SERIOUS GAMES MARKET

Scientific Serious Games: Power Of Research Expanded

2012-01-09T16:27:00.002-02:00

Serious Games engaging players in health research projects

3D Hospital game released in Power of Research

In Power of Research players can engage in health research projects, by performing microscopy, protein isolation and DNA experiments, publishing research results, participating in conferences, managing high tech equipment and staff or request funding – all tasks of real researchers.

Power of Research, a free strategic browser game is now expanded by a 3D hospital, where players can act as a medical doctor and select suitable treatments for a large variety of patients in their own hospital.

This Serious Game extension is now available for free and playable on http://www.powerofresearch.eu through your browser.

The game features more than 12 different illnesses, 120 different patients, 11 different rooms, many different diagnosis methods such as x-ray, CT, lab tests, etc. and also a wide spectrum of treatments including injections, infusions, surgery, tablets, casts, etc.

Every player starts out in his own hospital as a doctor with basic skills. By treating patients successfully players earn experience, which will advance their abilities.

A virtual patient receives initially a basic examination. Based on the results, further tests such as x-rays can be done to make a correct diagnosis possible. Dependent on the diagnosis, players are prompted with appropriate treatment steps for them to fulfill, so that the virtual patients can then finally leave the hospital healed and fully recovered. All this needs to be completed before the health or the mood of the patient drops below a certain level, which will prompt a patient to leave. In addition the current energy and hygiene level of the doctor need to be managed throughout.

When players reach higher experience levels they are able to use an additional examination room, have more slots in their inventory and can use more equipment. Every player sees how good the others perform through a local (country based) and a worldwide high score. The challenge of the game is to plan necessary examinations and treatments based on available resources (rooms and medications). This has to be done under increasing time pressure, as patients are arriving at shorter time intervals at higher levels.

The game graphics feature a full 3D environment, where players can change between different camera modes and simply click on patients or cabinets to interact with them in an easy way. The hospital is an entertaining casual game with - for a browser game - astonishing graphics that is the perfect expansion and complements the existing strategy game. Further expansion of the hospital game is planned by implementing additional illnesses, examinations and more.

About Power of Research

The Serious Game is funded by the European Union through the 7th Framework Program for research and is aimed at bringing young people from all over Europe closer to real science on the one hand, and to present possible scientific careers in a comprehensible and tangible way on the other hand. Power of Research is already supported by five Nobel Prize winners and several international renowned researchers.

Power of Research has received funding through the European Community's 7th Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 202239, acronym “POR”.

Call 4 Speakers: 2nd Serious Play Conference, Everything About Serious Games

2011-12-29T10:25:00.000-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Call for Speakers for 2nd Annual Serious Play Conference, August 21-23, 2012

Sessions for Developers, Project Leads, Faculty

Interested participants are encouraged to apply here

SEATTLE – Dec. 28, 2011 – SeriousPlay Conference has issued a call for speakers for its second annual “boot camp” for Serious Games professionals. The 2012 conference will again be held at DigiPen Institute of Technology, Tuesday – Thursday, August 21 – 23 in Redmond, Wash., just outside Seattle.

The three day conference will feature sessions by publishers, developers, game design consultants, market analysts and other professionals already leveraging game mechanics in education, health care, corporations, government and for military training as well as vendors providing Serious Games hardware and software and faculty teaching Serious Game development.

Speakers will outline critical success factors in game design, share case histories, offer recommendations on setting up as well as measuring learning outcomes and give advice on how to take advantage of current development technology. Market research consultants will discuss industry trends.

Developers can also vie for recognition in the International Serious Play Awards Competition and certification. A student winner is also awarded.

ClarkAldrich, author of five industry text books and a Serious Games consultant, is conference director. Game industry veteran Sue Bohle, president, The Bohle Company, Los Angeles, whose agency helped build attendance for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and currently supports Penny Arcade Expos, produces the event.

For more information, visit http://www.seriousplayconference.com

Call 4 Papers: 6th European Conference On Games Based Learning

2011-12-27T09:51:00.000-02:00

Improving human performance through Serious Games

This is a first call for papers for the 6th EuropeanConference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL-2012) being held at The River Lee Hotel, Cork, Ireland on the 4-5 October 2012.

Conference venue

This call is open until 16^th of March 2012. Further details can be found at: http://academic-conferences.org/ecgbl/ecgbl2012/ecgbl12-call-papers.htm

Over the last ten years, the way in which education and training is delivered has changed considerably with the advent of new technologies. One such new technology that holds considerable promise for helping to engage learners is Serious Games.

The Conference offers an opportunity for scholars and practitioners interested in the issues related to Games Based Learning (GBL) to share their thinking and research findings. Papers can cover various issues and aspects of Serious Games in Education and Training: technology and implementation issues associated with the development of GBL; use of mobile and MMOGs for learning; pedagogical issues associated with GBL; social and ethical issues in GBL; GBL best cases and practices, and other related aspects.

Organizers are particularly interested in empirical research that addresses whether Serious Games enhance learning.

This Conference provides a forum for discussion, collaboration and intellectual exchange for all those interested in any of these fields of research or practice.

The conference committee welcomes contributions on a wide range of topics using a range of scholarly approaches including theoretical and empirical papers employing qualitative, quantitative and critical methods. Action research, case studies and work-in-progress/posters are welcomed approaches. PhD Research, proposals for roundtable discussions, non-academic contributions and product demonstrations based on the main themes are also invited.

Publication Opportunity

Papers accepted for the conference will be published in the conference proceedings, subject to author registration and payment. Selected papers will also be considered for publication in a special issue of the Electronic Journal of e-Learning and to the International Journal of Game-Based Learning.

Zooming In On 2011 Serious Games Showcase & Challenge

2011-12-26T12:40:00.000-02:00

Improving human performance through Serious Games and Simulations

This year’s Serious Games Showcase & Challenge (SGS&C) winners were announced at an award ceremony the final day of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), early December.

The Serious Games industry has really raised the bar for the art of the possible demonstrating it is getting to grips with the aspired degree of fun and engagement in game-based learning applications.

Many companies that have traditionally been considered entertainment games companies had a large presence at the conference, and many booths had one games-related project for people to experience. It is clear that gaming technologies are gaining substantial ground in the Modeling and Simulation Community.

The Serious Games Showcase & Challenge has also experienced substantial growth during I/ITSEC over the last six years.

The event has drawn so much attention, the award ceremony needed to be moved to a larger area on the I/ITSEC floor. Growth was also evident in the number of Serious Games submissions: 2011 has welcome a 45% increase in the number of entries.

Six teams emerged as winners from I/ITSEC 2011 SGS&C, representing the best entries in these six categories:

Business: Air Medic Sky One, by the University Medical Center Utrecht (Holland)

Student: Garden Defense, by Katelyn Procci from the UCF Retro Lab

Government: First Person Cultural Trainer, by US Army’s TRADOC-TRISA

Mobile: EPP Operator Maintainer Course, by C2 Technologies

Special Emphasis – Adaptive Force Training: Bushudo: The Way of the Radical, by Kevin Harris of the University of Wisconsin-Madison

People’s Choice: Quality Tycoon, by Northrop-Grumman

Quality Tycoon Serious Game

Quality Tycoon won the People's Choice "Best of Show" Award and is the latest addition to Northrop Grumman's library of Serious Games, which includes Virtual Jet Works, a location-based experience that introduces engineering concepts to students at college recruitment fairs and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach events.

QualityTycoon challenges players to understand the impact Quality

and Ethical Integrity have on business opportunities in a fun way.

The story around the game “guiding an emerging aerospace company from humble beginnings to a trusted, go-to aerospace contractor”, allows players to decide and experience what factors contribute to company growth, while demonstrating how individual job quality has a domino effect as part of a larger effort.

Initially staged in the early 1940’s, the game storyline has also the merit of paralleling the aerospace industry history, as players traverse the decades growing the company to become the top producer of high-quality, sophisticated products.

The progressive game complexity along the timeline is successfully achieved via the introduction of an increasing number of business processes as well as an increasing diversity of the competitive environment scenarios, replicating real-life challenge.

The game has as its primary audience employees, contractors and suppliers at Northrop Grumman

About I/ITSEC

Proclaiming a STEM week in Orange County, particularly during the week of I/ITSEC, is a unique way for Central Florida to open their eyes a little wider and formally show STEM support. I/ITSEC encourages the Central Florida community to actively participate in the conference via many opportunities: student tours, International Pavilion, Future Leaders, America's Teachers and the 6th annual Serious Games Showcase & Challenge (SGS&C).

The SGS&C is driven by a large committee of volunteers and support from sponsors, who not only provide their time, but equipment donations and student prize packages. The 2011 SGS&C was supported by the following sponsors: Hewlett Packard, MS&T Magazine (Halldale Media), Concurrent Technologies Coroporation, CACI, Intelligent Decisions, Novonics, Unity, Vcom3D, Havok, ASTI, VMASC, VirTra Sytems, and 360Ed.

In-depth information about these events and programs can be found at http://www.iitsec.org

About Team Orlando

Team Orlando, established by a Department of Defense Inter-Service Charter, builds upon a partnership established between the Army and Navy over 60 years ago. Today, Team Orlando members from Government, academia, and industry are focused on one common goal: to improve human performance through simulation.

Find more at http://www.teamorlando.org

Ambassador: Best Serious Game 2011 at Serious Game Expo

2011-11-30T14:05:00.001-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Following my prior post SeriousGame Expo 2011 – Serious Games In Innovative Companies DNA, the 7th Serious Game Expo, held in Lyon November 21-122, announced last week the winners of the 2011 awards: the Best Serious Game 2011 Award was granted to KTMAdvance for the game Ambassador created for Suez Environment and the Special Serious Game Expo Award was granted to Daesign for the game Mission Antitrust, created for Michelin.

Suez Environment and its subsidiaries are committed to protecting natural resources and ecosystems. The company provides solutions to millions of people and industries in the drinking water, wastewater treatment and waste management fields.

With more than 25 subsidiaries, 79,554 employees and a worldwide presence, presenting the Suez Group to the newcomers is a recurring daily challenge. This is the reason why Suez contracted the development of an interactive induction program targeting this audience and also existing employees, to reinforce company’s commitments.

Ambassador is a Serious Game based on the Suez Environment’s document: “4 priorities, 12 commitments”.

Through various and successive missions, the player has to develop an environmental performance model for water and waste management of a city: players progressively understand Suez Group’s professions and areas of expertise, waste and water cycles, group’s commitments and sustainable development actions.

3 Days to I/ITSEC 2011: World's Largest Modeling and Sim Exhibition

2011-11-25T09:29:00.002-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Boeing presents MT55 Pro-based Training Solution at I/ITSEC 2011

I/ITSEC will also feature the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge 2011 - Serious Games Competition Await 20,000 Expected Attendees From Around The World

PRESS RELEASE

Over a half-million total square feet of floor space will be occupied by virtual worlds, live enactments and synthetic operating environments in healthcare, disaster response, law enforcement and many other critical training areas at this year's I/ITSEC, taking place at Orlando's Orange County Convention Center, November 28-December 1.

600 corporations, research organizations, government and military organizations, and academic institutions will showcase the latest developments in live, virtual and constructive training technologies.

I/ITSEC will also feature the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge - a Serious Games competition, hosted annually by the National Training Systems Association in connection with the I/ITSEC Conference at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

The goal of Serious Games Showcase & Challenge is to identify innovative game-based technologies and solutions that improve training across all segments for individuals, groups and systems.

The use of simulation in healthcare is expanding exponentially, and as a reflection of this, I/ITSEC this year will also feature an expanded Healthcare Pavilion, where exhibitors in a broad array of medical, research and healthcare fields will be concentrated.

About I/ITSEC

The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) promotes cooperation among the Armed Services, Industry, Academia and various Government agencies in pursuit of improved training and education programs, identification of common training issues and development of multiservice programs.

Initiated in 1966 as the Naval Training Device Center/Industry Conference, the conference has evolved and expanded through increased participation by the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Industry.

In 1979 it became known as the Interservice/Industry Training Equipment Conference. The Services have steadily evolved toward a total systems philosophy in the acquisition of training equipment and training delivery systems.

In 1986 the Conference name was further refined to the Interservice/Industry Training Systems Conference (I/ITSC) to recognize the increased importance of Manpower, Personnel, and Training aspects in the systems acquisition process.

In 1992 the name was further changed to the Interservice/Industry Training Systems and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) to reflect the consolidation of the Manpower and Training Committee (MTC) and the Technology and Innovations in Training and Education (TITE) Conference with I/ITSEC. This change emphasizes the importance of education and the man-machine interface in meeting force-training requirements through simulation training.

In 1997, to reflect continued growth and changes in the industry, the conference name was refined to the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC).

World Bank Institute: Serious Games For Leadership Capacity Building

2011-11-21T16:55:00.001-02:00

Serious Games to shape leadership for the world of tomorrow

Source: Press Release - Games To Shape Leadership For The World Of Tomorrow
By Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen - CEO Serious Games Interactive

The World Bank Institute is making a strong push for bringing Serious Games one step further with two leadership capacity building strategic games.

Early this year, the World Bank Institute issued a RFP for two new Serious Games addressing the processes of procurement reform and urban development. Here are the excerpts:

“Both products are intended to enhance existing multi-national training programs and activities that emphasize the key role of coalition building in leadership.”

“These digital games would be added to traditional materials WBI is utilizing in its leadership workshops. Preference will be given to a vendor who has already developed similar game simulations and can re-purpose an existing technology and game structure to serve this project. Each game is conceived of as a single player strategy game. The interface is expected to be simple and accessible, with easy to use game mechanics, targeted at non-gamers.”

Last September, Serious Games Interactive, the Copenhagen-based developer of Serious Games, announced the partnership with the World Bank Institute for building Serious Games for leadership capacity building around the world.

Over the last months Serious Games Interactive have collaborated with content experts and learning specialists from the World Bank Institute to develop a Serious Game on Procurement Reforms and another on Participatory Budgeting

The Procurement Reforms Game is a strategic simulation game in which the player has to engage a variety of stakeholders to build the necessary foundation for getting reforms passed. During the game the player has to analyze different stakeholders, gather information, prioritize resources and decide what actions will further the necessary reforms.

Target group: Decision-maker and stakeholders
Platform: Single-player, web-based
Technology: Unity3D
Playtime: 60-120 minutes

Participatory Budgeting Game

These games are being developed as a part of the World Bank Institute’s Leadership for Development Program package.

The games are built up like cases that help reformers take leadership to change their country, to develop a prosperous and modern society.

Through these Serious Games, change agents from around the world get a shared space for learning and reflecting on the complexity of the reform environment and the challenges they face. This will complement face-to-face contact with experts.

About Serious Games Interactive

Serious Games Interactive is an award-winning, research-based developer of games, simulations and virtual worlds. SGI offer a unique blend of competences within games, learning and storytelling. Since the company’s establishment in 2006 we’ve developed solutions that integrate learning and game elements with the best possible user experience.

About World Bank Institute

The World Bank Institute (WBI) is a global connector of knowledge, learning and innovation for poverty reduction. It is part of the World Bank Group. We connect practitioners, networks and institutions to help them find solutions to their development challenges. With a focus on the ’how’ of reform, we link knowledge from around the world and scale up innovations. We work with and through global, regional and country-based institutions and practitioner networks and help them develop customized programs that respond to their needs. WBI connects globally and delivers locally.

Future-Making Serious Games on Google+ Pages

2011-11-17T13:31:00.002-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play better social networks

Google+ Pages Badges Are Now Out Of Preview With Updated +1 Count

The Google+ badge has graduated out of preview today. For those who’ve already added the code, this means all users will be able to see the badge starting today.

Featuring both an ‘add to circle’ and a ‘+1’ button, the Google+ badge
helps you grow your audience on Google+ while also showing more
recommendations on Google Search.

If you have linked your Google+ page to your site, the count of +1s on
the badge will represent the +1s across your brand including those
from your home page, your Google+ page, and any ads you’ve linked via Social Extensions.

Please note, once you’ve linked your Google+ page to your site, there
may be a delay before the count shown on the badge includes +1s from across your brand. During this delay, the badge will show the count of +1s from your Google+ page.

Get your Google+ badge with the badge configuration tool:
https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/config

2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge Now Open For Entries

2011-11-15T19:41:00.000-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better education

The nationwide competition (find also 2011- STEMSerious Games Challenge - Winners Announced) invites game makers of every age to show their passion for both playing and making video games, while aiming to motivate children's interests in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

The four different categories are all dedicated to STEM Serious Games: the Middle School and High School categories aim to motivate and engage students in STEM learning by challenging them to design and create their very own original video games. The Collegiate and Educator categories challenge emerging game developers to show us their skills by designing video games for children in pre-K - grade 12 that teach STEM curricula in a new and innovative way.

For more information and to register, please visit http://www.stemchallenge.org/

This competition is being run by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media, in partnership with sponsors AMD Foundation, Entertainment Software Association, Xbox 360, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting PBS KIDS Ready To Learn initiative. Outreach partners include the American Association of School Librarians, American Library Association, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, BrainPOP, George Lucas Educational Foundation, Girl Scouts of the USA, International Game Developers Association, and One Economy.

Aldrich´s Mechanism For Hooking Up Serious Games Buyers and Sellers

2011-11-14T17:17:00.002-02:00

A Readymade Serious Games Database

Profile: Sid Meier's Civilization IV

Via: The Simulations and Serious Games Registry

in the next twelve months ClarkAldrich is going to assemble a Simulation and Serious Games database that will be completely available for free to the public.

Clark explains his primary reason to create The Simulations and Serious Games Registry:

“I know a lot of organizations that want to find and buy readymade simulations and Serious Games, and I know a lot of great products that are out there that would meet their needs. But the mechanism for hooking up buyers and sellers doesn't exist.”

So in the next twelve months, he intends to solve that problem, starting with blog postings and then evolve it into a database designed explicitly for organizations to find them the best off-the-shelf products.

Aligned with the above objective, he has already posted 4 “profiles”: Simulation for Department of Homeland Security, Center for Domestic Preparedness, Project Integration Management Simulation, Sid Meier's Civilization IV and Army Influence Trainer.

Each profile contains a thorough review of a Serious Game or Sim. If you would like any of your work to be included in this project, just fill out thisspreadsheet as completely as possible (he doesn’t need every cell filled out), one row per product, and then also send three screen shots (between a third to a full meg), using the naming convention of [sim name]-[picture number (1-3)].jpg.

Aldrich believes this resource can fundamentally change the industry.

“The industry will get larger, easier to navigate, with the great examples being highlighted. Twelve months after its launch, this database and the clear view it enables will become indispensable to users, buyers, vendors, and the press”, he says.

For further details please contact clark-at-aldrichdesigns.com

New Book: Getting Serious About Games In Libraries

2011-11-04T17:02:00.000-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better education

Bringing The Total Gaming Experience To Your Library, written by Kelly Nicole Czarnecki and published by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. (2011), addresses a context for learning that is pretty close to my heart.

The topic “Gaming & Libraries Broadening The Intersections” was object of my prior posts Getting Serious About Games In Libraries @ Future Making Serious Games Blog and also @ Google’s Knol (a Unit of Knowledge).

Kelly Czarnecki, who also authored the Tech Set book Gaming in Libraries, is a Technology Education Librarian at ImaginOn (NC), the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, USA.

ImaginOn (NC)

Czarnecki graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign Urbana with her MLIS and Ed.M in Educational Policy. She is a writer and speaker mostly about teens and youth using technology in the library.

Whether gaming is already a crucial part of your library's core services or it's only just been introduced, author Kelly Nicole Czarnecki, shows how to host gaming events for all different types of users. Bringing the Total Gaming Experience to Your Library is useful for librarians of any skill or experience level with gaming.

Collaboration and critical thinking skills that are inherent to gameplay are included in the book, such as creating ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) at the library, using social networking elements as game pieces, and exploring the concepts of game design via character, plot and narrative development.

Here’s a brief table of contents:

1. Ecology of Gaming
2. Gaming Spaces in Libraries
3. Offering a Machinima Workshop
4. Organizing an Alternate Reality Game
5. Offering a Game Design Workshop
6. Organizing a Gaming Session at Your Local Library Conference
7. Virtual, Mobile, and Augmented Reality Gaming
8. Gaming Off the Grid

Edutopia: How To Bring Serious Games Into The Classroom

2011-11-03T14:21:00.000-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better education

The latest issue of Edutopia’s e-Newsletter, dated November 2, under the headline How to Bring Gaming into the Classroom, presents three must-read articles related to Serious Games at school (find also DisconnectsBetween Serious Games Wins and Report Cards for Students’ Classroom Skills):

1. PlayIt Forward: New Xbox Games for Schools

Dr. Alex Games (his real name), Education Design Director at Microsoft Studios, shares some new game experiences that can bring both augmented reality and embodied learning into the classroom.

He holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction/Learning Science from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and led the Educational Games and Simulations Project at the Center for Instructional Technologies.

“Nearly three decades of scientific research in games and learning have shown evidence that game play can help players develop a systemic understanding of world phenomena, creativity and strategic problem solving skills. In the sequence of solving complex problems, the act of playing engages players cognitively and emotionally, and assesses knowledge where it is highly relevant to those problems' solution”, he says.

Jump Into Learning - New Developments

Project Columbia, the code name for a new experience being designed in conjunction with the Sesame Workshop Curriculum team, is a new environment where active fun and literacy meet.

Using Kinect for Xbox 360, Project Columbia invites children to use a more embodied learning approach to understanding texts by letting them jump into beloved storybooks and become part of the story themselves. Through full-body interactions, Xbox and Kinect bring the objects and characters in the books to life so that a child's playful interactions become foundational experiences for understanding the relationship between the words in text and their meanings, as well as their sounds. By letting kids jump into the books they read, "Project Columbia" seeks to develop in kids a lifelong love of books and reading so necessary for their literacy development.

Another new experience is called Double Fine Happy Action Theater, a title developed by Double Fine Studios' world-renowned game designer Tim Shaffer. It is a series of play activities that encourage the youngest players to practice their gross motor skills and stretch their imagination in active ways.

Designed to create an inclusive and highly accessible experience for the whole family, in Happy Action Theater, children, their parents and even their grandparents can play in virtual ball pits, firework parades and even lava-filled volcanoes all within their living room. The Happy Action Theater experiences are digital toys and playscapes that capture the imagination of old and young alike. No rules, no menus, no instructions -- just play.

Through these and other new titles, Xbox 360 is continuing to broaden its children’s portfolio with rich experiences that expand our definition of learning into something participatory and experiential.

2. Big ThinkerVideo: Katie Salen on Learning with Games

Katie Salen, active game designer, founder of Quest to Learn (Q2L), and executive director of the Institute of Play, talks about the value of games and technology and the empowerment of play.

3. The Importance of Play Time

A preschool teacher reminds K-12 educators of the benefits of bringing fun and play into the school day.

Siqur: The Best European Simulation Serious Game 2011

2011-11-01T16:38:00.000-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Following my prior post Fun &Serious Game Festival Bilbao, organizers announced today that Siqur, a safety training module for industrial plants, has been granted the Fun & Serious Game Festival Award for Best Simulation Serious Game 2011.

Developed by Virtway for Stanford University, Siqur is aimed at “producing a change in attitude and behavior regarding safety in hazardous industries”.

It is already being used by companies like Air France or Bureau Veritas, and the Asturias-based developer is working on applications to new fields, e.g. ports, as revealed by Virtway founder and director José Antonio Tejedor.

“In all customer satisfaction surveys, Siqur averaged 90%, whereas the same contents in a traditional e-learning format only reached 30%,” Mr Tejedor explained. “Using the Xbox 360 as the module’s device, the adaptation period has come down to 2 to 5 minutes, and the concept memory rate after a week is five times higher.”

About Siqur Serious Game

Siqur combines the effectiveness of the immersive learning experience (learning by doing) with a simultaneous evaluation debriefing, tracking individually the different levels of the expected behavioral evolution.

Users can experiment in real time the consequences of their acts, in a familiar scenario or environment, increasing their exercise identification, motivation and interest, impacting not just what they know, but really what they do. It also emphasizes collaboration dimension to ensure adequate performance.

Siqur can be used by any organization wishing to develop and improve its safety skills and willing to change its workers mindset and behavior. It can be used for specific learning objectives as a full training solution, or as a complement to any existing program through a blended learning approach. Either way, Siqur is meant to reinforce collaborative training, by fostering team communication through knowledge & experience sharing.

In the development of this occupational risk prevention project, Virtway was joined by Estambril Group, specializing in the protection of workers in risk occupations, and collaborating experts like Robb Lindgren (Stanford University), Juan José Salamanca (leadership expert), Nigel Bryson (occupational safety award-winner, UK), and Deborah Thomas (Serious Games specialist).

Virtway is an independent division of Indigo Group born to respond to the growing demand for Serious Games solutions. Based in Spain, Virtway is an integral part of a business group with over ten years’ experience in the development of business training software.

The company works with a team of specialized consultants and a multi-disciplinary team of computer engineers and 3D graphic artists with ample experience in virtual simulation platform development. They are working on two different projects: Personal Skills, aimed at providing personal skill training to workers –leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution, etc.–, and Virtway World, the first technology to create virtual worlds that are compatible with mobile devices (as well as PCs or MACs).

The Best European Simulation Serious Game Award will be granted at the Fun & Serious Game Festival award gala at the Campos Eliseos Theatre in Bilbao on November 8.

The Fun & Serious Game Festival is sponsored by the Basque Government and Bilbao Town Hall, with the cooperation of the Provincial Government of Vizcaya, VaDeJuegos.com, DigiPen Institute of Technology Europe-Bilbao, Virtualware, El Correo, and APD.

Serious Games Turn Nintendo DS Camera Into A Microscope

2011-10-25T00:06:00.001-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Following my prior post Fun &Serious Game Festival Bilbao, organizers today announced that AfterZoom has won the Award for the Best European Educational Serious Game.

The first educational project by Abylight, AfterZoom is a Serious Game that teaches through entertainment. “We have added an educational component that can be gradually learnt without the need of lessons or exams,” says company CEO Nacho García.

AfterZoom turns the Nintendo DSi/3DS camera nto a virtual microscope to find microscopic, capture and take care of them, using chemical substances to keep them alive and healthy. “Players thus learn, without noticing it, that there are different organic domains they had never heard of (bacteria, archaea, etc.) and kingdoms (Animalia, Protista, Fungi, Plantae).

The video game, entirely developed and marketed by the Catalan firm, was produced with a subsidy of the Ministry of Culture, which has “contributed to significantly improve its quality,” says García.

AfterZoom is only available via download from the Nintendo DSi/3DS online stores. It was released in July in North and South America and i Europe. On October 26, it will be launched in Japan.

Nacho García considers the Fun & Serious Game Festival Award to be a “warranty and recognition of the game’s quality.

“We’re now working on another game for Nintendo DSi, two for Nintendo 3DS, and one for iPhone. Next year we are releasing fewer yet more important games,” he revealed.

The Award for the Best European Educational Serious Game will be granted at the Fun & Serious Game Festival award gala at the Campos Elíseos Theatre in Bilbao on November 8.

The Fun & Serious Game Festival is sponsored by the Basque Government and Bilbao Town Hall, with the cooperation of the Provincial Government of Vizcaya, VaDeJuegos.com, DigiPen Institute of Technology Europe-Bilbao, Virtualware, El Correo, and APD.

About AfterZoom

AfterZoom takes place in a Lab where there are 3 main areas: the Microscope, the Sample Bank and the Chemical Lab.

•The Microscope is useful to search for organisms and other elements on the player's surroundings, which may be found in different places and at different zoom levels.

•The organisms collected are stored in the Sample Bank. Here, one can also feed them so they are healthy. The healthier they are, the faster they'll grow and the less one will have to check on them.

•The elements found with the Microscope are stored in the Chemical Lab, which is also where one mixes up new elements for the colonies, based on actual chemistry formulas.

Almost all the organisms are in too wild a state to allow a capture. So, before one can store them, it is necessary to weaken them using other organisms from the Sample Bank in a role fight that only lasts 30 seconds.

Not all of the organisms have the same stamina nor strike force, which means that strategy is necessary to ensure a win when choosing the right organism to send into a fight.

Serious Games As Novel Approaches To The World Of Touch

2011-10-19T20:36:00.011-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better future

Via: MS Research - Two Extremes of Touch Interaction

Microsoft Research Redmond researchers Hrvoje Benko and Scott Saponas have been investigating the use of touch interaction in computing devices since the mid-’00s. Now, two sharply different yet related projects demonstrate novel approaches to the world of touch and gestures (find also Serious Games Bringing Interactive Properties to Everyday Surfaces).

OmniTouch gives users the ability to make an entire wall a touch surface, while PocketTouch enables users to interact with smartphones inside a pocket or purse, a small surface area for touch.

Both projects are being unveiled at UIST 2012, the Association for Computing Machinery’s 24th Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, being held Oct. 16-19 in Santa Barbara, Calif.

OmniTouch: Wearable Multitouch Interaction Everywhere—co-authored by Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University and a former Microsoft Research intern; Benko; and Andy Wilson—is a wearable system that enables graphical, interactive, multitouch input on arbitrary, everyday surfaces.

It utilizes a pico projector to display the interface on a surface — whether it’s a wall, table, arm, lap, leg, or what-have-you — then employs a custom-built short-range depth sensor (similar to a Microsoft Kinnect) to track your fingers as they type.

Perhaps the most convenient aspect of the technology is how it can be operated on the go, requiring no special calibration for each new surface it is used on. The system adapts easily to surfaces of most textures in 3D space, so it works even when the surface is not flat, such as with your hand, or perhaps a tree trunk.

The only inconvenient aspect of the prototype is the bulkiness of the camera and projector, which are mounted on a user's shoulder like a large parrot. The good news, though, is that future prototypes are expected to be much smaller, closer to the size of a matchbox.

PocketTouch: Through-Fabric Input Sensing

PocketTouch: Through-Fabric Capacitive Touch Input—written by Saponas, Harrison, and Benko—describes a prototype that consists of a custom, multitouch capacitive sensor mounted on the back of a smartphone. It uses the capacitive sensors to enable eyes-free multitouch input on the device through fabric, giving users the convenience of a rich set of gesture interactions, ranging from simple touch strokes to full alphanumeric text entry, without having to remove the device from a pocket or bag.

Continual Evolution of Touch

Benko also stresses that both OmniTouch and PocketTouch are evolutionary steps of a larger effort by Microsoft Research to investigate the unconventional use of touch in devices to extend Microsoft’s vision of ubiquitous computing. He notes that PocketTouch has a lineage dating to the Mouse 2.0 project and work on the multitouch pen, while OmniTouch shares concepts in common with LightSpace.

“It’s interesting to isolate these projects,” Benko remarks, “But sometimes, it’s much more interesting to look at them as evolving toward a broader vision. We are trying to push the boundaries of this rich space of touch and gestures, making gestural interactions available on any surface and with any device.”

Serious Games Therapeutically Educating Diabetic Patients

2011-10-17T15:31:00.007-02:00

Serious Games challenging us to play a better health

Via: Gluciweb

Time Out is a Serious Game for therapeutical education of diabetic patients, especially dedicated to young adults (find also Serious Games Improving Diabetes Self-Management Update).

The game suggests living an amazing adventure while discovering the daily life of a diabetic patient. The hero is a type 1 diabetic, holder of an insulin pump combined with continuous glucose monitoring.

Augustin is a self-made renowned watchmaker but also an inveterate gambler, heading financial ruin. The storyline begins with Augustin gambling with the lease of his shop and about to lose everything.

Time Out is a point and click game. The aim is to help the main character to resolve an investigation about a murder. At the same time, the player has to help the main character to manage his type 1 diabetes.

Diabetes is a frequent lifelong disease, which prognosis is closely related to the the understanding that patients have of the desease and its continuous management.

Time Out is the second Serious Game produced bu Les Diablotines, a non-profit organization born at CHU de Caen (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, France), dedicated to the development of educational programs for diabetic patients. They had already conceived and produced "L'affaire Birman" in 2009, aiming at young children.

The English version shall become operational both online and for download next month.

BAD 11: Serious Games On the Theme Food

2011-10-15T08:57:00.003-03:00

Serious Games challenging us to play at building a better future

Blog Action Day 2011 on October 16 will be an opportunity to open the conversation about how food impacts all of us – individually and globally

Via: Blog Action Day 2011 FOOD

Blog Action Day 2011 site announced last week that since this year’s event coincides with World Food Day, BAD's topic will be FOOD (find also Serious Games Market Supports Blog Action Day 2011 FOOD ).

Whilst World Food Day 2011 theme focuses on Food Prices - From Crisis To Stability, Blog Action Day 2011 embraces a broader view.

Some topics suggestions for Blog Action Day posts are:

Slow Food, Fast Food: What does it actually mean

· Malnutrition

· Conflict over Food: Will new wars be about arable land?

· Is your hamburger hurting the environment?
It takes 24 liters of water to produce one hamburger. That means it would take over 19.9 billion liters of water to make just one hamburger for every person in Europe.

· Trading in the future of food. What is the impact of food speculation?

· Will we be able to feed 9 billion people in 2050?

· What food means to your culture

There are a number of Serious Games addressing the topic of FOOD and Serious Games Market Blog has dedicated a number of posts to the theme. Here are some examples:

Adding Playnormous Serious Games Exhibit To The Woodlands Children's Museum - Adding a Playnormous exhibit to The Woodlands Children's Museum exposed young children to foods they've never seen before and gave parents a great opportunity to start healthy habits early," explained Playnormous Director of Marketing Melanie Lazarus, MPH. "Our ultimate goal is prevention of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes using media kids love to play.”

The Growing Segment Of Ecological Conscious Serious Games – Includes Fate of the World, the PC strategy game where players try their hand at juggling sociopolitical events, energy consumption, population growth, food production and natural disasters. As the head of a fictitious world environmental organization, the goal is to improve the global climate-change patterns over the next 200 years.

Anecdotal Evidence: Serious Games As Persuasive Game-Life Integration – includes Playful (Persuasive) Tray, an interactive, persuasive game built into an ordinary food tray to assist parents to improve dietary behaviors of their young children.

Serious Games to Excite Consumers About Life Insurance

2011-10-14T17:03:00.000-03:00

Serious Games challenging us to play at building a better future

Via: Insurance & Technology - AXA Looks to Gamification, Serious Games and iPad to Excite Consumers About Life Insurance

Connie O'Brien, SVP of Internet strategy and development, tells Insurance & Technology that with life insurance ownership at an all-time low, insurers must engage a new audience.

New York-based life insurer AXA Equitable has never been shy about promoting the necessity of life insurance and annuities. After all, the company is famous for personifying this need as the "800-pound gorilla in the room." With a soft life insurance market, the company is redoubling its efforts to acquire new policyholders, using technology as an enticement.

In September, AXA released an online game, Pass it On, which uses a Serious Game "journey" as a metaphor for the journey of life and the opportunities to purchase insurance coverage for loved ones after death.

Players guide their virtual families to a better financial future by saving game currency, managing expenses, and making important decisions about life insurance, the company says. There are also sweepstakes and charitable components.

Watch the Pass it On! Video

Connie O'Brien - "AXA Equitable’s Pass It On!"

Demonstrating how life products, which can be complex, work, in language or experiences that consumers understand intrinsically, is a major goal of AXA's latest initiatives.

This month, the company released an iPad app that explains in detail how its Athena Indexed Universal Life product works. In addition to standard fare like calculators, the app allows users to customize their needs and personal situations, and uses quizzes to educate users about life insurance coverage.

"It started as an interactive storybook for kids. We wanted to leverage the technology in order to teach people what the benefits of that product specifically are," O'Brien says. '"While our issues are certainly more serious than popping bubbles and twinkling stars, we thought it would be a good way to bring to life the content so that people could see not only why they're going through the process, but also get a really good understanding of why you need our product."

An ancillary benefit of the app is that it contains much of the sales material that distributors would normally give interested parties in a paper form. Making that available in a digital form is a way for AXA to make actually signing up for a policy easy, O'Brien adds.

Fun & Serious Game Festival Bilbao

2011-10-06T16:50:00.004-03:00

Serious Games challenging us to play at building a better future

Via: Fun & Serious Game Festival Official Website

The Fun & Serious Game Festival was established in 2011 to recognize the best European video games of the year. Awards will be granted to the best productions and most brilliant careers in the video game industry, both for games developed for fun and those fulfilling cultural, educational, healthcare, or corporate purposes.

The Festival Awards Gala will be held at the Campos Elíseos Theatre in Bilbao on November 8, 2011.

On November 8 and 9, Serious Games professionals will get together at the 1st International Professional Conference on Serious Games, to be held in Bilbao, in the context of the Fun & Serious Game Festival.

In its first edition, the event aims at consolidating the video game industry in Spain and the European continent.

The conference will take place at the Euskalduna Conference Centre, next to the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.

One of the highlights of the Fun & Serious Game Festival is the emphasis on Serious Games and the future prospects of video games developed for purposes other than entertainment.

“Serious games are converging in the virtual world and social networks, and immersive technologies will be used in the recruitment of professionals, evaluation, and continuous learning.” This is the future of the Serious Game industry in the words of the president of the Serious Game Jury, David Wortley, founding partner at Immersive Technology Strategies and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

Those who attend the 1st International Professional Conference on Serious Games on November 8 and 9 will be able to listen to keynote speakers like Wortley himself, Samir Abou-Samra (CTO of DigiPen Corporation USA who has led simulation projects for Boeing and Renault F1), Jurriaan van Rijswijk (director of Serious Games for Health Europe and founding director of Games Factory Online), or Julián Álvarez (ICT consultant specializing in Serious Games at the French consulting firm Ludoscience and regular contributor to the annual report on the Serious Game Market produced by IDATE).

They will describe the contemporary scene of Serious Games and show the most successful applications with users and developers in the fields of health, education, worker training, and the promotion of culture.

Other keynote speakers at the Euskalduna Convention Centre and Concert Hall in Bilbao include the health psychologist Pamela M. Kato, who, after founding HopeLab and being a clinical instructor in Paediatrics at Stanford Hospital in the United States, is currently developing and testing a clinically validated serious game to train medical residents in patient safety; Gareth Mills, who, as head of Futures, Innovation, and E-learning at the QCA, has led major developments in the curriculum in England; Maurizio Forte, professor of World Heritage at the University of California, Merced, and of Virtual Environments for Cultural Heritage at the University of Lugano; and Tim Luft, who at Coventry University has supported the development of economic regeneration programs and has delivered projects in partnership with the European Union and UK Trade & Investment.

The Sessions in Detail

http://www.funandseriousgamefestival.com/english/conferencias-programa.html

Keynote Speakers

http://www.funandseriousgamefestival.com/english/conferencias-speakers.html

Registration

http://www.funandseriousgamefestival.com/english/inscripciones.html

Serious Games Market Supports Blog Action Day 2011 FOOD

2011-10-06T10:50:00.005-03:00

Serious Games challenging us to play at building a better future

Blog Action Day 2011 will be an opportunity to open the conversation about how food impacts all of us – individually and globally

Via: Blog Action 2011 FOOD

Serious Games Market Blog support to Blog Action Day has now become a tradition.

In 2007 on the theme of the Environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices, and focusing their audience's attention on organizations and companies promoting green agendas.

In 2008, on the theme of Poverty, the event similarly focused the blogging community's energies around discussing the wide breadth of the issue from many perspectives and identifying innovative and unexpected solutions.

In 2009, on the theme of Climate Change, we focused on Climate Change Serious Games, and also on a niche topic: Climate Change & Video Games - Why Gamers Would Be Rather Good at Fighting Climate Change and Saving the World at Serious Games, Serious Gamers & Climate Change

The topic for Blog Action Day 2010 was Water - One day. One issue. Thousands of voices. We then focused on Blog Action Day: Serious Games For Water Conservation

Yesterday the Blog Action Day 2011 site was unveiled, announcing that since Blog Action Day 2011 coincides with World Food Day, BAD's topic this year will be FOOD.

Food is something that we all share in common, but is distinct to each of our cultures. The way we produce, distribute and consume food is crucial to our shared future and the unhealthy imbalance of food scarcity in developing world and food over-abundance in the developed world is unsustainable for us all.

Blog Action Day 2011 will be an opportunity to open the conversation about how food impacts all of us – individually and globally.

The big event is only a few weeks away, so please help kick things off by registering for Blog Action Day 2011 by clicking the link below:
http://blogactionday.org/register-for-blog-action-day/

About Blog Action Day

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. Bloggers are asked to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the Web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action.

Blog Action Day was founded by Collis & Cyan Ta'eed in the summer of 2007.

With the support of their team at Envato in Australia as well as numerous volunteers, they recruited over 20,000 bloggers to write about the issue of Environment on October 15, 2007 - making the first Blog Action Day an immediate and quite unexpected success. In 2009, Collis & Cyan asked the team at Change.org, the world's leading blog network for social issues, to take over responsibility of Blog Action Day and expand its reach.

After overseeing Blog Action Day for the past two years, Change.org announced yesterday that they are handing the reins over to VOICE, an organization incubated at Oxfam and supported by ONE.org, Save the Children, WaterAid, the UN Foundation and others.

VOICE connects bloggers with non-profits, charities and established media and helps them to blog at global events like the G20 Summits and UN Climate Change Conference. They couldn't be better suited to run Blog Action Day going forward.

New At Spongelab: Serious Games For Playing With Science

2011-10-03T15:12:00.001-03:00

Serious Games challenging us to promote STEM education

Via: SPONGELAB BETA – New Spongelab Content

Following my prior The New Spongelab Site Is A Serious Game Itself, Spongelab has been busy playing with science – its website dedicated to the global science community offers amazing new Serious Games and interactive learning tools.

Biochem Gems is a deceptively simple looking puzzle game where players are tasked with assembling basic biochemical structures from their constituent pieces. Players may connect 3 identical pieces for points, but are also tasked with building a target molecule if they wish to succeed. There are 4 main stages to the game (carbohydrates, fatty acids, nucleic acids and amino acids), each containing 3 - 5 levels. After completing these levels, players are granted access to a "freeplay" mode, where they are free to work towards a leaderboard topping high score.

Biochem Gems is match-3 games based on the building blocks of life (learn to assemble carbohydrates, nucleic acids, fatty acids and amino acids)

In Build-a-Frog, Build-a-Worm, and Build-a-Fish, players can explore the stunning anatomy of these organisms.

As always, earn credits and experience points for trying out these new interactives.

Updates At Spongelab.com Beta

The new Spongelab learning platform is growing rapidly. With currently over 300 stunning images, videos, and animation as well as over 170 simulations, Serious Games and interactives - spanning biology, chemistry, physics and space science - the community is doubling every month and they have new content being added from all over the world, at all levels of learning. They’re also in the final stages of releasing an updated reporting system steered from the feedback from all players.

All users can create lesson plans, connect video links, create case studies and add assessment questions. Gain credits and experience points for everything you do: from playing Serious Games to creating classes – everything earns you points.

About Spongelab Interactive

Founded in 2007, Spongelab Interactive is a Toronto-based educational gaming design and production company that aims to inspire a new generation of learners to be passionate about the natural and scientific world.
Recognizing the instructional potential of video gaming, the Spongelab Interactive team creates interesting and intuitive online programs that challenge students through discovery-based learning.

Thanks to a team that combines educational, technical and scientific expertise, Spongelab Interactive has created Genomics Digital Lab (GDL), a series of biology Serious Games based on curriculum for Grades 7 through 12.
The company’s award-winning GDL games currently boast users from over 50 countries worldwide.

Spongelab Interactive is building on these achievements by using educational design with advanced web and gaming technology to produce more Serious Games is biology, in particular for university level students.

Building a Serious Game for Education

2011-09-26T16:50:00.002-03:00

Serious Games challenging us to play at building a better education

Via: Hack Education - Building a “Serious Game” for Education, Part 2
by Audrey Watters on 20. Sep, 2011

Last month, Nathan Maton and Audrey Watters started a conversation at Hack Education blog about what a Serious Game for education might look like. Part two of their ongoing conversation is now live (find also Unschooling Rules – Serious Games As Microcosms For Learning)

Here are the highlights:

Serious Gaming As “Nuanced As An Essay”

Nathan explains the above statement in the context of environmental sustainability.

“In an essay you pick an argument and clarify what you mean by it. Let’s imagine you think CFLs are the future of light bulbs, and then you’d have to argue why that is the case and talk about the energy efficiency of different light bulbs.”

“Now let’s imagine that’s a Serious Game. With the same level of nuance, in the game you need to make the mechanical response of the system showcase that benefit for the player. If CFLs don’t give you more long term benefit than the alternative, you have to make the system more nuanced. This could apply to any topic from revolutionary war history to continental philosophy (although a philosophy game would be hard to make fun)”.

Educators Need To Get Gaming If They’re Going To Use It

Audrey: I think more educators are coming to recognize how gaming can be an important part of the learning experience. But all of this is arguably complicated by the idea of “gamification” — scoring, badges, “leveling up” — how do we unravel some of these pieces from what already motivates or fails to motivate learning?

Nathan: Lee Sheldon had a great idea to make it about experience rather than grades, so you have to complete an amount of things and demonstrate mastery rather than continually perform in the top 10% on each assessment. On a more fundamental level, educators need to get gaming if they’re going to use it. I’d argue the most important thing we could do is give educators meaningful game experiences to reflect on as they develop curriculum.

Audrey: Where do we start? How do we start? How do we convince educators, game designers — everyone who wants to play — that this is important/useful/interesting?

Nathan: There’s no one way to do it although I do outline a general strategy in the last paragraph above. The most important thing is to always find your passion if you want to change something. Aside from that, contact me or others working in the space. I’m currently working on three games in this space (and am looking for partners) as well as helping to run Gameful, a site where people are discussing these questions in forums on a regular basis.

Read the full article at Building a “Serious Game” for Education, Part 2

Nathan Maton In His Own Words

“I am curious about what motivates people and make games & technology solutions to inspire & teach them.”

“I’ve been teaching for ten years and making technology products for five. I have worked with communities as an organizer, taught individuals one on one and through media as a writer, marketer, advertiser, game designer and interactive experience manager. I write and publish articles on educational technology, national identity, digital education, political belief development and more in research and policy journals.”

“Here’s a list of people I’ve worked for: Google, Foursquare, Pew, NYU, Penn State University, Northern Virginia Community College, YouthBuild DC Public Charter School, Nike, The Economist, National Geographic, Red Bull, Zagat, Samsung, Nokia and more.”

Serious Games For Material Handling

2011-09-26T13:27:00.002-03:00

Serious Games in Innovative Companies DNA

Via: GriN Multimedia - Forklift simulator

GrinN blog reports that UCAN & GriN partnered up to build an installation that connects controls of a real forklift surrounded by 4 screens to a virtual environment – a Serious Game where users can learn how to operate the forklift and take special notice to safety regulations (find also The Case For Serious Games In Heavy Industries).

Toyota will use this simulator for training forklift drivers.

Multi-screen setups have several challenges. First one being that Unity3D will only allow one screen to play the application fullscreen. Typical dual monitor setup will not work full screen on both monitors. The most common solution that is used in professional multi-screen 3D simulators is to have multiple computers render different views. These computers are connected to each other via Local Area Network where one computer does all the physics and processing and the other computers act as mere render windows.

Crucial to the success of this project is that it must be able to connect the forklift controllers to the simulator software. GriN came up with the DIY joystick controller board with 8 analog inputs.

GriN received a 3D model of the forklift they will be using in this simulation. But… the model has over 2 million triangles. Naturally this is totally unusable for realtime rendering. In fact they were having trouble just opening the model in their 3D software. After 5 days modeling and 3 days normal mapping and texturing, they believe to have a great basis to work with. The resulting model has about 8.000 triangles.

Integration Exercise

Driving forward, backwards, transporting cargo from point A to point B.

About GriN - Multimedia Wizards In Virtual Wonderland

GriN was founded in 2002 as a research and development agency for online and browser-based Serious Games and applications. GriN creations are used for installations, events, promotions, campaigns and educational purposes… to name but a few. Apart from working for clients, GriN also develops self-managed online games and a 3D location mapping system with touchscreen kiosks.

Exhibit At Serious Game Expo 2011

2011-09-24T12:30:00.004-03:00

Serious Games In Innovative Companies DNA

Meet in Lyon, November 21-22, 2011, for the 7th Edition of the Serious Game Expo

The aim of the exhibition is to help people to develop their business in France and abroad thanks to the presence of international skilled decision-makers (CEO, HR managers, training managers, and communication & marketing managers).

The previous Edition attracted more than 800 visitors, among them L'Oreal, IBM, Danone, Total and Alstom.

As an exhibitor at Serious Game Expo you will have the chance to:

-          show your upcoming projects to decision-makers interested in Serious Games
-          expand your network
-          develop new partnerships
-          discover the latest market trends
-          enhance your company reputation

If you want to exhibit at Serious Game Expo 2011 or if you just want additional information, please contact Sophie Romano by email sromano at connection-events.com or by phone +33 4 72 44 44 20.

You can also download exhibitor offers here

About Serious Game ExpoSerious Game Expo (find also Serious Game Expo 2011 – Serious Games In Innovative Companies DNA) is the unmissable event for all professionals involved in the Serious Game industry. The 2011 Edition has one main objective: to gather more than 1000 French and foreign visitors as well as 50 of the best Serious Game providers. This event will take place on November 2011, 21^st and 22^nd in Lyon.

The Serious Game Expo was conceived to gather key Serious Games Market players in France. The 2010 edition hosted over 800 visitors and 30 exhibitors.

For its seventh consecutive edition, the Serious Games Expo, organized by the Competitiveness Cluster Imaginove and partners, opens its doors on November 21-22, 2011 at the Cité Centre des Congrès - Cité Internationale de Lyon. More than 50 exhibitors, 30 speakers and 1,000 visitors are expected to attend the largest French gathering of professionals in the industry.

The Serious Games Expo is considered a must visit exhibition to meet the best industry players in France: this 7th edition is characterized by a new international vocation that focuses on the more effective Serious Games.

Whyville Game Design Contest: Serious Gaming With Game Design

2011-09-17T11:51:00.002-03:00

Serious Games allowing players with no programming experience to create and play games

On Thursday, Numedeon announced the winners of the Whyville Game Design Contest.

As described in the below press release, this contest challenged Whyvillian's to design their own games using game making tools that are part of the AMD Game Zone in Whyville (related posts Serious Games Capturing How Humans Really Learn and New Report: Scientific Accuracy In Serious Games Stimulates Scientific Inquiry). The AMD Game Zone is sponsored by the AMD Foundation and has attracted thousands of kids in Whyville to make and play games.

One of the interesting innovations in this project is that they have incorporated the same open source physics game engine that is the base of games like "Angry Birds" into Whyville in such a way that kids can design and play games together.

One of the collaborators on the AMD Game Zone is KLRN, the PBS affiliated TV station and media outlet in San Antonio, Texas. KLRN has produced a series of public service announcements featuring some of the winners of the Whyville Game Contest.

You can view these short video segments by visiting: http://www.klrn.org/amd/

Given the enthusiasm of our users for this project, the Whyville Game Design Contest will become a regular yearly event in Whyville.

Here is the full PRESS RELEASE:

Numedeon, Inc. Announces Winners of the Whyville Game Design Contest

Whyville citizens rate digital games designed by youth in Whyville’s virtual AMD Game Zone

Pasadena, CA –September 15, 2011 – Numedeon, Inc., the parent company of Whyville.net, announced today the finalists and winners of the Whyville Game Design Contest. Through this contest, over a hundred digital games designed and created by participants in the educational virtual world of Whyville.net were played and rated by thousands of other Whyville citizens.

The seven finalists, five girls and two boys, ranged in age from 13 to 19. Two winners were selected from the finalists to each receive an HP laptop. Contest participants created and submitted games within Whyville’s AMD Game Zone, which allows Whyville’s aspiring game designers to create games using several different game engines, including a collaborative, “inworld” game design platform created by Numedeon. This novel platform allows players with no programming experience to create and play games collaboratively while chatting within Whyville’s virtual world. Since the AMD Game Zone was launched in March 2011, over 3,000 games have been made and saved in Whyville.

After playing many of the games himself, Numedeon, Inc. CEO James M. Bower said, “We knew that kids could design cool games, but they have really outdone themselves. Given the importance of gaming in the lives of children today, we are very pleased to provide a mechanism through the Game Zone for kids to be game creators and not just consumers. They are clearly learning a lot.”

Contest winner, Bernadette S., known as superchii in Whyville, designed a game entitled “Eat Healthy.” According to Bernadette, through designing her game she “learned that a lot of people just really enjoy learning about eating healthy,” and that helping others learn through a game is “better than just standing in front of a classroom and just talking.”

“Whyville and AMD are working together to leverage game development to not only excite kids about learning but to create a safe environment for them to do so,” said Allyson Peerman, President of the AMD Foundation. “Bernadette’s experience, as well as that of the several thousand Whyvillians who created and saved digital games on AMD’s Game Zone during the contest, highlights the importance of the power of game-based education to truly engage students in learning.”

The AMD Game Zone was made possible by a grant from the AMD Foundation to San Antonio, TX PBS affiliate KLRN. The grant from AMD was awarded in support of the AMD Foundation’s signature education initiative, AMD Changing the Game, which promotes the use of youth game development as a tool to inspire learning and improve science, technology, education and math (STEM) skills among youth. AMD Game Zone also supports other gaming platforms, including GameStar Mechanic and GameMaker.

KLRN has developed video shorts about the game creation process which feature interviews with several contest finalists and winners who discuss what they learned by creating their games. KLRN will broadcast the video shorts and make them available to PBS stations nationwide. To experience the AMD Game Zone in Whyville, visit http://amd.whyville.net/

About Whyville

Whyville is the premiere educational virtual world for children, embedding simulation-based learning in an engaging and safe collaborative gaming social environment. For eleven years, the site has successfully created an environment that engages its "citizens" to learn about life, while having fun. In Whyville, kids play, socialize, compete, learn, design, eat, dance, govern and much more.

Numedeon Inc., the parent company of Whyville, was created by scientists from the California Institute of Technology who combined research expertise in learning and education with advanced simulation and virtual world technology to harness the power of the Internet to engage young users. At greater than 30 minutes per log in, Whyville is one of the stickiest and most engaging of all virtual worlds (ComScore Media Metrics) and recently surpassed more than 6.5 million registered accounts. A testament to Whyville’s dedication to education and safety, the site has won numerous media and parent awards, including a Gold Award for the National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA).