EMRLD Health: Choosing a Partner for a Medical Simulation Game. SCOPE teaches medicine through cases. Students needed it to also be fun.

EMRLD built SCOPE, a case-based learning tool for medical education, and wanted to expand its product line with a 2D medical simulation game. The key question: which development partner fits best on cost, integration, support, and user experience?

• Researched game development partners down to a shortlist of five.
• Scored them on a weighted decision matrix (development cost, integration, services, customizability, user experience, post-launch support), which recommended SDLC Corp.
• Compared build models for five developers: $25K with SDLC at $20/hr, $75K with freelancers at ~$60/hr, $90K with full-time hires at ~$72/hr.
• Built an ad revenue model (rewarded, interstitial, programmatic healthcare, and banner ads): blended $8 CPM at 20 ads per user per month, about $1,600 per month per 10,000 users.
• Projected a ~66.3% ROI and ~27-month breakeven at 1% monthly user growth.
• Estimated a 3.8 : 1 benefit-cost ratio from burnout mitigation for medical students ($47,125 fixed costs vs $178,497 in benefits).
• Tore down three competing games (Happy Clinic, Dream Hospital, Full Code) plus SDLC's own Chef Life to define six must-have features.
• Scored risks (overall risk factor 40.3 for SCOPE vs 24.25 for the game) with a mitigation for each, and laid out a 12-week delivery timeline.