Again this
year, high quality games were submitted to the Challenge. The entries came from a broad spectrum of
government, academia and industry and included numerous international
entries.
Here are
this year’s finalists, representing the best of the best:
Government Category
Czechoslovakia
38-89 by Charles University in Prague/Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic
As an immersive,
first-person Serious Game focused on story exploration and narrative, Czechoslovakia
38-89 allows students to experience key moments of modern history from the
point of view of a variety of characters, promoting a deeper understanding of
the political, social and cultural aspects of this time period.
Eagle Eye by US Army PdM-Ground Maneuver & Camber Corporation
Eagle Eye by US Army PdM-Ground Maneuver & Camber Corporation
A fielded US Army training game that leverages
an expansive and immersive 3D urban environment that puts the player in control
of an Unmanned Aircraft supporting a Brigade Combat Team using their critical
decision making skills. As players
progress through the game they are trained through intense real world
situations.
Strike Group Defender: The Missile Matrix by Office of Naval Research
and MIT Lincoln Laboratory
The US Navy’s first prototype multiple player,
game-based software-training program that trains, tests and evaluates navy
personnel employment and use of Navy Electronic Warfare tactics and systems in
increasingly difficult wartime situations
Student Category
Hurricane Game by University
of Central Florida
An interactive learning experience that allows players to explore and gain
a broad understanding of the factors that influence storm impact on human
populations, from the perspective of both the storm and the house builders”.
Cyber Heist
by University of Utah
A two-player co-op experience where you team up with a friend to take
on the futuristic Department of Education as either an eye-in-the-sky Hacker or
a stealthy, cautious Thief.
The
Shield: By Sword and Knowledge by Purdue University
An educational action-adventure game to teach vocabulary to English
language learners. The game focuses on improving learners’ ability to recognize,
spell, and pronounce vocabulary words in an immersive environment.
Industry Category
Sound Scouts
by cmee4 Productions Pty Ltd
A game played by children to assess their hearing on a mobile tablet
with headphones. Created in partnership with the National Acoustic Laboratories,
it incorporates scientific principles that enable to detect a range of hearing
problems.
DragonBox
Elements by We WantToKnow AS
Players learn to identify shapes based on their properties. As the game
progresses, players use the definitions, postulates and theorems presented in
Euclid’s Elements to solve increasingly sophisticated puzzles.
The
Underground Railroad by Muzzy Lane Software/National Geographic Education
Played
from a first-person perspective, in a choose-your-own-journey style, the game
immerses students in the action as they escape from a southern plantation and
head north toward freedom.
The Radix
Endeavor by MIT Education Arcade
Players take on roles of mathematicians and
scientists and embark on quests that encourage them to investigate and interact
with the virtual environment through math and science systems.
Info
Sentinel: Travel Security by MAVI Interactive LLC
In the game, players assume the role of agent "Sentinel", who
is urgently called to help a company, following an information security breach.
As the game progresses, players are asked to explore different environments to
uncover potential vulnerabilities, handle incidents and perform corrective
actions.
Hungry Birds
by Digital Glass LLC
A fast-paced game where the player is a bird flying through a forest
and has to eat as many moths as possible in 60 seconds. At the end of the game
players see how the pressure to compete forced them to go
after the easier-to-see moths, thereby changing the population mix - a
demonstration of how natural selection works.
Lifting with
Scissors by Serious Labs
A game that abstractly teaches users various safe protocols and features
of the scissor lift. From environmental hazards to choosing the right machine
for the job, players will gain a better understanding of when and how they
should use their scissor lifts.
Far-Plane:
Beyond Boundaries, Series 1: Managing
Boundaries by
Triad Interactive Media, Inc.
A role-playing game that teaches essential leadership skills through
exciting challenges and quests. Set on a resource-starved planet torn among
warring factions, players navigate complex political environments, unite
diverse peoples and build strategic alliances to save the world.
Nanocrafter
by University of Washington - Center for Game
Science
A synthetic biology game created to educate and entertain players while
advancing science. As players progress
through the game, they learn how to utilize DNA strand displacement reactions
to construct a variety of mechanisms that will assist them in solving the
increasingly complex puzzles.
Robot Factory
by Simcoach Games (formerly known as Etcetera Edutainment, Inc.)
Robot Factory utilizes, across over 100 different shift tasks (in the
game two-minute levels are called shifts), an increasingly complex and
compounded combination of different types of cognitive challenges.
Combat Medic by
Virtual Heroes
An immersive application with the goal of instructing combat medics on
optimal treatment techniques of the top three causes of preventable death on
the modern battlefield and supplements the 68W combat medic training
courses.
ACT! -
Awareness Combats Trafficking by Engineering & Computer Simulations, Inc.
The game presents an occurrence where a young girl is tricked into
being trafficked by a seemingly legitimate modeling scout. It is the player’s
job to identify red flags signifying that Macy may be in trouble, with the help
of a trusted police officer and a mutual friend of the player and the victim.
Picked from
a field of the above finalists, winners will be announced early December with 7
awards to be reaped:
Best
Game Government Category; Best Game Student Category; Best Game Business
Category; Best Game Mobile Category; People’s Choice Best Game;
Students’ Choice Award and Best
Game Special Emphasis – Social Media Crowdsourcing for Peer.