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Showing posts from April, 2013

ADC & GDC NEXT: State Of The Art Serious Applications & Future Of Games

The inaugural 2013 App Developers Conference (ADC) and Game Developers Conference Next (GDC Next) call for submissions are now open through Wednesday, May 29. ADC will feature app best practices  (outside of games),  covering some of  major app vertical markets -- Entertainment, Enterprise, Health/Wellness, Lifestyle, Brand Marketing, and Education, while GDC Next will feature detailed content about creating the game experiences of the future. Coincidentally or not, most of the addressed vertical markets for apps are also major Serious Games target markets. “With the evolution and growth of interactive technology moving at light speed, it became clear to us that we should bring our 25+ years of expertise producing the Game Developers Conference events to the ever-expanding universe of app development, and also create a new event that looks at the future of the games space," said Meggan Scavio, general manager of GDC events. The brand new co-located event

New DragonBox 12+: Algebra Serious Games Optimized For 12+ Year Olds

It has been almost a year since the launch of DragonBox , the "Serious Game" for solving Algebra equations.   DragonBox started out by becoming the most sold app in any category in the Apple App Store beating traditional games like Angry Birds and Cut The Rope . To top it off, it won the 9th International Mobile Gaming Award for Best Serious Game at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. Now, the DragonBox Team has announced the launch of DragonBox Algebra 12+. It is based on the award winning game DragonBox Algebra 5+ but covers more advanced topics in mathematics and algebra. They have taken all of the feedback they got from early adopters and used it to make this a longer, more comprehensive algebra learning tool optimized for schools and kids that are 12 years and older.  DragonBox Algebra 12+ includes more difficult algebra topics, such as parenthesis and factorization. It also comes with a Teacher's Manual detailing how the game c

Serious Games Change Banking Industry Attitudes Towards Risk And Lending

Serious Game assesses business risk and loan structuring Via: Caspian Learning and Omega Performance Omega Performance partnered with Caspian Learning to develop and bring to the market SimuStar -- an advanced credit simulation aiming at changing banking industry attitudes towards risk, lending and return (Please find also  Serious Games Improving Training and Performance Metrics ) SimuStar helps lenders hone judgment and decision-making skills by replicating real-life experience in collecting and interpreting data, which is the only way to fully test lender's skills. In the SimuStar Series , as in real life, players work with a team of lenders. These virtual colleagues help guide players, through meetings and conversations, as they collect information on a lending opportunity, analyze key financial data and make decisions on structuring a loan. Players also have the chance to visit the potential clients and meet with their team, ask questions, and tou

Interactive Career Exploration Serious Game Within Whyville

As anticipated in my prior posting Serious Games Bring Career Exploration To Children Around The World , ACT and Numedeon Inc. announced today the official launch of CareerQuest™ , a free Serious Game designed to help younger students expand their awareness of possible future careers.  PRESS RELEASE ACT and Numedeon Launch CareerQuest™: An Interactive Career Exploration Game within the Whyville Virtual World Free Game Designed to Help Students Ages 8–15 Explore Future Careers IOWA CITY, Iowa, and PASADENA, Calif.— ACT and Numedeon Inc. announced today the launch of CareerQuest™ , a free game designed to help younger students expand their awareness of possible future careers. Developed in partnership by the two firms, the game appears on Whyville.net, an online virtual learning world created by Numedeon. The game, which is based on ACT’s extensive research on education and careers, is aimed at students ages 8 to 15. “We know how important it

Serious Games Boost Civic Education In The Classroom

Via: iCivics Following my prior posts Serious Games To Foster National Dialogue About Judiciary System and Learning By Doing Civics Through Serious Games , the campaign to improve high-school civics education led by retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor received a boost last week when the Arizona Department of Education endorsed her web-based educational tool iCivics, which includes lesson plans and web quests, but the big draw being an impressive collection of Serious Games . Earlier this month, Harvard Law School and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools presented a daylong symposium titled “Civics Education: Why It Matters to Democracy, Society, and You”, to recognize the extraordinary work led by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in iCivics and explore paths to advance the way young people are prepared to participate in democracy. iCivics is an online learning platform devoted to the topic. Grounded in O’Connor’s campaign to revers

Cargo Dynasty: Serious Games To Create A Carrier Business

Via: Serious Games Interactive E arly April, Serious Games Interactive, the Transport Sector Education Fund (TSU) and TUR Publishing from Denmark released Cargo Dynasty , an online multiplayer strategy game for the Transport Industry (please find also Serious Games Bringing More People Into Scotland’s Transport Sector ). TSU has invested seven million dollars in the project to entice more young people into one of the country's most important industries. In Denmark, the average age of an employee in the transportation industry is close to 50 years, which means that they will face a significant turnover in a near future. “This applies to drivers, warehouse workers and administrative staff”, says Magnus Købke, project manager at TSU. “It will be vital to attract more young people to the profession if the Transport Industry in Denmark continues to be a multi-billion, adds Magnus Købke. Designed specifically for 8-10 grade students and the Vocational Education an

Serious Games Convey Alzheimer's Disease Pathology

Fayju is an independent game development company based in UK who has teamed up with Dr Jody Mason of Essex University, a leading Biochemist currently researching the causes and prevention of Alzheimer's disease, to create the "Serious Game"  Cascade to convey Alzheimer’s disease pathology at the cellular level and potential therapeutic intervention approaches. (Please find also Crossing the Chasm With Serious Games For Medical Education ) Game Background Many researchers believe that the Amyloid Cascade Hypothesis best explains the cause of Alzheimer's disease and that certain therapeutic interventions at a bio-molecular level can have a powerful effect against the disease.  The rules of Cascade environment and gameplay emulate this hypothesis and potential solutions. The game is based on research into potential therapeutic interventions against Alzheimer's disease and will be played out in the brain amidst a simulation of the Amyloid Ca

Google Glass Version Of Serious Games

OK Glass! How long is the Brooklyn Bridge? This week Google has started to distribute Google Glass , something seen as the next breakthrough in mobile computing and in video games as well, standing at  the forefront of wearable computing technology (please find also Serious Games, Serious Money: Google's Web Reshaping ). Google Glass  is Google’s Internet-connected eyewear that responds to natural language voice commands and displays information in the user’s line of sight via Augmented Reality overlays. According to Google, Project Glass is about a relationship technology: it is there when you want it and out of the way when you don’t. You can still have access to the technology you love but it doesn't take you out of the moment. It has the potential to become a mass-market ubiquitous computer and the future of human-machine interaction. As a technology that helps you explore and share your world on the fly, coupled with AR capabilities that blend layer

@Kickstarter A Serious Entertainment Cross Over Game

Via: T otem Learning Totem Learning, object of my prior post Totem Learning Makes Bespoke Serious Games More Accessible To All , are about to blur the barriers between Serious and Commercial Games, demonstrating it is perfectly possible to build a Serious Game that is both Casual and Social. Their first cross over game, The Phoenix Project , is focused on problem solving and human interaction and is designed for people who want to play games but are daunted by the endless hours of investment required. The Phoenix Project is a competitive and collaborative social puzzle game for the iPad where players are grouped into teams of 4 and must leverage the skills of fellow players for their own benefit; everyone has their own goal but only through cooperation will anyone win the game. As players go through the game, Totem Play (Totem Learning’s new division) will be tracking their decision making and problem solving strategies to provide detailed feedback to them and the

Serious Games For Training Cataract Surgeons

Via: ForgeFX On Simulators And Real-Time 3D Serious Games ForgeFX reports on a recently published study, authored by RAND Corporation , titled Cataract Blindness and Simulation-Based Training for Cataract Surgeons, that provides an assessment of a global campaign, named HelpMeSee , to eliminate cataract blindness which is endemic in developing countries. Through an inexpensive, quick and effective procedure known as Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS), HelpMeSee plans to provide help to those suffering from blindness due to cataracts. The combination of a shortage of well-trained surgeons who are familiar with this technique, and the fact that approximately one-half of all blindness cases in the world are due to cataracts, is expected to result in more than 30 million people worldwide requiring cataract surgery by the year 2020. In an effort to provide high-volume training for MSICS, that is portable and affordable, HelpMeSee has developed a high-fidel

New Serious Game Immerses Programming Into Gameplay

Students in a San Diego elementary school play with CodeSpells CodeSpells is a 3D Serious Game designed to teach novice programmers how to program in Java. In this game, you are a wizard and your task is to learn how to read, write and cast spells (Java programs) in an interactive and fun way Via: UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering - UC San Diego Computer Scientists Develop First-person Player Video Game that Teaches How to Program in Java PRESS RELEASE San Diego, Calif., April 8, 2013 -- Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have developed an immersive, first-person player Serious Game designed to teach students in elementary to high school how to program in Java, one of the most common programming languages in use today. The researchers tested the game on a group of 40 girls, ages 10 to 12, who had never been exposed to programming before. They detailed their findings in a paper they presented at the SIGCSE (Special Interest Group on C