Energetika (E.2010): the energy policy game, Best Serious Game 2011

Energetika is a free strategy simulation built for classroom use. Players run the fictitious state of Energetika over a 40-year period and have to keep the power supply secure while watching social, economic and ecological effects. They build, upgrade and dismantle power plants, research new technologies and start educational campaigns, and advisers and citizens react to each decision.

DIALOGIK published the game, and takomat GmbH in Cologne handled design and development, with the online simulation built by RockAByte in close cooperation with takomat. The idea came from takomat and the DIALOGIK institute for the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which also funded the project. Game results can be stored and compared, a feature the jury singled out.

The game's own tips explain the pressure points. The first nuclear power plant closes in 2015 and the second in 2020, so the lost capacity has to be replaced. In 2030 a series of coal plants and wind farms reach the end of their service life, which makes the later decades harder. Three score accounts run side by side. The ecology account tracks carbon dioxide, radioactive waste and other environmental burdens. The economy account charges construction costs in installments and bills running costs monthly, with electricity sales as the only income, so the price must be chosen with care. The social account reacts to the population, which speaks up when it dislikes a decision, and campaigns and citizen participation procedures can move it. A 2050 energy scenario is reachable with renewables or with a mix of every available source, nuclear, coal and gas included.

At the 2011 German Computer Game Award (Deutscher Computerspielpreis) ceremony in Munich, Energetika took the prize in the Best Serious Game category. The jury described it as a strategy game on the core question of energy policy, free of charge and explicitly designed for the classroom.

The address of the original project site now forwards to a page on thebetterlaend.de, a site titled Junge Ideen für eine bessere Zukunft (Young Ideas for a Better Future), where the game is presented under the name Energiespiel. That page states that ENERGETIKA 2010 can no longer be played in current browsers because it is a Flash game and Adobe ended Flash support on December 31, 2020. The same applies to the offline version for Mac and PC, which the page says works only up to OS X Yosemite.

The page reports that the game was played about one million times in the ten years it was online, and names Kommunikationsbüro Ulmer GmbH as the provider. It still carries the rules, tips and background texts for the game. Because the game itself needs Flash, this entry lists its availability as unconfirmed.