VSTEP B.V. in Netherlands, or VSTEP in the UK, is a serious game

Serious game

A serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion,...

 developer

Video game developer

A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...

 located in Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

, The Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, and one of the leading developers in the European serious games industry.

History

VSTEP was founded in 2002 by four experienced entrepreneurs. VSTEP currently has 40 staff members as well as a network of subcontractors. Since its founding, VSTEP has developed and completed over 30 simulation and training projects, giving it a leading position in the European serious games industry.

In 2005, Fortis Venturing

Fortis (finance)

Fortis N.V./S.A. was a company active in insurance, banking and investment management. In 2007 it was the 20th largest business in the world by revenue but after encountering severe problems in the financial crisis of 2008, most of the company was sold in parts, with only insurance activities...

 became a shareholder in VSTEP to accelerate their growth in the serious games market.

On March 26, 2008, the Dutch Ministry of Economics

Ministry (government department)

A ministry is a specialised organisation responsible for a sector of government public administration, sometimes led by a minister or a senior public servant, that can have responsibility for one or more departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions or other smaller executive, advisory, managerial or...

 awarded VSTEP a prize for "Serious gaming and simulations for better safety".

In 2008 Ship Simulator was nominated for a Dutch Game Award in the category 'Best Serious Game'.

Serious games

VSTEP has made over 30 simulation and training games, including scenario training software, procedure training software and training simulators. The most well-known serious games from VSTEP are the Ship Simulator

Ship Simulator

Ship Simulator is a vehicle simulation computer game which simulates maneuvering various ships in different environments, although without the effects of wind and current...

series.

Among their clients, VSTEP has the Royal Netherlands Navy

Royal Netherlands Navy

The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

, Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

 Harbour Company, Sea Harbour Police Rotterdam, Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 county, Royal Boskalis Westminster

Royal Boskalis Westminster

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a Netherlands-based company that provides services relating to the construction and maintenance of maritime infrastructure on an international basis...

, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs: it is occupied with the external relations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including European cooperation and International development...

, Fairmount Marine

Fairmount Marine

Fairmount Marine is a shipping company in the Louis Dreyfus Group. The company operates 11 heavy transport vessels, including two self-propelled semi-submersible ships which are owned by Fairmount Heavy Transport while the mother group operates six anchor handling tug supply vessels and three...

, Falck/Nutec Global Safety, and others.

Ship Simulator

Ship Simulator simulates maneuvering a variety of ships in differing environments. Developed by VSTEP, it was released by Lighthouse Interactive

Lighthouse Interactive

SilverBirch, Inc. was a video game publisher located in the Netherlands and was Acquired by Lighthouse Interactive in 2008. The company "Lighthouse interactive" had offices in Toronto and Montreal, Canada, Haarlem, The Netherlands and London, England....

.

RescueSim

First released in 2008, RescueSim challenges players with a variety of equipment, environments, objects and different kind of fires or leakages. An instructor forms and adjusts variables on the instructor screen for students who move through the created environment where their actions are logged. The software features port incident management including port-specific scenarios such as engine-room fires, transfer fires or pipe leakages.

Other

The company also markets the DriveZone driving simulator as well as a FireFighter simulation game.

Video games

In addition to the mass market Ship Simulator 2008 game, VSTEP are developing a fire-fighting PC and console game based on their training products produced for fire services in the Netherlands.

External links

• Official VSTEP website
• VSTEP on MobyGames
• http://www.cultuureneconomie.nl/_pdf/Marktverkenning_serious_games.pdfThe Dutch Ministry of Economics
  Ministry (government department)
  A ministry is a specialised organisation responsible for a sector of government public administration, sometimes led by a minister or a senior public servant, that can have responsibility for one or more departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions or other smaller executive, advisory, managerial or...
  
  on serious games, including VSTEP]