Design games are perfect for engineering students whose careers will require them to design things (e.g., buildings or computer components). A design video game is a 3D, virtual-reality program in which students access components and assemble them to build various products. A design game might challenge engineers to build computer ships, car engines or any other product that is typically planned by engineers. The company Avnet Tech has games that challenge college students to build robots, computer components and other technologies, all in a virtual reality environment.
Simulation games (e.g., flight simulators) are well known for their use in teaching pilots, but they can also be great tools for teaching students of aerospace or nautical engineering. Aerospace engineers, for example, need to have an appreciation for how their machine will actually work in the real world; training on flight simulators can teach them what physical and technical factors contribute to how an airplane handles in the real world. Of course, for transportation simulators to be of educational value, they must be based on real world physics. Many commercially available titles now fit this description, and can be purchased for use in class.
Strategy games with technical elements can be valuable learning tools for college students. Teachers at the University of Texas have proposed the use of strategy games in college engineering courses. According to Shaun Longstreet and Kendra Cooper, the game "SimSYS" can be used to educate software engineers, as it simulates work at an actual software engineering firm, including the management and technical sides of software engineering work. While expansive and realistic engineering games like SimSYS are still in the developmental stage, smaller online games can be used to simulate parts of the engineering process. The online game "PowerUp," for example, challenges students to rescue a hypothetical planet using engineering.
Some technology games combine elements from several game genres. A design game, for example, could also be a racing game where the students compete against each other using cars they designed. Some games designed for use with engineering students actual follow this basic premise. Other educational games involving multiple game components include a lifeboat-building computer game where students design a lifeboat and use it to rescue people, and a weapons engineering game where students try to design weapons and then use those weapons to knock down a castle. All these games can be played for free online.