We love working with researchers and universities.
Our enthusiasm for academic and research collaboration has enabled us to develop an outstanding track record.
It takes a special sort of commercial company to work this well with researchers and academic partners. At PlayGen, research-led development and knowledge transfer is valued as highly as our commercial interests.
We have and are currently working with a whole range of funding organisations that focus on R&D including European Commission, Technology Strategy Board (TSB), The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), National Endowment for Science Technology and Arts (NESTA) and others.
PlayGen is committed to research and development, we thrive on it.
Our current and recent collaborations with universities from around the UK and Europe.
RAGE
Realising an Applied Gaming Eco-system.
February 2015 to February 2019, EU funded as part of H2020-ICT
RAGE will bring critical mass to the applied games industry by centralising a wide range of applied games software modules, services and resources.
This includes assets and proven practices of asset-based games in various real-life contexts, an online social space for collaboration, workshops and online training for developers and educators, asset-based business case support as well as a business model and launch plan for exploiting the RAGE Ecosystem.
Partners : Complutense University Madrid, INESC, OKKAM, FTK, University of Bolton, TU Graz, Inmark, Utrecht University, IEEP, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Nurogames, BIP MEDIA, University of Sofia, Stichting Praktijkleren, Gameware Europe, Ministry of Justice Portugal, Randstad, Hull College
Links : http://rageproject.eu/
Prosociallearn
Gamification of Prosocial Learning for Increased Youth Inclusion and Academic Achievement.
January 2015 to January 2018, EU-funded as part of H2020-ICT
Prosociallearn will establish a new market for digital games aiming at increasing social inclusion and academic performance. A ground-breaking digital gaming genre will be created that focuses on helping children to acquire prosocial skills necessary for positive relationships, team working, trustworthiness and emotional intelligence.
Prosociallearn will deliver a series of disruptive innovations building on a game development and distribution platform for the production of prosocial games that engages children and stimulates technology transfer from traditional game industry to the education sector.
Partners : ATOS Spain, CERTH, University of Southampton, Redikod, University of Cambridge, KTH, Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Europole.
Links : http://prosociallearn.eu/
SEWA
Automatic Sentiment Estimation in the Wild.
February 2015 to August 2018, EU Funded as part if H2020-ICT
SEWA will aim to develop technologies that can robustly and accurately analyse human facial, vocal and verbal behaviour and interactions in the wild, as observed by omnipresent webcams in digital devices, to have profound impact on both basic sciences and the industrial sector.
The envisioned technology will be based on findings in cognitive sciences and it will represent a set of audio and visual spatiotemporal methods for automatic analysis of human spontaneous (as opposed to posed and exaggerated) patterns of behavioural cues including continuous and discrete analysis of sentiment, liking and empathy.
Partners : Imperial College London, University of Passau, Realeyes.
Links : http://www.sewaproject.eu/
SeeingNano
Developing and Enabling Nanotechnology Awareness-Building through the Creation and Exchange of enhanced Communication and Visualisation Tools and Guidance for ‘Seeing at the Nanoscale’.
December 2014 to December 2016, EU-funded as part of H2020-NMP
SeeingNano aims to create Novel Visualisation Tools for Enhanced Nanotechnology Awareness through a coordinated collaborative approach conducted by leading experts in the relevant fields. The project will create a SeeingNano exchange with visualisation tools, guidance and content for the enhancement of nanotechnology awareness-building exercises conducted by the nanotechnology stakeholder community.
Partners : NIA, BfR, ECSITE, Studio-HB, TOMATO, University of Leeds, ZSI, DPF.
Links : http://www.seeingnano.eu/
INSPEC2T
Inspiring CitizeNS Participation for Enhanced Community PoliCing AcTions.
May 2015 to May 2018, EU funded as part of H2020-FCT
To develop a sustainable framework for Community Policing that effectively addresses and promotes seamless collaboration between the police and the community. INSPEC2T will provide a solid foundation for the evolution of the Next Generation Community Policing roadmap in Europe.
Partners : Center for Security Studies, TNO, DHPOL, VICESSE, VICOMTECH, University of Ulster, Intrasoft International, CGI, ADITESS, Trilateral, SATWAYS, ETICAS, Exus, IMC, Ayuntamiento de Valencia, Lancashire Police, Spanish Interior Ministry.
Links : http://inspec2t-project.eu/
CACTOS
Context-Aware Cloud Topology Optimisation and Simulation.
October 2013 to September 2016, EU-funded as part of FP7-ICT.
User demand and new technologies are driving a drastic increase in cloud infrastructure scale, heterogeneity and complexity. The need for better energy efficiency has led to a variety of technological options as well as specialised options for highly parallel tasks. At the same time, service provisioning has evolved from Web Services and infrastructure virtualisation to Clouds, which is conceptually very similar to the evolution from traditional server hosting to more interactive services.
The results of key research challenges addressed in CACTOS shall create guidance over the toolkit realised, which will be validated against three distinct scenarios for business analytics, enterprise applications and technical computing use cases.
Partners : University of Ulm, FZI, Dublin City University, Umea University, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Flexiant.
Links : http://www.cactosfp7.eu/
SYMPHONY
Orchestrating Information Technologies and Global Systems Science for Policy Design and Regulation of a Resilient and Sustainable Global Economy.
Oct 2013 to Sept 2016 – EU funded as part of FP7-ICT
A gamified framework for designing and testing policies and regulatory measures for preventing and mitigating economic and financial crises in Europe; and fostering an economically and ecologically sustainable growth path.
Partners : Universita Politecnica Delle Marche, Athens Technology Center SA, Global Climate Forum EV (GCF), Institut Jozef Stefan, Universitat Jaume I de Castellon, Institut of Communication and Computer Systems, Germanwatch Nord-Sued-Initiative E.V.
Links : http://projectsymphony.eu/
FI-ADOPT
Future Internet Core Platform Adoption and Sustainability Enabler.
July 2014 to July 2016 – EU funded as part of FP7-ICT
FI-ADOPT will promote the adoption of the FIWARE technologies and deliver a large number of innovative, multidisciplinary, multi-platform, stable and scalable applications. The project supports key areas such as learning, training, well being and social integration. FI-ADOPT will engage innovative SMEs and web entrepreneurs through opens calls, offering selected projects high quality services including technical training and support, improved access to funding, webinars, pitching events, business knowledge transfer and marketing guidance, to contribute towards their sustainability.
Research Partners : Intrasoft International, EAI, Europe Unlimited, Atos, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Synelixis, EMC2.
Links : http://fiadopt-project.eu/
COLLAGE
Creativity in learning through Social Computing and Game Mechanics in the Enterprise.
Oct 2012 to Sept 2015 – EU funded as part of FP7-ICT
To design, develop and validate innovative Social Creativity Services which support the synergistic interlinking of learning processes, resources and systems with social computing services for inspiring learners, social affinity spaces for leveraging expression and exploration, and social game mechanics and gamification for supporting social evaluation and appreciation of creative behaviour.
Partners : ESADE, City University, INSEAD, ICCS, eXact Learning Solutions, Fiat Sepin, CEDEP, Waag Society
Links : http://projectcollage.eu/
CELAR
Automatic, multi-grained elasticity-provisioning for the Cloud.
Oct 2012 to Sept 2015 – EU funded as part of FP7-ICT
This framework enables the commitment of just the right amount of resources based on application demand, performance and requirements, results in optimal use of infrastructure resources and significant reductions in administrative costs. PlayGen is developing a sophisticated policy game which utilises big data from open government datastores.
Partners : SixSq, University of Cyprus, Greek Research and Technology Network S.A., Technische Universitaet Wien, Flexiant Limited, Institute of Cancer Research
Links : http://www.celarcloud.eu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CELAR
CHERMUG
Continuing / Higher Education in Research Methods Using Games.
Jan 2012 – Jan 2014 – EU funded as part of LLP
The CHERMUG games are online digital games designed to support students as they learn about research methods and statistics. The games cover both quantitative and qualitative research methods and follow a research methods cycle. Each game highlights specific aspects of the cycle.
Partners : University of the West of Scotland, e-UCM, Open University of The Netherlands, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova
Links : http://www.chermug.eu/
Sexual Health Game
What should we tell children about sex and relationships?
Jan 2011 to Dec 2011 – Funded by NHS through regional health Trust
A sexual health communication tool to help parents discuss difficult or embarrassing issues with their children. Working with Coventry University’s Applied Research Centre in Health and Lifestyle Interventions, we developed an interactive simulation for parents of children aged between five to fourteen years, designed to empower them and ease discussion on sexual health matters.
Partner : Coventry University
FloodSim
A policy simulation to bring important public policy decisions to life, measuring attitudes and informing citizens and policy makers.
An accessible online policy simulation to help raise public awareness of issues around flood policy and provide feedback to insurers and policy makers about public attitudes towards different flood protection options.
Research Partners : University of East London, University of Surrey, Serious Games Institute
Link game : http://playgen.com/play/floodsim/
Link publications : http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1581073.1581076
Link Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FloodSim
iSeed
Gamified Living Stories
iSeed is an experimental social, online, location based, alternate reality game, using user generated content including photos and stories brought together through mashups, using Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps. Using gamification to gather stories about the environment.
Partners : Serious Games Institute, Eden Project
Links : http://sgi.cueltd.net/publications/papers/ISeedPaper_final.pdf
GALA
Games and Learning Alliance : Network of Excellence for Serious Games
Oct 2010 to Sep 2014 – Funded by EU as part of FP7-ICT
The GaLA is the network of excellence to explore the potential of Serious Games for education and training and the need to address the challenges of the users, researchers, developers/industry and educators. GALA aims to shape the scientific community and build a European Virtual Research Centre aimed at gathering, integrating, harmonizing and coordinating research on SGs and disseminating knowledge, best practices and tools as a reference point at an international level.
Partners : Universidad Complutense de Madrid, ORT France, Heriot-Watt University, Cyntelix Corporation BV, Aalto University, Ministerul Apararii Nationale, Nato Undersea Research Centre, BIBA, Technische Universitaet Graz, Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Universiteit Utrecht, Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich, Centre Europeen d’Education Permanente, Atos Origin Sociedad Anonima Espanola, Universitaet Graz, University of the West of Scotland, Serious Games Interactive, Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet NTNU, TTY-SAATIO, Aalborg Universitet, Fundacion Esade, Coventry University, The University of Nottingham, INESC ID, Technische Universiteit Delft, Universite Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, Open Universiteit Nederland, Politecnico di Milano
Links : http://www.galanoe.eu/
Scrutiny
Scans web pages and highlights entities that it thinks the user finds interesting.
June 2009 to Nov 2009 – Funded by JISC
Scrutiny is a natural language process right in your browser with the ability to highlight entities and word context on the web page and provide a mechanism for the user to accept or dismiss individual items.
Partners : University of Hertfordshire, University of Sheffield, Humanities Research Institute
NanoMedicine
Inspiring the next generation of nanotechnologists
NanoMission is a serious game series made by PlayGen for Wellcome Trust and FEI to teach the player about the world of nanomedicine.
V1 : We collaborated with Professor Richard Jones FRS, author of Soft Machines on the future of nano medicine. The game was based on a simple racing game where players select a suitable vehicle to deliver an anti-cancer compound and then navigate through the bloodstream to the site of the tumour while trying to avoid the body’s natural defence mechanisms.
V2 : We collaborated with Professor Kostas Kostarelos FRSM of University of London’s school of pharmacy on a learning game about nanomedicine. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, in this game the players assume the role of a biomedical scientist aiming to cure cancer through observation and experimentation by building nanoscopic particles and measuring their effects on the patient at the cellular level.
Links : Nanomission
Link Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NanoMission