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Showing posts from February, 2015

Going To GDC Next Week? Then Don't Miss Jesse Schell

Jesse Schell , CEO, Schell Games LLC , will be presenting two different talks at GDC 2015 : one about successfully managing a game studio and the other about the making of a massive tablet game. Here are the logistics: Game Studio Management: Making It Great Location:  Room 2001, West Hall Date:  Friday, March 6 Time:  10:00am - 11:00am Track: Business, Marketing & Management Pass Type: All Access Pass, Main Conference Pass The Making of Lexica: A Truly Massive Tablet Game Location:  Room 2001, West Hall Date:  Monday, March 2 Time:  1:45pm - 2:10pm Track: Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass  Object of my prior post Serious Games Take ELA Learning To New Heights , Lexica is a massive tablet game (3.5 GB, 300 Staff Years of work) that is designed to get junior high kids excited about reading. In fact, the game’s transformational goal is getting them to become lifelong rea

Field Study Report For GlassLab’s Argumentation Serious Game

GlassLab has just released a report containing key findings from a field study of Mars Generation One: Argubot Academy , an argumentation Serious Game developed by  GlassLab Games in collaboration with Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Pearson, with support from the National Writing Project and NASA. Mars Generation One (MGO] teaches and assesses students’ argumentation skills through an adventure-based educational game for the iPad. In the game, players—typically middle school students—find themselves in a settlement on Mars where disputes are resolved through formal arguments. To succeed, players must search for evidence that can support the claims they are trying to make. They also must critique others' arguments, determining whether the evidence presented supports the claim effectively. Players advance by winning argument "duels" against opponents.  Over the course of a complete 90-minute cycle of game play, players might engage in eight or more such

Mimycx Serious Game By Professions Quest Prepares Student Pharmacists For Team-Based Care

As referred on my prior post Call For Applications: Virginia Serious Game Institute Merging Game Company Incubation & Rapid Prototyping , VSGI has incubated five start-up businesses over the last year. One of the incubated businesses,  Professions Quest , was started in 2014 by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). Its flagship product, Mimycx, is a massively multi-player online (MMO) Serious Game that has entered the closed beta test phase with pre-approved healthcare institutions. Mimycx  was created to bridge a gap in healthcare higher education inter-professional communications and cooperation.  Mimycx allows healthcare professional schools across the country to offer students a way to interact online with each other, while fostering the development of skills that are critical in the patient/population-centered care field. Through its newly established educational gaming company, AACP spent the last year working on creating a video game, whic

Call For Applications: Virginia Serious Game Institute Merging Game Company Incubation & Rapid Prototyping

George Mason University and Prince William County have formed a public-private partnership in Simulation and Game Design. The recently founded Virginia Serious Game Institute  (VSGI) provides a new gateway to simulation, modeling and game design, applied-research and company formation,   accelerating early-entry entrepreneurship into the Serious Game Industry.  Its mission is to support high-value knowledge job creation and regional economic development through start-up business incubation and spin-out of high growth companies leading to commercialization. The Institute offers new business incubators cutting-edge computer design research and development, access to visualization and simulation software, training, product development, business support and rapid-prototyping. Each year the VSGI invites applicants to reside in the business incubator located on the George Mason University - Prince William Campus  (recently renamed to Science and Technology Campus) , Prince Wil

iMagine Machine Making The Connection Between Game And Instruction Transparent To The Player

One of the most challenging attributes for Educational Serious Games developers is the seamless integration that is achieved when the connection between game elements (engagement) and instructional elements (potential to teach/inform) becomes transparent to the player. Over five years of research have led iMagine Machine to create Land of Venn ( available on the App Store for both iPhone and iPad ) with the value proposition of teaching geometry to young students, blurring the line between gameplay and education. The game is their first in a series they hope to release of what they call Gameducation Apps. Gameplay The background presumption is that kids won't realize just how much they are learning about geometry as they tap, drag, and draw shapes to defeat the monsters and win the game. The Land of Venn is a fast-paced game that teaches kids how to use principles of geometry to defeat an evil wizard named Apeirogon and his monsters. By drawing points, l

Serious Games Expert Professor Minhua Ma Makes Her Mark In The Healthcare Market

Source: University of Huddersfield Professor Minhua Ma , a leader in the Serious Games for Healthcare field, who joined the University of Huddersfield’s School of Art, Design and Architecture as Director of Internationalization in September 2014, will chair the Sixth International Conference on Serious Games Development and Applications  (SGDA) that takes place on June 3-4 in UK. Her arrival at Huddersfield meant that she could offer the University as the venue for the conference, which has been held in a number of European Countries. For the first time the event will be held jointly with the annual Game Days Conference, bringing a wider range of researchers to the University of Huddersfield. University of Huddersfield’s School of Art, Design and Architecture A computer scientist by training, Professor Ma was introduced to Serious Games during her doctoral study at the University of Ulster that led to her developing virtual reality games to help with the rehabilita

Gamification Heading Towards Legitimacy - Tony Ventrice 2015 Predictions

Since early 2010, when I posted Anecdotal Evidence: Serious Games As Persuasive Game-Life Integration , sharing my reflections on Jesse Schell’s superb presentation Design Outside The Box at DICE 2010, I have been deliberately detached from the “Serious Games x Gamification” discussion. I could have probably gone against the odds by stating that I did not place that line between Serious Games & Gamification, even though most purists did, for the following reasons: As the Serious Games Market was starting to be formed, I would have turned to the Chaos Theory that fully applies to major step changes, when discontinuity prevails. In the beginning all you've got are fractals, without any bonding. Therefore, at the early stages, inclusiveness could make an incipient community gain critical mass and visibility -  e.g. for the SG Market could imply welcoming Simulations, Board Games and Collaborative Storytelling, as opposed to Serious Games stricto sensus. The more rad

Far-Plane: Beyond Boundaries By Triad, Serious Games Building Strategic Alliances

Far-Plane: Beyond Boundaries , by Triad Interactive Media , is a role-playing Serious Game designed to introduce the Center for Creative Leadership’s Boundary Spanning Leadership model to high school age students across the globe. Triad worked with the Center for Creative Leadership (a top 10 ranked global leadership company) to adapt a proven leadership model, Beyond Boundaries, to an online Serious Game designed for scalability and peer to peer learning. Planned as a 3-part Serious Game series, its first game Far-Plane: Beyond Boundaries, Series 1: Managing Boundaries was tested with High School Students in the U.S., Belgium, and the Caribbean last year. Designed to improve players’ leadership and communication skills, the game engages players through geo-political crisis scenarios. The implicit in-game learning experience is augmented with activities that provide explicit instruction in the leadership model. Far-Plane: Beyond Boundaries provides an innovative an

Call For Papers: Serious Games, Interaction and Simulation

The 5th International Conference on Serious Games, Interaction and Simulation to be held on September, 16–18, 2015 in Novedrate (Como), Italy, is inviting submissions that address the following topics: Immersive Environments, virtual environments, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality use for Serious Games; Games for education and training; Games for emergency and disaster management, crowd simulation, crime scene investigation; Games for health, medical training, therapy; Games for science and research; Future Issues of Serious Games; Accessibility and inclusive design for Serious Games and Evaluation of Serious Games. Full paper is due by April 6, 2015 and acceptance notification shall be released by June 15, 2015. Papers should be submitted through EAI Paper Submission System at Confy . Submitted papers must be original work, and may not be under consideration for another conference or journal. Submission of the paper implies agreement of the author(s) to atte