FROM AN ICE CREAM STAND TO THE BUILDING OF AN EMPIRE, FROM MILAN TO LONDON AND MUMBAI. USING A SMARTPHONE OR TABLET, BOCCONI'S VIDEOGAME ALLOWS STUDENTS AND BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS TO FAMILIARIZE WITH ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT, UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS REPORTING AND MAKING SMART STRATEGIC DECISIONS. THE GAME IS IN ENGLISH AND FREE TO DOWNLOAD

Discovering the secrets of entrepreneurship by selling ice cream cones. Understanding supply and demand, the secrets of product promotion and a balance sheet. This is what Milan-based Università Bocconi offers students and aspiring young entrepreneurs around the world with ICE cream empire (ICE ), the strategic simulation game in English for smartphones and tablets. The game replicates the management of an ice cream stand and aims to familiarize young people with the  interpretation of the competitive environment, understanding business reporting and making smart strategic decisions. 

Developed for iOS and Android, integrated and playable also on Facebook, ICE is in English with eye-catching graphics. It reproduces the places where you can install your  kiosk (from Università Bocconi and Piazza Duomo in Milan to cities such London, New York, Mumbai and Shanghai) and challenges players to the best management of a business activity. ICE Cream Empire can be downloaded for free directly from the App store or from the website www.icecreamempire.it

The game begins with the consultation of news (such as the weather forecast) useful for planning strategic decisions. The player thus decides where to locate the kiosk, at what price to sell the cones, whether to undergo promotional activities, the ingredients and what recipe to use for the ice cream (tasty but expensive or bland but cheap?). The day’s business then evolves under the eyes of the player with customers buying or not depending upon the success of the decisions taken, which can in part be adjusted in real time. The game produces reports to help understand the day’s earnings and next day players can adjust their decisions.  

"Our research suggests that involvement is a very important precursor of learning," says Luigi Proserpio, director of BETA , the Bocconi research lab that deals with teaching activities and innovation. "Simulations like ICE Cream Empire have the advantage of being an immersive experience that facilitates the involvement of younger people. They also speak a language that these people are very accustomed to. Management theories and practices lend themselves well to translation into simulations because it is relatively easy to identify the variables that need to interact to make the game realistic. Of course, to maximize learning, games and simulations should be used as complementary tools to more traditional forms of teaching. "