Evaluation of a Serious Game for Young Software Engineering Graduates: Interviewing Skills and Soft Skills

Serious Games have proved to have instructional potential due to their ability to present realistic simulations of real-life situations. In this study, a serious game called “Galaxy Solutions” was developed. This game simulates all the stages of the recruitment process. It starts when the player is searching for vacancies and submitting applications, continues to the interview process, and concludes at the last stage, in which a company named “Jupiter Solutions” hires the player. Consequently, new challenges unfold in the working environment. The main objective of this game is to help graduates acquire basic interview skills and be aware of the whole process by making the learning experience more enjoyable and engaging. Throughout the game, the player must make decisions through multiple-choice actions and dialogue, and all these decisions affect the character's events in the future. The game was evaluated by 105 students, and it was found usable by all the students, regardless of their success level in the game, and had a statistically significant learning effect, as the pre-posttest analysis revealed.