We are pleased to launch BerryMaker – an exciting science game exploring the world of synthetic biology and berries through the eyes of a biotech start-up!
OUTLINE OF THE GAME:
In BerryMaker, you’re the founder and CEO of a biotech start-up company that produces healthy soft drinks made with synthetic biology technology!
You’re going to identify and extract useful genes in berries collected from all over the world, and transfer them to microorganisms that will then produce healthy ingredients for you to use in your soft drink production. As the CEO your aim is to stay ahead of the competition with cutting-edge science, deliver an in-demand drink and maximize your quarterly profits!
AIM OF THE GAME:
The goal is simple: grow your start-up and make your company an economic success! You want to maximize your quarterly profits – and after every 90 in-game days you can upload your quarterly profit figures to the high score board (24 seconds equal 1 in-game day!).
RISING CHALLENGES:
As your company grows from start-up to a large cooperation, you experience different challenges. At first you have limited financial resources to buy equipment and you’ll need to establish a positive cash flow. But later on your focus will be on increasing the efficiency of the production process by constantly searching for the right selection of berries, genes, and microorganisms.
THE PLAYER AS STRATEGIC TINKERER:
BerryMaker favours the strategic and forward looking player who keeps the laboratory, fermenters and factory working well. As a player, you want to establish and build your company step by step to create the most effective biotech undertaking on the whole market! You also need to understand and react to outside market events that are beyond your control, but that will influence your business.
SCIENCE GAMIFICATION:
The game mirrors the efforts of the real world to identify genes for useful healthy substances in berries and to transfer them to microorganisms, so they will produce these compounds in fermenters. The real life research and innovation activity that BerryMaker is based on was the European Commission’s FP7 funded BacHBerry project (http://www.bachberry.eu) and represented a joint effort of several European and international researchers. The game’s market events are of course fictional and any similarity to real organizations or people is entirely by chance.
BerryMaker is part of BACH-BERRY, a 3 year project funded by the EC-FP7 on “BACterial Hosts for production of Bioactive phenolics from bERRY fruits”.