Serious Games Newswire

The following press release recently hit on a new game for autistic children:

Vision Audio Inc. has announced the release of EASe Off-Road, the first video game designed to help train children with autism to cope with sensory integration challenges. EASe Off-Road is a fun, non-violent learning experience that enables children to enjoy and more fully participate in their enhanced sound-based therapy, according to Bill Mueller, president of Vision Audio (http://www.easecd.com).

Read the full release here.

Posted by Ben at 10:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The following press release recently went out:

Humana and iTech Fitness Promoting Health and Wellness Through New Exergaming System
Humana Games for Health, part of Humana Inc., and iTech Fitness will jointly promote iTech's new XRKade iZone, a fully integrated and mobile exergaming system that can be purchased and easily installed in about 300 square feet of space.

Read the full release here.

Posted by Ben at 10:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interview on their site with Mary Flanagan who is part of the team in NY that makes up the joint-venture with Microsoft Research known as the Games for Learning Institute (G4LI). Read more here.

Posted by Ben at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Art Daily has a piece on a new series of "art games" that are being done by new media artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung.

Choice quote from article...

"The game’s protagonist is the polar bear—that victimized, yet cuddly symbol of global warming. Players embody the polar bear as it progresses through different climate change scenarios: Venice under water, a forest threatened by bulldozers, and an altercation with vicious oil derricks. Celebrities—political and otherwise—flutter through and interact with our hero; Leonardo DiCaprio introduces the bear to Dr. R.K. Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, while George W. Bush drills for oil in the North Pole and keeps warm by barbecuing the Kyoto protocol. Using solar panels and other renewable energy defenses, the bear narrowly succeeds in fighting off the evil forces that threaten the environment."

I tried the games which feature load times that rival early PS2 and PS3 titles. They are for better or worse unplayable. Perhaps that was part of the plan but this project got some serious funding from major arts supporters include Tribeca Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation.

You can try out any of the four games from Tin-Kin Hung by visiting http://www.gaszappers.com/. An installation of the games will be part of an exhibit at The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Posted by Ben at 10:28 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In an article titled: Pushing Buttons :What's in a game? Education, for starters, should play a part author John Richardson opines about what serious games are and what more is needed to be more successful.

Choice quote : "Sadly, the average person does not likely find any of these games fun, since, quite honestly, most just are not very good. Educational games are a vital and very much needed effort, but many developers and researchers have seemingly forgotten that a game—no matter how serious its subject matter—cannot neglect fun! And not just because games, by definition, need to be fun (in fact, “serious games” seems to be oxymoronic...something the industry cobbled together and will hopefully abandon soon)."

Lots to quibble about but interesting read. As for the knock on labels (which we sort of agree with) for those of you who don't know the Berkeley Beacon is not a University of California publication but instead one for Emerson College in Massachusetts. Apparently the student paper was founded on the corner of Berkeley and Beacon hence the name. Making things all the more confusing the paper is no longer located there but is instead on Boylston Street.

Posted by Ben at 09:44 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The "Serious Games in Cultural Heritage Field" (SGCH) workshop is intended to be a forum for the presentation of technological, cultural, and business advances and results in multi-disciplinary areas related with entertainment media technologies applied to the Cultural Heritage (CH).

The main objective of the workshop is the exploration of "engage yourself with the heritage" concept, in order to investigate new, compelling modalities of interacting with faithful representations of the CH and propose new areas of applications for computer/based serious games. The idea is to explore how to conveniently apply leading-the-edge entertainment technologies to the promotion and wide dissemination of contents and experiences related to the CH.

Call for Papers here: http://www.vast2008.org/workshops.php

Posted by Peter Smith at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Serious Games Interactive has released the sequel to Global Conflicts: Philistine called Global Conflicts: Latin America. I haven't played it yet, but the game looks great. You play as a reporter in Latin America unraveling the real story of what is happening in your region. Kind of reminds me of an educational version of Beyond Good and Evil. If you want to check it out go here: http://www.globalconflicts.eu/gcla/index.php

Posted by Peter Smith at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Thursday, December 4, 2008, the Games for Health Project announces a one day event for Houston, TX. This regional event offers a chance to get a great introduction to the games for health field including an excellent chance for local and regional networking. See the full info and sign-up links at Games for Health.

Posted by Ben at 10:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Burlington Free Press of Vermont just published a story on the serious games space.

Choice excerpt: "Every electronic game requires a “platform,” the equipment used to play it. Soon after the Champlain students got to South Africa, they realized that the usual U.S. platforms — personal computers or TV-console systems — were out of the question. Their target population didn’t have these things, nor did the schools, where libraries were often empty."

You can find the full story here.

Posted by Ben at 10:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Last year's Serious Games Showcase & Challenge People's Choice Award winner Vigilance is now being featured on SimTV. This game uses the beautifully rendering Crysis Engine to provide IED detection training for soldiers in Iraq. I am part of the team that puts the SGS&C on every year and this is one of the best looking games that have been submitted in the events three year history. The Harrington Group certainly outdid themselves on this one. Check out the full story here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/seriousgames/vigilance/prweb1341124.htm

Posted by Peter Smith at 07:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Third Wave Digital Announced that that will be creating some Serious Games to educate visitors to Progress Energy's new nuclear power plant in North Carolina. I haven't seen the games but I do pay Progress Energy a good portion of my paycheck each month. I sure am glad to see they are spending the money wisely. Check the full story here: http://www.pr.com/press-release/111668

Posted by Peter Smith at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Serious games studio Virtual Heroes of Cary, NC got a big writeup on Gamespot recently. Read the large profile of the studio here.

Posted by Ben at 07:10 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Serious Games - Advergaming, Edugaming, Training and More" report to their offering.

No word on how good it is or not. A quick glance at the ToC seemed to indicate they were taking a wide view of the market.

Posted by Ben at 07:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)