Mars-500: Our DIY game production debut

Is it hard to transfer your expertise to another company on a DIY basis without sacrificing quality? We tried that out and made a game for the company to run by its own efforts. It was like landing on Mars, and we did it! With our games successfully adopted, they now can be freely played without our participation. The debut game was Mars-500 for M.Video. Let us share this fascinating case with you!

Mission. Customize the Mars-500 online game to be held autonomously within the customer's company on a DIY (Do It Yourself) basis.

Background.

One day, like all companies, ManGO! Games faced the need to deliver their services remotely and catch up with the new format literally on the fly. That is how our games began their transition to an online format - one step at a time. While continuing to hold face-to-face events, we first learned to play in Zoom using the Miro board. Later, we elaborated our own Excel-based system. Today, we have a custom-made game platform that allows us to provide our customers with even more, which is to lend them a game for use inside their own company. Once granted access, they can play the game as often as they want, without having to bring in a provider's representatives. This case is just one of those examples.

This way, the customer receives not only the game but also the platform support, ongoing updates, training, along with advice on the platform use and the game delivery. The very first time we tried this practice was for the M.Video project.

M.Video is a Russian consumer electronics and appliances retailer. The company employs over 25,000 salespeople alone, which explains its particular interest in repeated business game sessions for different groups of staff members.

The company has challenged us to develop the communication, presentation, negotiation, and contracting skills of its retail salespeople.

Solution. The Mars 500 online game in DIY (do-it-yourself) format.

We chose our Mars-500 to hand over to the company. The game is based on a real experiment that kept people in a bunker for 500 days, simulating a flight to Mars. Its very core lies in the selection of participants: out of 10, only 3 need to be left. To become a chosen one, each candidate needs to prove themselves the best choice. That would take excellent self-presentation, influencing, persuasion, decision-making, negotiation, and leadership skills.

The game teaches employees to easily handle conflicts, quickly navigate the situation, as well as to solve problems and achieve results in a timely manner.

Once the game was adapted to the customer's wishes, we ran two demo sessions to transfer the methodology to M.Video's facilitators.

One of the project's results was the customer's immediate desire to expand this experience by introducing another game, this time for executives. At this point, both games are being successfully run within the company.