costs for simulation

The cost that organizations have to spend to access an educational simulation, either by commissioning custom simulations or licensing them "off-the-shelf, per named user."

Here are some examples of costs for access by corporations (and click on the headings for a deeper definition and examples of the genre):

Branching story:

Simulation in which students make a series of decisions via a multiple choice interface to progress through and impact an event.

• Custom short (Less than 10 minutes): 30K
• Custom medium (Between 10 minutes and 30 minutes): 100K
• Custom long (Between 30 minutes and 2 hours): 500K
• Off the shelf short (per user): $30
• Off the shelf medium (per user): $100
• Off the shelf long (per user): $500

Interactive spreadsheets:

Simulation in which students typically try to impact critical metrics by allocating resources along competing categories and getting feedback of their decisions through graphs and charts.

• Custom short (Less than 1 hour): 30K+
• Custom medium (Between 1 hour and 4 hours): 100K+
• Custom long (Between 4 and 8 hours): 500K+
• Off the shelf short (per user): $30*
• Off the shelf medium (per user): $100*
• Off the shelf long (per user): $500*

+ plus cost of facilitation, * including cost of facilitation

Mini games:

Small, easy-to-access game built to be simple and addictive, which often focuses on mastering an action and can provide awareness of more complicated issues.

• Custom short (5 minutes): 10K
• Custom medium (10 minutes): 15K
• Custom long (30 minutes): 40K
• Off the shelf short (per user): n/a
• Off the shelf medium (per user): n/a
• Off the shelf long (per user): n/a

Virtual product or virtual lab :

A series of challenges/puzzles to be solved using on-screen representations of real-world objects and software.

• Custom short (30 minutes): 30K
• Custom medium (1 hour): 75K
• Custom long (4 hours): 150K
• Off the shelf short (per user): $10
• Off the shelf medium (per user): $30
• Off the shelf long (per user): $100

Practiceware:

Real-time, often 3D sims that encourages participants to repeat actions in high fidelity situations until the skills become natural in the real-world counterpart

• Custom short (1 hour): 100K+
• Custom medium (5 hours): 500K+
• Custom long (20 hours): 1000K+
• Off the shelf short (per user): $100*
• Off the shelf medium (per user): $400*
• Off the shelf long (per user): $1000*

+ plus cost of facilitation, * including cost of facilitation

Increasing Cost

Here are some items that typically and significantly increase costs:

• full motion video (many instead use comics / illustrations)
• advanced graphics
• calibrating units, maps, processes, and other parts of relevant systems
• creating a new Genre
• having a totally self-paced/asynchronous deployment
• customizing or building software instead of configuring or using off-the-shelf
• distance deployed multiplayer
• building a complex game

Note: All genre links include examples of the genre in [brackets]. Go to mini games and launch a few [examples].

Ben Sawyer on costs of sims vs. books

Most books cost with production between $50,000-$100,000 to produce and market. I've seen trade books produced for about $25,000 on the low end. These prices compare well with smaller casual games. In this case however the book probably covers in depth much more information (in this regard they are different experiences) but in many cases sponsors write books to advocate an issue, something games in the 50,000-100K range can do very effectively.

On the textbook front 101 Economics Textbooks when done can cost $2M or more to produce. Books in other ripe areas aren't dissimilar. That's plenty to build a good game about economics. From an impact standpoint a book on an esoteric issue (say exploring new thinking in college management) would cost $50,000-$100,000 to produce. Maybe more given a foundation or other developer would spend that much to convene a study, or buyout authors time. That book might sell or be read by 2000-4000 during it's lifetime. That's an impact cost of say $25/person. Virtual University cost $1M and offered an impact model that at times reaches below $10/ person depending on how we define impact.

Epilogue: Typical Sim Conversation

Training Person: I can't do simulations. They are too expensive.

Me: Not necessarily. There are many simple models. There are branching stories, virtual products, interactive spreadsheets, frame games, just to name a few.

Training Person: And are these more effective in achieving learning goals?

Me: Yes. They have very impressive long term productivity benefits.

Training Person: Those are great. But how about multiplayer ? Do you have any examples of multiplayer?

Me: OK. Here they are.

Training Person: Those are cool. But you have any with better scoring and coaching built in as well?

Me: Sure. Here are a few other examples.

Training Person: Animations and advanced graphics are really important to me. Do you have any examples of sims also with really great, smooth animation?

Me: Yup, I have a few right here.

Training Person: Our corporate colors are blue and red? Is it possible to customize it?

Me: Yes.

Training Person: Wow, that is so fantastic. That really blow me away. It's too bad, really.

Me: What is?

Training Person: I can't do simulations. They are too expensive.