Royal Navy recruiting marine engineers via social media

The challenge puts potential recruits through their paces with five interactive missions – each based on realistic Royal Navy training tasks. The Central Office of Information (COI), in collaboration with interactive creative agency Marvellous, created the game, which uses features including the iPhone's touch screen interface and accelerometer. Some challenges are set aboard HMS Deter, urgently needing repairs. As the lieutenant in charge, the player makes crucial decisions, as they would as an engineering officer – from fixing the engine or preparing for a simulated missile attack, to re-wiring the radar system. After each challenge the player is presented with video footage revealing the impact of their decisions in the task. Once completed their score is submitted to a leaderboard where they can challenge a friend or simply visit the Royal Navy website for career information. Maxine Brown, senior interactive services manager at the COI, says: "When thinking of engineering careers, potential candidates automatically default to civilian and commercial businesses. So demonstrating how challenging and rewarding a Royal Navy engineer officer career can be was a key objective in this campaign."