Ranj creates most promising business model canvas game

Jun 10, 2013 | Awards, Games, News

Game company Ranj Serious Games is the winner of Business Model Canvas: The Game. During this 3-day bootcamp that took place in Amsterdam from 5 till 7 June, six well-known Dutch game studios created game concepts that allowed businesses to safely experiment and play with their own business models. Studio Chicken Little Game Studio won the audience award.

During the 3-day boot camp that was organized by Business Models Inc. and Dutch Game Garden, the game studios were commissioned to develop concepts based on the famous Business Model Canvas by Alex Osterwalder. Their games were to make clear how the various building blocks of the canvas are connected with each other within a business model. The game studios were supported by innovation managers and companies that were invited as well.The jury, among whom was Alex Osterwalder, decided at the end of the boot camp who had designed the best game.

Testing scenarios

Winner Ranj Serious Games developed the game ‘Canvas Brokers’, which enables players to test their business model ideas on a virtual stock market. Audience award winner Little Chicken made a concept involving balloons that indicate the importance of different building blocks. The other game studios Headcandy, Ragesquid, Firebrush Studios and Weirdbeard developed interesting prototypes as well. “By making the canvas playable you immediately see the impact your choices have when renewing your model,” says Patrick van der Pijl.
“Some things are hard to explain, until you do them yourself,” adds JP van Seventer of co-organizer of Dutch Game Garden. “Games let you control the subject, which can lead to a better understanding of the subject the game deals with. This is also the idea behind serious games, a market that is growing in the Netherlands.”