Game prototyping - Making the opportunity tangible for BNNVARA

With its programs, public broadcaster BNNVARA strives for an open and social society. A society in which everyone has equal opportunities, regardless of where you were born, how your body works, who you like or who you want to be. In doing so, BNNVARA focuses on Generation Z, among others.

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With the interactive game 'Oordeel', BNNVARA wants to contribute to that goal. With the aid of 'hearables', young people can use this game to enter into a conversation with their parents or caregivers in a casual manner, and thus make their voices heard on important social issues.

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From the heart of an intern, right into the innovation funnel, under the guidance of Innovation Strategist Maartje van Beuningen.

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What does an Innovation Strategist do at BNNVARA?

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'As an innovation strategist, I research what BNNVARA can be in 5 years. This includes questions such as "what will media be in 5 years?", "who will be the users then and what are the stories they want to hear?", "what are the platforms of the future?", and "via what techniques can we tell those stories?

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The core business of BNNVARA is, of course, audio and visual content. We primarily produce programs for television, radio, and online. However, we also know that young people are watching less and less TV. How can we still reach this important target audience and collaborate to build the society we envision?

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And?

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'One of our questions is: how can we ensure that young people have a say in discussions about societal issues? How do we ensure that they have the opportunity to discuss what they see through the channels they do use, such as TikTok, Discord, or at the very least, any other source other than the 8 o'clock news or other 'classic' news media?

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With 'Oordeel,' we conceived a game to assist young people in initiating conversations with their parents/caregivers, the adults who are closest to them. It is an interactive online game in which two players are challenged to talk to each other about societal topics using hearables (earbuds). Initial iterations, small in scale and primarily focused on qualitative research, showed that the game had potential with the intended audience. 

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When can we see this, and where?

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'It is now live! I'm proud of that, we worked hard for it. Because to convince our client, the NPO, of a concept, 'potential' is not enough. We only present an idea if we know: we expect enough users and we expect that with that number of users we will actually achieve our goal: to help young people start a conversation with their parents.

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This was also when we contacted MakerLab to help us take it a step further with the aid of a Concept Accelerator.

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What was your question?

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'We asked MakerLab to make the opportunity tangible. How many people will play this? What do we need to start improving so that it actually becomes playable for a larger group, so that I know to what title and presenter it can eventually be linked to?'

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Why didn't you guys do this yourselves?

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'We had a desire to test this on a greater scale in a process where all people involved know: This is why we make it like this, because that way we measure what we want to measure, and we know what we want to know.

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That's when you need a really good prototype, for example. It was important at this point that the game would be solid: well programmed, with a functional scoring system, visually appealing, and professional. And I cannot, as a facilitator and innovation strategist, start programming a game.

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Velocity was also a thing...'

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Can you elaborate?

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'Innovation is not BNNVARA's core business, which is making great programs. That means my department has less to do with deadlines. That slows things down.

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MakerLab brought speed: it's going to happen, it's going to happen well, and you know exactly how long it's going to take. Tith MakerLab, we have a team that is dedicated and does have a deadline. We have to comply with that. And it works, it ensures focus and commitment.'

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How did you experience that process?

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'What stands out is that MakerLab often truly lets go of the restrictions and pushes things a few steps further. Of course, within the boundaries of the game's initial goal, but that resulted in a very enjoyable and educational process. I like to give that space myself too!

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I was just very happy with the team I had. Everyone is so enthusiastic, everyone thinks along, there is a lot of energy.

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It resulted in a very strong prototype, well playable, that gave us the right insights to develop this concept further.'

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Read more about this case here.

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