Tygron for Scientific Research

Use-case 4: “the Virtual River Game”

This page of the manual is still under development. The final version will be launched on April 8th 2021 during the EDU event 2021.

A PhD candidate at the University of Twente was assigned to create a serious gaming environment for river interventions as a tool that facilitates stakeholder engagement. The research was one among 15 projects as part of the RiverCare research program. The researcher is a human-centered interface designer, and is not an expert in river interventions. After developing and testing several prototypes, the researcher created the the virtual river game, a unique board-game that is digitally connected to the Tygron platform. To simulate river interventions, players can move the pieces on the board, and immediately see the changes on the Tygron screen including the new map, as well as numerical calculations and graphs corresponding to the board changes.

The board component of the Virtual River Game

Content of the Research

General information

• The PhD Position:"A serious gaming environment for river interventions"

• Main Researcher:"Robert-Jan den Haan"

• Research Programme: RiverCare

• Department: Department of Design, Production & Management

• Educational Institute: Faculty of Engineering Technology of the University of Twente

• Involved Organisations: Rijkswaterstaat, Deltares, Witteveen+Bos, Arcadis, HKV, T-Xchange, TWO & Tygron Geodesign Platform

Background of the researcher

• Prior to this PhD, the researcher had a Masters in Industrial Design Engineering from the University of Twente.
• He had experience in design methods.
• The researcher did not have any prior experience in GIS, geo-design or coding.
• He had some limited programming base and he was pursuing a coding course along with his research.
• On the practical side, the researcher had tools and skills such as laser cutting and CAD drawing, which played a role while making the board.

Objectives and desired outcome

The main objective of this research was to create a virtual game that allows players to interact with an imaginary river section.

The game would allow different stakeholder groups to:

• learn about each others' perspectives regarding river management
• take better decisions of river interventions
• reflect upon the potential effects of those interventions

To do that, the researcher was expected to:

• develop and test a serious virtual game where players experience how river systems function.
• draft and publish a dissertation paper.

Research process

The game was developed based on a need-driven approach Who was involved: The supervisors were involved - professor in human-centered design + professor in Hydraulic engineering post-doc involved for discussions during the process As for the game: Florian + Hansje for the feedback Practically, connecting the board to the game: Rudolf Deltares: Fedor Baart (co-author) - coding expertise and modeling expertise Other researchers

Time distribution

Eng of 2014 - End of 2019

The research was designed for a 4 year programme, however the researcher did it within 5 years, on a 4-days a week basis, since he was employed by the university 1 day/week. In this case, the initial research was very time-intensive, taking up to 3 years. This phase included intermediate prototypes. 3 prototypes were formally tested. The rest (2 years) were the development of the game (prototyping) and testing. The testing included test sessions with stakeholders. 5 sessions were organized at the end of the research phase, and all took place within 6 weeks. Afterwards more sessions were organized but unfortunately they stopped due to the covid lockdown.

Resources & guidance

Tygron

The researcher also relied on the web-based form of the API as well as the wiki. Tygron was involved from the beginning of the research. Tygron was the most applicable tools for this game. (T-xchange has a toolkit for a game design, but Tygron seemed more suitable)

The researcher had to learn how to use Tygron He received some training from the Tygron team. He visited the Tygron office for 2 full days in the beginning. Part of it was a discussion about the project: What can and cannot be done with Tygron. That was followed by a few visits to discuss the links between Tygron and the board game.

Data sources in the game: Delft3D Flexible Mesh hydrodynamic model, the BIOSAFE biodiversity model and a self-developed cost model based on prices from research.

The Virtual River Game's hardware and software.

API (Application Programmers Interface)

The physical set-up of the virtual river game including the physical board, touchscreen monitor, projector, and webcam.

Board Game

Coding - a lot of coding with Python as well as GIS Researcher relied on others for help with coding. Interviews with stakeholders in river management. Used solidworks to develop the physical board and the icons. Used the university laptop to create it, but dedicated the mini computer that could be carried. During that time, Tygron was developing the water module, so the researcher instead used a water model (Delft3D model) from Deltares which was CPU intensive. For Tygron, the laptop was okay, but the water model from Deltares was heavier A student assistant was hired to help with the creation of the board Colleagues and fellow researchers were also involved in the design and the evaluation phase (testing) Other 7 were involved in the research.

Budget was dedicated for mostly the dedicated computer, materials for the board, touch screen monitor, projector, webcam, wood material, etc.. as well as hiring the student assistant.

Outcome of the research

. As a concept idea we started to make a physical game board that represents a fictional and abstract part of the Dutch river. The game board is a spatial area divided into equal hexagonal locations. Each location is filled by two modular types of game stones: height and land use. For example, there are low stones to form the main channel of the river. Slightly higher stones, together with different land use, form stones as agricultural use, natural grassland and forest the floodplains. Even higher stones form the dikes.

We have developed a game table and software around the game board that makes the physical game board digital. Through additional operations, we make the digital board suitable for the Delft3D Flexible Mesh hydrodynamic model, the BIOSAFE biodiversity model and a self-developed cost model. The digital board is also used to control the Tygron Platform. For example, players see the game board as a virtual world on the platform. Where the land use is agricultural on the board, players see cows grazing in the virtual world. Where the land use is forest on the board, the players see trees.

The outcome was already envisioned from the beginning- the game is not only the game but also where you play it. (digital + analogue) It was not necessarily the vision of the research consortium. They had a more scientific background and their vision was focused on getting a very realistic and complicated game, as close to reality as possible, however the researcher's vision was to make something based on the need, something that is useful.

The initial prototypes, the researcher translated real location into a board(east of nijmegen) For the final game, they took the characteristic of a dutch river and used it as a representation of a typical dutch river. (width, slope, depth, dykes'heights, etc.) So it is not a real location.

You can find the full research paper here: The Virtual River Game: Gaming using models to collaboratively explore river management complexity

You can find the summary poster of the project here: File:Summary poster - virtual river game.pdf

Feedback and recommendations

-The researcher recommends 3rd parties to create added value (what is actually needed) - Also involving 3rd parties is important for practical expertise and knowledge

Difficulties: the connection was a technical challenge - trial and error Expectation of the project partner of a very complicated looking game was a barrier Develop prototypes early on, even if it is only 2/10, then you can discuss on a baseline instead of something conceptual Once the prototype was playable, a baseline was created and discussions started.

Expectation management. Spend more time on thinking what should be developed, what could be done, what should not be done, what is possible, etc.

Some of the things were new for Tygron especially the connection

Contact

For more information about this PhD research, you can contact us at: info@Tygron.com

You can also contact Robert-Jan den Haan, researcher at the University of Twente at: r.j.denhaan@utwente.nl

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