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Showing posts from September, 2011

Building a Serious Game for 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 (please 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

Serious Games For Material Handling

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 (please 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 t

Exhibit At Serious Game Expo 2011

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. About Serious Game Expo Serious Game Expo is

Whyville Game Design Contest: Serious Gaming With Game Design

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.  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.   Given the enthusiasm of our users for this project, the Whyville Game Design Contest will become a reg

Serious Games Showcase & Challenge 2011 Submission Deadline Extended

Via: Serious Games Showcase & Challenge Due to popular demand the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge   submission deadline has been extended to September 26th.   For the first time, the SGS Challenge is accepting Mobile Serious Games!!! There will also be a special award for the game that is tops in Adaptive Learning!!!  If you intend to enter, submit your paperwork to:  sgschallenge at gmail.com  Details provided at  http://sgschallenge.com/ Finalists in the Serious Game Showcase & Challenge will be selected by a panel of leaders in the gaming, industry and academic fields, and will be invited to showcase their Serious Game at   I/ITSEC 2011 , where over 17,000 attendees will view and vote on each of the finalists.  Awards will be presented to the top finishers in each category.  All game submissions must be completely uploaded through SGS private FTP server with required paperwork by September 26th to be eligible. About The Serious Games Showcase

ghOst Productions: Serious Games As Inspiring Medical Animation

Via: ghOst Productions - Medical Animation Studio                          ghost Productions is a 3D medical animation studio that specializes in promotional marketing, surgical technique, and surgeon and patient education. Realizing that new medical breakthroughs and discoveries are made everyday, they use a wide array of expertise and methods to transform them into a breath-taking visual experience. ghOst Productions built a medical animation from the ground up to showcase at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons – AAOS. Instead of showing pre-existing client work in their reel, they thought it would be more fun to make a character animation, break nearly every bone in his body and then surgically repair him in 3 minutes. After the success of HEAL at AAOS in early 2009, K2M and ghOst Productions moved forward on a cinematic narrative to highlight their devices and their application to specific spinal pathologies. The end result is CL

Docebo: Serious Games Behind The Scenes

Via: Docebo – Serious Games Making-Of                            Docebo is a Milan, Italy, based company that created DoceboLMS , a LMS platform with no license fees. Docebo operates at an international level, providing a wide range of integrated services for distance learning. Its investors include Seeweb , a leading Internet Service Provider for cloud hosting solutions. The Multimedia Production business unit operates under the belief that “Serious Games are the last frontier of multimedia training”. According to their website, here you can see how "Serious Games" are created by Docebo.  You can also try on two of Docebo’s Serious Games demos. Serious Game Learning in a Click - Support for decision making. Test your skills in making the right choices to implement a project in your company Simulator Commercial Behavior - In the shoes of a salesman, guide your client in the right choice. Pay attention to value creation and customer relationship.

New Report: Scientific Accuracy In Serious Games Stimulates Scientific Inquiry

Via: IJLM – International Journal of Learning and Media - Worked Example: How Scientific Accuracy in Game Design Stimulates Scientific Inquiry A just published report describes in detail a study of the effectiveness and consequences of a MacArthur Foundation funded project in WhyVille (find also Serious Games Capturing How Humans Really Learn ) involving the Chicago Field Museum . The worked example presents the importance of scientific accuracy in gaming environments that rely heavily on learning-based activities. It focuses on WhyReef , a simulated coral reef, which is targeted towards kids ages 8-16. The Field Museum selected coral reef biodiversity as its overarching theme for this project because of its commitment to improving public knowledge and increasing action regarding biodiversity and biodiversity loss.   The study attempts to demonstrate that creating a game-based virtual coral reef with a high degree of scientific accuracy allows players to experience rea

Serious Games Assisting Emergency Birth

Following my prior post Serious Games Award Winners Announced @ Serious Play , here is another Silver Medal Winner at the Serious Play Conference: Emergency Birth . The Engender Games Group (EGG) Lab spent 2010 and part of 2011 building the Emergency Birth! Serious Game. It is game to train non-medical professionals how to deliver a baby outside of a hospital setting. This game is currently under development for the OshKosh online nursing program and for potential use by communities who don't have enough doctors to assist women giving birth. The player will have to help a woman who is going into labor deliver the baby without professional assistance. Help! Don't drop the baby! A playable prototype is available at http://www.ardeaarts.org/birthBeta/ Emergency Birth takes the player through assisting a woman in labor when no medical help is immediately available. Primary character illustrations and assets were created by Toufue Yang; NATALIE NGUY

Gamifying Education: Thorough Serious Play Conference Overview

Gamifying Education provides a thorough overview of Serious Play Conference: Day One. Here are the highlights for Day One - Tuesday, August 23, 2011: 1.    Serious Games Market Size The conference purposefully directed the initial focus with a plenary panel session assessing the Serious Games Market Size and potential growth. Tyson Greer, CEO of Ambient Insight , presented her company’s chief research points. The US Simulation-based Learning market reached $990.2 million in 2010. The five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 20.2% and revenues will reach $2.48 billion by 2015.  The revenues for Simulation-based Learning will be seven times higher than Game-based Learning by 2015 Mobile versus Non-Mobile Sectors The market for mobile commercially-sold Educational Serious Games is growing while the market for non-mobile commercially-sold games is flat However, the market for custom developed Educational Serious Games is growing, both for mobile

The Growing Segment Of Ecological Conscious Serious Games

Okabu - Pollution has reached the land of the cloud whales in the cartoony Okabu for PlayStation 3 Growing Green Game Wave Is Spreading From Computers To Home Console Systems And Smartphones Via:  USA TODAY  - Green Games Gain In Popularity USA TODAY reported last week the growing movement of ecologically conscious Serious Games that deals with the real destiny of our actual habitat. I had early identified this trend, to the point of creating a dedicated category in both my previous blog FUTURE MAKING SERIOUS GAMES Ecology Games (31) and the current one SERIOUS GAMES MARKET Ecology Games (30). USA TODAY article covers Fate of the World, object of my prior post   Red Redemption Porting Fate Of The World Serious Game To Platforms Other Than PC ,   “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 organi

RiggleFish: Serious Games Engaging Players In Scientific Inquiry

Via: VELscience   – Virtual Environments For Learning Following my prior post Serious Games Award Winners Announced @ Serious Play , here is another Gold Medal Winner at the Serious Play Conference, held August 23 – 25, 2011 at the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Wash: RiggleFish - a Serious Game developed by UL Lafayette’s Center for Innovative Learning and Assessment Technologies and Texas A&M. In RiggleFish ,  players take on the role of Dr. Waters, a geneticist tasked by the government to develop a source for Omega X. This fatty acid can be used as a protectant against a deadly bioweapon.  RiggleFish , a recently discovered fish species, is rich in Omega X. RiggleFish can be red, orange, or yellow, but only the yellow ones produce high concentrations of Omega X. RiggleFish also possess some traits that make them difficult to breed in captivity, including sensitivity to low pressure environments, sharp spikes, and their distinctive wiggle Pla