Serious game development is being talked about more openly these days. At Mind Studios Games, we’re quite invested in the topic. Let us talk about it.
Highlights:
- Gamification in military training has huge value when it comes to soldiers’ learning efficiency;
- Developing games for a real-life military is a task tremendous in its seriousness;
- Realism lies at the heart of serious games, be it game design, art, or content creation.
Video games have been penetrating a range of seemingly unrelated industries for a while now, so it probably won’t surprise most people to know that serious game development for military training is a thing. Moreover, it’s been a thing for a fairly long time — it’s just that the need for faster and more efficient training became more pronounced in the latest years, so these games came to the surface of public awareness. After all, whatever other criticisms video games arouse, fast and efficient training is where they excel.
Same as gamification can make children’s education easier and faster (by making it entertaining), gamification in military training can be of great value, bringing to the table unorthodox instruction methods that help prepare recruits for future action in a safer, faster, and more digestible way.
And this is what we’ll be talking about in this article: how to improve a serious activity like military training with video games. We hope you find this guide useful. And if you do, take a chance on us as your partners for military training game development — we won’t disappoint.
The importance of serious games in military training
First things first: What exactly are serious games, and how do they differ from the games we play for entertainment?
In essence, any game worth its investment enables players to utilize specific skills, and, therefore, can be used for said skill development. However, we do not put that as a primary goal when we develop normal games. Most games, while utilizing players’ skills, aim to provide distraction from everyday routines, adding gags, jokes, cuteness, fantasy elements, and so on.
In contrast, serious games (also called applied games) are deliberately made as realistic as possible. Depending on what skills they intend to teach, the ‘realistic’ elements can be in the form of visuals, sound, storyline, etc. You can’t teach a recruit to assess a hostage situation properly by shaping it into a story of a sparkly unicorn kept in a cage by werewolves. You have to show them a hostage.
By employing games for military training, army and law enforcement can acquaint their recruits with the following:
How video games can help during military training |
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Lifelike combat simulations |
In games with the first-person view (or, if your budget allows, VR), soldiers can encounter realistic conflict situations while being safe in reality. This can help develop critical decision-making skills without endangering either soldiers or civilians, help trainees learn tactical maneuvers, strategic planning, and mission execution in a controlled environment. |
Teamwork |
Multiplayer serious games help improve team dynamics by simulating battlefield communication and coordination. They enhance leadership skills and collaboration in high-stress situations. |
Information warfare |
Military training game development can be done for cyber warfare as well, educating soldiers on the topic of cyber threats and digital security breaches. Gamified simulations teach them about digital warfare and hacking defense strategies. |
Reconnaissance |
Military games can enhance the soldiers’ analytical skills by training them to assess and interpret complex battlefield data. |
Operation of military vehicles |
AR/VR simulations of operating tanks, fighter jets, and armored vehicles will help soldiers obtain the necessary skills without exposing themselves or the equipment to damage. |
Medical and crisis response |
Military games can train medics in battlefield surgical care and disaster response training, preparing personnel for humanitarian missions as well as war. Games and AR/VR applications are already used extensively in the preparation of medical personnel, both inside and outside the military, but non-VR games can also be of use. |
Stress management |
Exposure to high-stakes, high-pressure situations in a simulation prepares soldiers for the battlefield, teaching them emotion control and resilience. Additionally, military games can help treat PTSD by recreating combat scenarios in a controlled therapeutic setting. |
Another role of gamification in military training is to increase recruit motivation by evoking their competitiveness — not against fellow recruits, but against game enemies and challenges. This makes for a healthier training environment, which is vital in the military, since soldiers must be ready to help each other in dire situations, and personal conflicts can get in the way of an operation success.
Finally, in addition to teaching vital skills to recruits and soldiers, games for military training are, in the long run, way cheaper than training “offline” — for starters, the army wouldn’t waste ammo when teaching soldiers to shoot. There will be no need to build multiple real-size training facilities as well. All that money can go into the recruitment of more soldiers and upgrading their equipment.
6 steps to develop a serious game for military training
So, how do you go about serious game design and development for military training? The same way you go about developing entertainment games, but with a twist — it’s all very serious.
Step 1. Defining training objectives
Even in traditional game development, we usually start with asking ourselves or our clients what they want to achieve with the game. In entertainment, the answers can be popularity, money, simply delivering the game idea to the world, etc.
In military training game development, there are, of course, also objectives. What specific skills do you want your soldiers to obtain? Is it tactical skills, drills assistance, cooperation, psychological training, information analysis on-the-go? Depending on that, the type of game and its features will differ greatly.
For the best results, we recommend consulting active military personnel to determine the focus of your future game.
Step 2. Research and conceptualization
Research is necessary before you start on game design and development.
Things you’ll need to be familiar with in order to succeed in quality serious game design for military training include:
- Real-world military scenarios, including historical data, current-day warfare tactics, and possible future scenarios.
- Real-world military doctrines, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and engagement rules.
- Psychological and behavioral research: studies of decision-making in combat, stress management, and mental health under pressure.
Military games are a sensitive endeavor, there’s no room for mistakes — after all, peoples’ lives are on the line. That’s why, it’s extremely important to consult with highly professional and experienced specialists on everything that goes into your game.
Step 3. Game design
Games for military training are designed with a primary focus on realism, skill development, and operational effectiveness.
Therefore, when conducting serious game design for military training, unlike with entertainment-focused games, you need to prioritize accuracy, scenario-based learning, and measurable training outcomes.
Here are the main things to keep in mind:
- Realism and accuracy. Realistic physics, ballistics, and terrain modeling, often based on real-world maps and military data.
- Authentic scenarios. Your game will need to simulate actual combat situations. It could be urban warfare, counter-insurgency, convoy operations, or air-ground coordination — the key here is using real-life situations. Which means involving actual experts in the field.
- Customizability. Military situations differ greatly, so training games are usually designed to be modified for different training needs, allowing mission parameters, enemy behaviors, and objectives to be tailored. Your game design will need to reflect that.
- High-fidelity AI. Using AI-generated ally and enemy characters can help facilitate training. They behave like real soldiers, reacting dynamically to tactics and environmental changes. However, when employing AI for military training, you’ll need to ensure its training data is both properly validated and diverse.
- After-action review (AAR). Games for military training should include replay and analytics features to evaluate performance and improve decision-making.
- Hardware and software integration. If your game is compatible with VR/AR and military simulation hardware, include this into game design considerations. This will enhance immersion and realism.
- Attention to UX design. Military training games play a vital role in preparing soldiers for life-threatening situations. To ensure the best results, ample attention to UX is necessary — it needs to be intuitive to the point of perfection, in order to not distract players (i.e., soldiers) from learning.
Serious military training video games are designed to enhance soldiers' tactical, strategic, and operational skills in a realistic and immersive environment. And it is imperative to relay this to your game designers. After all, game design is the cornerstone of any game, and unless it’s done properly, the game won’t reach its intended goals.
❗️Note from Mind Studios Games: Serious game design for military training, unlike the creation of commercial games, may incorporate classified tactics and proprietary military technologies. If that is one of the characteristics of your game, at the game design stage, you’ll need to make arrangements to safeguard the information. You’ll also need to have strict NDAs in place with the developers of your game.
Step 4. Military training game development
When it comes to realism in video games, usually, the first tool that comes to mind is the Unreal Engine. It’s a game engine that was created for first-person shooters, so its tool set is geared towards realistic rendering.
However, it’s also possible to create a highly detailed and realistic-looking game in Unity — it just takes experienced game developers and artists. Although it’s not often mentioned for realistic games, Unity’s capabilities in the niche today aren’t something to sneeze at.
In fact, in January 2020, Unity released HDRP (High Definition Render Pipeline), a scriptable render pipeline technology, targeting developers with the goal of making high-fidelity realistic games. Since then, the technology evolved, and in September 2024, at the Unite 2024 in Barcelona, Unity team presented Time Ghost, a short film showcasing Unity6’s rendering prowess. Check it out here (coincidentally, it’s a military-themed piece).
Additionally, a lot of developers choose Unity as it has less steep learning curve compared to UE, and is also more flexible in both work process and pricing.
Of course, besides the game engine, you’ll need other tools. Let’s talk a bit about that.
Choosing the right technologies to make applied games for military training
The specific tools you’ll need will obviously depend on the goal and functionality you’re planning to have for your game. Here are some recommendations from Mind Studios Games’ experts, selected by drawing up a hypothetical military game in our minds.
Simulation and physics |
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A military-focused simulation tool widely used for tactical training. |
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Well-known engine for realistic environments and physics, sometimes used in military applications. |
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Physics engines often used to enhance realism in destruction, movement, and environmental interactions. |
Virtual and augmented reality |
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High-resolution headsets used for immersive combat and flight simulations. |
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Mixed reality for battlefield awareness and hands-free training. |
Artificial intelligence and machine learning |
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Used for adaptive AI opponents and intelligent behavior modeling. |
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Facilitates realistic conversations with AI-controlled NPCs for decision-making training. |
Networking and multiplayer |
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For large-scale military training that involves numerous players. |
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Networking frameworks for real-time multiplayer experiences. |
Geospatial and mapping tools |
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For creating realistic battlefield scenarios. |
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Integrates real-world terrain data for accurate military simulations. Unreal Engine only. |
Hardware and haptic feedback |
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Physical feedback for increased immersion. |
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Allow for more realistic movement in virtual environments. |
What about art, besides the game engine’s ability to render realistic characters and environments?
Well, let us offer our two cents on the topic.
Tools to create realistic art for military games |
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Blender |
For 3D modeling and sculpting. It is quite powerful, something one wouldn’t expect from a free tool. |
ZBrush |
For high-detail sculpting like wrinkles, pores, or fine textures. You might need that if your game involves psychological training, like talking to victims of war and recognizing miniscule facial expressions. |
3ds Max |
For hard-surface modeling (vehicles, weapons, environments). |
Autodesk Maya |
Industry-standard for character and environment modeling. |
Substance Painter and Substance Designer |
For hyper-detailed textures, procedural materials, and PBR workflows. |
Quixel Megascans |
A massive library of real-world scanned textures and models. |
OctaneRender |
A GPU-based renderer for faster photorealistic results. |
RealityCapture / Agisoft Metashape |
Two popular tools used for scanning real-world objects and environments into 3D. |
NVIDIA Omniverse |
Helps integrate AI and photogrammetry into game art pipelines. |
Daz 3D |
For realistic pre-made human models. |
SpeedTree |
Industry-standard for creating hyperrealistic trees and vegetation. |
Houdini |
For procedural world generation and realistic VFX (fire, destruction, fluids). |
Step 5. Testing and iteration
We talk about it in almost every article — testing is crucial for video games, insufficient testing can doom even an AAA game’s success on the market. But that’s when we’re talking about commercial and entertainment aiming games — a loss of money is frustrating, but it’s not a total disaster.
From the point of view of serious game design and development for military training, the importance of testing is on a whole other level.
Serious games are made to enhance the training of military personnel. In the mildest case, insufficient game testing will result in negating the work done. After all, if the game does not accurately simulate real-world scenarios, soldiers will not gain the intended skills or decision-making experience. The game will simply not work properly to facilitate training, meaning the investment doesn’t bring results as expected.
More significantly, poorly tested military games might result in loss of equipment, overspending of ammo, and futile spending of budget funds.
If the software is not thoroughly tested for cybersecurity vulnerabilities, it could be exploited by adversaries: sensitive military strategies and operational data could be exposed if the game has weak security.
But it can also all go terribly wrong.
Worst case scenario — poor testing might result in unnecessary casualties during action:
- Unrealistic physics, AI behavior, or tactical scenarios can lead to a false sense of preparedness.
- Poorly tested simulations that do not properly represent combat environments lead to incorrect strategies and expectations.
- Due to unrealistic weapon mechanics, terrain navigation, or enemy behavior, trainees might develop ineffective tactics.
Poorly tested games can instill incorrect procedures, such as unrealistic movement, improper use of cover, or bad communication habits. These bad habits can carry over into real-world operations, potentially leading to mission failure or loss of life.
Thorough testing during serious game development for military training saves lives — quite literally.
Step 6. Deployment and training integration
To efficiently integrate serious video games into military training, the process should follow a structured approach. It actually starts with testing the hardware and infrastructure setup: checking the game’s compatibility with military simulators, VR systems, analytics, as well as network multiplayer support for team-based training.
When that’s done, the integration of your video game into traditional training regimens can ensue.
Start with training the senior personnel — training instructors — so that they can oversee, evaluate, and adapt simulations, weave them into field exercises, live drills, and classroom instruction. Familiarize soldiers with controls, objectives, and assessment metrics.
It might be fruitful to use games for pre-deployment planning and mission rehearsals. Use analytics to track performance and identify weaknesses. Don’t forget to regularly update scenarios based on real combat feedback and evolving threats.
Overall, a well-structured integration of gamification in military training maximizes realism, engagement, and combat preparedness.
Challenges and solutions in developing serious games for military training
An endeavor as complex as military training game development does, of course, come with a set of unique potential problems. Among them, we’d highlight the three main ones to be:
- cost and resource allocation,
- ensuring realism and relevance, and
- balancing training goals with game engagement.
How do we suggest dealing with them?
#1 Cost and resource allocation
The heart of the problem here is that high-quality training games require significant investment in technology, development, and maintenance. If it’s an official game for the military, the budgets must balance game development with other training methods.
The solution we recommend is, first and foremost, to collaborate with outside developers — outsource the parts of development that don’t contain any information that’s top secret. For example, crafting characters and terrains, building levels based on publicly known battles, functional testing for compatibility with a variety of devices, etc.
Additionally, while it’s not uncommon for video games to be built on proprietary game engines, using existing options like UE or Unity will definitely be cheaper.
#2 Ensuring realism and relevance
Unrealistic games may lead to ineffective training. Your game must accurately simulate real-world combat scenarios, equipment, and tactics. Otherwise, there’s no point, is there?
What to do? We mentioned this above, and we’ll repeat it again: involve military experts in development, use real-world data, and integrate AI for adaptive scenarios.
#3 Balancing training goals with game engagement
Applied games must be engaging enough to maintain interest while ensuring serious training outcomes. Too much realism can make it dull, while too much gamification in military training can reduce effectiveness.
This problem is from the area of expertise of game and level designers. Experienced professionals will craft game mechanics that reward correct tactical decisions, create immersive storylines, and allow players to experience real consequences in a controlled setting.
Approach these and other challenges with a level head, delegate decision-making to people who know what they’re doing in each specific field, and your military training game development will be a success.
Conclusion
Military training games can provide cost-effective, realistic, and engaging training experiences. However, they’re also an endeavor that should not be taken lightly — serious games are called that for a reason, and military simulations can be life-saving as much as life-threatening. It will all depend on the game’s quality.
If you decide to outsource your serious game design and development for military training (in part or in full) to an outside company, make sure they’re reliable and treat your project with utmost care, understanding the weight it bears on the potential outcomes of conflicts.
At Mind Studios Games, we understand the importance of preserving lives of soldiers and civilians very well, being from Ukraine. And we take gamification in military training very seriously — we know how crucial it is to provide efficient training in a safely controlled environment.
Take a chance on us if you’re looking for a partner to entrust your military game’s development. Get in touch with our Head of Gamedev on LinkedIn, or fill in the contact form here to schedule an initial consultation. Let’s discuss what you need and what we can offer — and let’s create more tools that will help ensure peace and safety in the world.
