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This is an extended version of the review published at Papo GP. For the Brazillian Portuguese version, click here.

Sharkworld, A Project Management Game brings in all the craziness and thrills of the everyday PM word to your computer in a very interactive online game. How do you think you’d do managing the construction of a theme park which scope is, suffice to say, not a tad conventional and the circumstances where you were appointed to the job are, lets say, strange?

PREMISE

“An Olympic location near the city of Sha Cheng is rebuilt into the first large scale shark aquarium in the world, combined with a swimming paradise: ‘Sharkworld’.”

“The Dutch (international) installation company ‘Spector Install’ has acquired this project. The Company has had a lot of experience with swimming pools, congress halls, hospitals and dolphin aquariums, but has never worked with sharks before. Their corporate web site provides a nice overview of several installation and construction projects in both utility and industrial fields, with a diversity of cases.”

“The last project manager on site has mysteriously disappeared. You, the player, apply for his job and you are sent to China immediately. You land in the middle of an ongoing project and must see that the project is brought to a good end.”

The idea behind Sharkworld is to provide project managers with the experience of dealing with different aspects of the profession, being fun and challenging at the same time, pushing them to take decisions (most of the time without having all the information necessary to do so, and on a 40 seconds time limit.) giving them no time to fully consider their repercussions. Mix this up with a thriller atmosphere that will surely keep the playing on his toes throughout the game!

I played the game twice and can’t help to be amazed on how interactive and immersive it is. The stakeholders will try to contact you in game, via telephone, IM or inviting you in for a meeting or a bar.  But do not be surprised if you boss calls you on your cell phone, send you SMS messages, or if the main stakeholder send you emails asking how the project is going.

That’s the level of immersion Sharkworld provides. The game has only one flaw as I see it: It relies on videos too much and the servers’ streaming capabilities demand long buffering times, could have been my computer/connection, but I don’t really think so. Otherwise, the game storyline is well-written, fun and educative – many best practices to be used and even you might consider reading Appendix G and the new material about stakeholders on the PMBoK 4th edition before playing.

All in all, a great PM game!