Serious games provide the opportunity to capture trainees’ attention and facilitate the learning, practice, and mastery of operational skills in both training and operational settings (Hirumi and Stapleton, 2007). However, serious games and other educational software applications must be designed to effectively blend the elements of game, play, and story within an instructional framework to facilitate learning and job performance (Hirumi et al., 2016). Furthermore, the method selected to develop serious games must also leverage and balance the expertise of instructional designers and game developers to optimize game-based learning (Hirumi and Stapleton, 2007).

This validation study describes the iterative development of the Party Island simulation, a serious game designed to facilitate complex decision-making tasks under uncertain maritime conditions (Fiore et al., 2018; Song et al., 2018). Using Jacob’s Ladder to integrate key components of both game design and instructional design (Hirumi et al., 2007), the game applies the InterPLAY instructional theory to evoke emotions, spark imagination, and facilitate experiential learning (Hirumi et al., 2017). We provide an overview of how the integration of key game design and instructional design principles and practices transformed a laboratory simulation for evaluating complex decision-making under uncertainty into a serious game for maritime operations management, and discuss the differences between the original Party Island simulation vignettes and the current prototype. The shift from a simulation for basic research to a competitive serious game for training is highlighted. Based on formative evaluation methods, we assess our current iteration of Party Island and discuss initial results with respect to learner performance and satisfaction. We conclude with a summary of our design, development, and findings, and detail how these will influence the continued development of Party Island, a serious game for training complex decision-making under uncertainty.