently, the Flogames library covers topics such as learning agility, change management, coaching, delegation, feedback, interviewing skills, and stakeholder management, among others.

The power of games for behavioural skills training

Games provide a sandbox environment in which learners can first receive guidance about how to carry out a complex activity. They can then apply the techniques to a real-life situation and receive immediate feedback. 

The intricately crafted storyline, game mechanics, varying challenges, and scoreboards keep the learner motivated to do better and continuously improve.

Take, for example, the short role-playing game – Joe’s Experiments with Agilitea, a challenging game on building agility. Learners get into the shoes of Joe, who is facing intense competition while running his tea and snacks food truck.

The game begins by providing guidance on building agility and then puts the learner in control of Joe’s decisions. As the game proceeds, learners need to take decisions for Joe to improve his revenue and counter changes in the marketplace and consumer taste.

Learners receive feedback on how they perform with dynamic dashboards and, in the end, receive a scorecard.

Reflecting on the feedback, one learner from a software firm remarked that the feedback received was enlightening. “I can confidently say that I learned something new,” he noted.

The sandbox approach augurs well for behavioural skills development as it helps learners identify the outcomes and impact of their behaviours and decisions.  

“Let’s say you are trying to build skills in providing feedback. It's not possible to practice with a person live! However, you can pick a Flogame simulation and practice providing feedback in a safe environment. You can choose what to say and then observe what might go wrong. It is possible to correct your mistakes if you made a wrong decision and learn through reflection", said Ritika Datta, Head of Product at Skills Café.

Engagement and insights

Flogames have significantly higher completion and reattempt rates when compared to traditional self-paced learning modalities. According to a Flogames report which tracked learners over a period of six months (Jan to June 2022), on average, 77 per cent of the participants reattempted the games until they reached mastery* scores. Additionally, learners reached mastery scores only after approximately two attempts in each game. 

This shows that the games are challenging and induce the desirable phenomenon of learners reattempting the games to achieve mastery.

In another instance, Flogames led to over 45,000 game plays in just a two-week period (with some people playing a single game more than ten times!), figures virtually unheard of in other forms of e-learning.

"We measure proficiency and engagement. While proficiency is determined by the scores achieved, engagement is based on how much learners participate in the games. Flogames have no pass/fail criteria. There is nothing forcing learners to replay a game. So, when they play a game multiple times until they master it, it's a clear sign of engagement." said Ritika.

The Flogames LXP

Flogames games and simulations are deployed using the Flogames Learning Experience Platform (LXP). The gamified platform can track and report detailed engagement metrics like - completion, no. of attempts, and time taken. And proficiency metrics like – total score, attribute score and attempts till mastery.

With SSO, Flogames can easily be integrated into any LMS ecosystem. Its implementation ranges from an internal learning marketplace to a learning library of standalone games and simulations and highly customised gamified portals. 

One of Flogame's gamified portals won a Brandon Hall award in Best Use of Games or Simulations for Learning.

The future of games

The gaming industry is bigger than the TV and movie industries combined. Flogames bring the live-action, fail-safe and immediate feedback environment of games and couple it with solid instructional design principles to create memorable learning experiences.

To learn more about Flogames and how 25+ organisations are implementing the games in their learning mix, head to flogames.com or write to ajay@flogames.live

*Mastery is achieved when the learner achieves a score of > 70%