Play While you Wait: Analog Serious Games in Gastronomic Contexts

Abstract

Waiting time in restaurants constitutes a passive interval that adversely affects customer experience and their emotional connection with the establishment. This study examines the potential of analogue serious games to transform that waiting period into an experience of experiential engagement and social interaction amongst diners. We report the design, implementation and iterative validation of Sabrosa Oportunidad, an analogue serious game developed by undergraduate students using the Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology at a university in Cartagena, Colombia. The game combines a colour roulette wheel, a Jenga-style tower and gastronomic challenge cards, articulating mechanics of chance, skill and knowledge with rewards linked to the establishment's menu. Two DBR cycles were implemented with 38 participants across five differentiated groups: university students, clients and owners of a gastrobar, and a marketing expert. Data collection combined structured direct observation, a post-game Likert-scale questionnaire administered digitally, and an inter-cycle DBR decision log. Results demonstrate high levels of emotional engagement and spontaneous interaction across all groups: structured direct observation across both cycles recorded that all participants (n = 38) engaged with the game as an entertaining activity, whilst the Cycle 2 post-game questionnaire (n = 11) indicated that 91% considered that the game improves perception of the service and 82% would be willing to wait longer if games were available. Three transferable design principles emerge from the iterative analysis: collectively observable physical-risk mechanics constitute the most potent mechanism for group emotional engagement; engagement follows a non-linear curve that requires programmed rhythmic variation from the third round onwards; and analogue play activates spontaneous social co-ordination that transcends the designed ludic system. These principles constitute the central scholarly contribution of the study, addressing a design research gap in serious game applications for gastronomic service contexts. Although derived from a single artefact and context, they are proposed as transferable heuristics for the design of analogue game-based interventions in comparable service environments.