YPD Challenge - 3D eRecruitainment/ Online Assesment

I worked on this project in Austria between 2009 and 2013 on various aspects like game engine programming, 3D level design, game play, user experience, interaction concepts in 2D and 3D, options for in-game advertisement, community concepts and organisational tasks. The technical challenge was primarily to get good performance out of entry level computers, 3D worlds with a very small file size and the integration into the existing Typo3 framework. On top, this game was set up as an event with thousands of simultanious playing people. After 5 years the YPD Challenge is now turning from a 3D online game into a live tv-show. This is a very interesting development and a fantastic opportunity for this project.

This game was also shaped with the help of the Donau Universität Krems. Since this is a private financed project, the results of the very interesting results of the research are not available.

To get a better idea of the YPD Challenge, have a look at the promotional videos below.

About the project

This project was a quite interesting experience for me. It all started with my diploma thesis in 2006 where I worked on a 3D game engine that seperated the work of artists completely from programming or scripting. After some time has passed, this program went online under the name  Biont3D. Since the engine made it very easy to set up 3D worlds and allowing to distribute them on- and offline, it fitted right into the production of the first YPD-Challenge in 2008/2009. In the following years things became more advanced and a lot of features were implemented.

The 3D online game was mainly used to find a more entertaining approach to test out the motivation of people and in the same way helping companies to advertise themselves as employers to the young target group. There is a lot of potential in using games in the field of eRecruitment/eRecruitainment since you get a good amount of informations by looking at the way people deal with situations. Also the possibilities to integrate and interconnect advertisements, games and apps into the virtual world unfold a wide range of symbiotic and new beneficial options.

Over the years the look of the game was changed various times to enhence the experience and basically get the most out of slow internet connections and entry level computers (Mac and PC).