A bomb explodes in a busy shopping street, leaving injured shoppers requiring rapid assistance -- thankfully it is only on a computer screen, but it has a deadly serious purpose.
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This 'virtual' crisis, used in training for emergency services workers, is part of a so-called "serious game", an emerging niche in the video game industry.
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The game "Triage Training", developed in Coventry, central England, by a subsidiary of the Blitz Game group is aiming to be as realistic as possible.
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Judging by several scenes, the game developers appear to have succeeded -- in one, a man screams "Help me!" over the wail of emergency sirens amid broken glass and overturned garbage cans.
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As chaos ensues, the player must quickly fulfill a series of tasks -- check to ensure his respiratory tracts are not blocked, make sure he has a pulse, and various other in-game tests to provide a diagnosis -- before moving swiftly along to treat the other injured victims as efficiently as possible.
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"It works in real time, so if you don't take care of these casualties quickly enough, they will die," Mary Matthews, director of development at Blitz Truism, said. "It's pretty scary."
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Matthews said the game was developed in six months with the help of the Serious Games Institute (SGI) at the University of Coventry, and has been tested by several potential real-world clients.
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"That's what is called a structured decision training game," said David Wortley, director of SGI, which works to bring together entrepreneurs working on "serious game" projects and potential customers.
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The British Midlands, where the SGI and Blitz Games are based, were long the home to the country's industrial sector, but have since provided a base for Britain's successful video game industry.

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