R. Shumaker (Ed.): VAMR/HCII 2013, Part II, LNCS 8022, pp. 363–371, 2013. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 A 3-D Serious Game to Simulate a Living of a Beehive José Eduardo M. de Figueiredo, Vera Maria B. Werneck, and Rosa Maria E. Moreira da Costa Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro IME – Mestrado em Ciências Computacionais, Rua São Francisco Xavier 524- 6 o andar – Bl. B, CEP 20550-013 - Rio de Janeiro – RJ – Brazil prof_edu@oi.com.br, {rcosta,vera}@ime.uerj.br Abstract. Computational tools are increasingly supporting the learning process in several areas. They open new opportunities for teachers to teach contents and interact with their students. This group of tools includes simulations based on multi-agent systems. This work aims to present a simulation game to study the population growth of a beehive. System variables can be changed in order to analyze different results. Aspects such as duration and time of flowering can be manipulated by the student. The multi-agent approach in Distributed Artificial Intelligence has been chosen to automatically control the activities of the application. Virtual Reality is used to illustrate the behavior of the bees that in general, are not able to be seen in the real world or through mathematical simulation. Keywords: Simulation, Virtual Reality, Multi-Agents Systems, Serious Games. 1 Introduction Computer simulations are used to recreate real-life processes in computing environments. They allow us to check how the modeled system works under certain conditions and assess the consequences for the overall behavior of the system [1]. The biology area has many phenomena that can be simulated, which include the process of cell division [2] and predator-prey relationship [3]. Another possibility to simulate the real world in a digital system is to reproduce the activities of social insects. In this case, several agents, the insects, act as their experience and interact with other agents, making decisions in order to maintain the unity of the group. This group is a swarm [4]. This paper aims to present a 3-D game based on a simulation environment which supports the study of the population growth of a society of bees. One of the aspects involved in the beehive growth is the need to collect and produce nectar to ensure energy supply for the entire hive. The solution adopted was based on the areas of Distributed Artificial Intelligence and Swarm, exploring Multi Agents Systems