2016 International Serious Play Awards: Gold, Silver and Bronze
The 2016 International Serious Play Awards, announced on June 20, 2016, named 7 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze winners across education, corporate, nonprofit and healthcare games.
Updated
About the 2016 awards
The International Serious Play Awards are given by the Serious Games Association. The program recognizes titles that deliver high engagement and real learning for students, employees and other learners in education or training situations. Winners are announced each year with the association's US conference, the Serious Play Conference, which in 2016 ran from July 26 to 28 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
The announcement of June 20, 2016 came from Los Angeles and listed more than 30 studios, publishers, companies and student groups. The gold winners covered K-12 financial literacy (Night of the Living Debt), K-12 math (DragonBox Numbers and Millie Moreorless), corporate training (Pacific), nonprofit (The Fiscal Ship), healthcare (Vital Signs) and higher education student work (A Fine Line, on academic integrity). Vital Signs from BreakAway Games later received the Best of Show Award at the conference.
All 2016 winners
| Tier | Studio | Game | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Night of the Living Debt | Learning Games Lab at New Mexico State University | K-12 Financial Literacy |
| Gold | DragonBox Numbers | WeWantToKnow | K-12 Math |
| Gold | Millie Moreorless | Enabling Play | K-12 Math for Special Ed |
| Gold | Pacific | Gamelearn | Corporate |
| Gold | The Fiscal Ship | 1st Playable Productions | Nonprofit |
| Gold | Vital Signs | BreakAway Games | Healthcare |
| Gold | A Fine Line | True North/Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center | Student Higher Education, Academic Integrity |
| Silver | The Legend of Geomethor | FlipSwitch | K-12 Math |
| Silver | Anomaly X | Playniac | K-12 Math |
| Silver | Data Analytics Simulation: Strategic Decision Making | Harvard Business Publishing | Higher Ed |
| Silver | Mission Critical Operator | Virtual Heroes | Corporate |
| Silver | Counter Intelligence | SweetRush Inc. | Corporate |
| Silver | Waisimo - Retail Customer Service Apprenticeship | MAVI Interactive | Corporate |
| Silver | Save the Park | Schell Games | Nonprofit |
| Silver | NBCOT Navigator | BreakAway Games | Healthcare |
| Silver | Superbugs | Preloaded | Healthcare |
| Silver | Immunotherapy Mini-Games | Ayogo Health Inc./Genentech | Healthcare |
| Silver | Kwizopia SOL | Creative Gaming and Simulation Lab at Norfolk State University | Student K-12 Math |
| Bronze | Community in Crisis | Classroom, Inc. | K-12 Literacy |
| Bronze | Sprite's Quest: Seedling Saga | CFORP | K-12 Geography |
| Bronze | Box Island: Epic Coding Adventure | Radiant Games | K-12 Programming |
| Bronze | City Hacks: In Search of Sleep | The Partnership in Education | K-12 Study Skills, Science |
| Bronze | Hazard Ridge | Supersoul, LLC | K-12 Agricultural Safety |
| Bronze | Xenos Isle | Learning Games Studios, Inc. | Higher Ed |
| Bronze | E-Learning for School Bus Drivers | Allen Interactions | Corporate |
| Bronze | Mercer City | Designing Digitally, Inc. | Corporate |
| Bronze | 1979 Revolution: BLACK FRIDAY | iNK Studios | Nonprofit |
| Bronze | Vet Tech Terminology Challenge | Allen Interactions | Healthcare |
| Bronze | I Got This: An Interactive Story | Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley | Healthcare |
| Bronze | Soteria - Dreams as Currency | DePaul University/Play 4 Change | Student Healthcare |
Patterns in the list
Math carried the K-12 side. Five of the 30 winners are K-12 math titles, from DragonBox Numbers to Kwizopia SOL, a student-built entry from Norfolk State University. Healthcare was the other large field with seven winners across gold, silver and bronze, and BreakAway Games won in it twice, with Vital Signs and NBCOT Navigator.
Studios with more than one entry stand out. Allen Interactions took two bronze awards, one for a school bus driver course and one for veterinary technician terminology. MAVI Interactive's silver went to Waisimo, a retail customer service apprenticeship game.
What is true today
The Serious Play Conference is still running. Its homepage lists a 3 to 5 August edition at the University of Washington in Seattle, with pages for 2026 speakers and program, and its awards menu links winner pages for 2024, 2025 and 2026. The 2026 page calls the program the International Serious Play Awards and uses two tiers, Winner and Finalist, together with a Sue Bohle Game of the Year honor. The gold, silver and bronze tiers of 2016 are not used there.
Individual winners fare differently. DragonBox Numbers is still offered: its product page targets ages 4 to 8, links the Apple App Store and Google Play and credits Kahoot DragonBox AS. Vital Signs lives on as Vital Signs: Emergency Department, which its own site offers for free on Steam. For the other winners no present-day status is stated here.
Questions about the 2016 awards
How many games won in 2016?
The announcement lists 30 winners: 7 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze.
Which game won Best of Show in 2016?
Vital Signs from BreakAway Games, a healthcare simulation set in an emergency department, won the Best of Show Award at the Serious Play Conference.
Do the awards still exist?
Yes. The Serious Play Conference website lists International Serious Play Awards winners and finalists for 2026, now sorted into Winner and Finalist tiers instead of gold, silver and bronze.