**4.4 The visualization layer**

Those with experience with existing management simulations may argue that the current crop of software also offers this final layer. However, the separation of the visualization layer is consciously done to reflect on the relatively poor gaming experience found within existing management simulations. It is a convenient that students are asked to fill in a form-like interface to record their decisions. This is a convenience that reflects the golden age of the "Beer Game" and the relative lack of progress in this aspect of management simulation development since then. While other forms of casual gaming have mastered the idea of the procedurally generated game world, this is an innovation yet to reach the world of simulations. The act of entering a two-digit number into a text box on a flat screen is one solution to data input. However, procedurally generated game worlds have also discovered many others. Within VR space dialing a floating knob to the correct position, drawing the number in the air with a finger, tapping an in-game device, or covering the chosen number with a suitable virtual object have all been explored in different environments.

Removing visualization from the decision layer also separated the more complex task of generating procedural worlds so that a student could provide input at the appropriate decision points through the keyboard but then move to a VR visualization of the same simulation and provide decisions through other forms of input. While this option appears challenging, projects that are entirely separate from the concerns of management simulations have been working to make this relatively straightforward. A ten-year-old project called CityGen3D developed a plugin for the Unity game creation engine that used 2D map data, such as OpenStreetMap to create 3D cityscapes [22]. The potential is that a simulation expressed through an XML description could be pulled through the decision-making layer and be represented within a local neighborhood render by extrapolation from OpenStreetMap. Given that the types of decisions that are required and the user inputs are already known through the definition layer, the challenge for the designer tasked with creating the visualization layer is to produce suitable input systems that can be triggered within the procedural game world. It could be that students have to go and record their decisions at any of the procedurally generated corner stores, or they have to locate a shared office space where they can record their decisions into the generated PC. Because ensuring the player's ability to generate their input is the only requirement for the visualization layer, a designer can then focus on taking more cues from the feedback of the game's progress to populate the virtual game world with elements that are representative. Perhaps, poor overall progress by all the teams would be reflected by streets more littered, creating higher chances of street violence (making it harder to go and make

a decision) or a general decline in the urban environment. Similarly, teams enjoying generally good progress might see improvements in their local environment and even more convenient ways to make their next set of decisions.

As these scenarios indicate, better visualization may also provide players with clearer visual expressions of how good management decisions can have wider social value and benefits (and vice versa) in a way that current management simulations can often struggle to portray. This further expands the value of management simulations—as well as, for example, generally improving the awareness of sustainable development goals—beyond their current capacity.
