GUEST QUEST

The city Utrecht wants to make the city more hospitable. That’s why Toerisme Utrecht asked Shapers to make an applied game to help achieve this. But how do you create a game that improves hospitality!? It seemed impossible, but we succeeded. The game Guest Quest trains hospitality workers to treat visitors more hospitable in a fun way.

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Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Character design for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven

sKILLS USED

Guest Quest is made at Shapers. I was responsible for the concept, (game) design, art & animation. I used the following percentage of my skills (at that time).

concepting

illustration

game design

ui/ux design

animation

game for hospitality

As a hospitality employee you’re not always aware of how the guest experiences your hospitality. Hospitality already starts with a good telephone reservation and ends when the guest leaves the restaurant after a successful evening. How do employees in the hospitality industry become aware of their own role as a host, and how do you teach them to handle a complaint neatly?

Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Path illustration for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven

path of the guest

In collaboration with Tourism Utrecht, Taskforce Innovation Utrecht and Mr Hans van Spronsen (Hospitality Expert), Shapers has developed a training game in which hospitality workers follow the path of the guest. The game contains six mini games on different aspects of the hospitality experience, including telephone booking, welcoming the guest, estimating the guest's need, ordering, complaint handling and payment & departure. The catering industry entrepreneur reports to his team and the employees can see their own and each other's progress in the game.

Test, iterate, repeat

The concept of hospitality is open to interpretation. Everybody wants to be treated differently. Therefore it was so incredibly difficult to design this game. In addition, there were six different mini games that had to be tested. We held many test sessions and performed many iterations before the 6 mini games were good. But in the end it payed off!

 

It works!

Hospitality staff really become more hospitable by playing Guest Quest. This has been scientifically proven by a research at the University of Amsterdam. Experienced hospitality workers are reminded of all the factors that are important to be more hospitable. Often these are things they already partly do in practice, but can be refreshed. New employees learn what aspects are important to making the guest feel welcome. In addition, the employees motivate each other to play the game together. This stimulates discussion.

 

Publication

Guest Quest was part of a greater research on applied games. Read the pdf.

 

Credits

Guest Quest is proudly made at Shapers in collaboration with Sander Falise for the technical realisation and Joop Leemans for music composition. Guest Quest is made possible by Toerisme Utrecht and Taskforce Innovatie Utrecht.

Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Character design for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven
Rightside portrait of Maarten van Broekhoven a game designer, multimedia designer, illustrator and animator from Tilburg the Netherlands

I hope you like my creative work. If you do, maybe we can create something even better together? Please say hello!

© 2017 - Rightside

Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Character design for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven
Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Path illustration for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven

Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Character design for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven
Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Path illustration for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven

Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Character design for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven

(concepting, illustraton, game design, ui design & animation)

Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Path illustration for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven

Rightside Game and Multimedia Design Character design for hospitality serious game for Toerisme Utrecht by Maarten van Broekhoven
Rightside portrait of Maarten van Broekhoven a game designer, multimedia designer, illustrator and animator from Tilburg the Netherlands