Thursday 25th March 2010

Games are everywhere and their use outside of the entertainment industry is growing year on year. Serious games are making a big impact on how we educate, train and engage students or employees and provide a far more enjoyable and rewarding experience.

The new generation of learners expects a new level of interactivity, and games offer an innovative and exciting hands on experience which far surpass the dated methods of lectures and text books.

This is a great opportunity to experience the wide variety of sectors where serious games have been used to great effect, it’s a must for anyone who is considering using serious games and computer based training for their business or academic institute.

By attending the day you will get a fully rounded experience on the use of games and simulations across a whole range of sectors, focusing on real examples with real impact.

Programme

9:30 am : Serious Games and Police/Law Enforcement

Aims of the session:

In this session we look at a range of gaming examples from the UK and abroad dealing with subjects such as preventing violent extremism, drug use, gang violence and drink driving. Topics include the following:

• Experience a more in-depth view on how serious games are contributing to preventing violent extremism.
• Exploring the solutions and benefits of serious games on major campaigns such as knife crime, drugs and gang culture.
• Discover how gaming technology can help reach younger generations on key issues.
• Serious games for schools and how youngsters have responded to the recent release of the game choices and voices
• Discussions on the benefits games and simulations.

Games Explored:

Choices & Voices

Choices and Voices is an interactive simulation that encourages young people to explore and discuss the underlying issues and adverse influences, which can lead to divisions and tensions in communities.

Image from Choices and Voices

Knife City

The Metropolitan Police launched an innovative new marketing campaign back in 2005 aimed to discourage young people from carrying knives.

Image from Knife City

Alcohol Safety

A fully immersive 3D game built to illustrate the affect of alcohol consumption can have.

Image from Alcohol Safety

10:15 am : Serious Games for Health

Aims of the session:

In this session we look at some of the leading examples on increasing physical activity, improving patient compliance, encouraging better personal health, improving hospital operations and providing more engaging training to healthcare professionals. Topics include the following:

• Experience the benefits of using simulations and serious games compared with standard e-learning.
• Discover clinical trials that demonstrate significant positive benefit in use of games for patients.
• Discuss and share ideas for more engaging approaches to patient and practitioner compliance.
• Find how healthcare training can be made much more effective through the use of simulations and serious games.
• See how gaming and virtual technologies can be harnessed to increase physical activity, encourage better personal health and improve hospital operations.

Games Explored:

Let’s Talk About Sex

PlayGen developed an interactive simulation for parents of children aged between five to 14 years, designed to empower them and ease discussion on sexual health matters.

Image from Let’s Talk About Sex by Playgen

Remission

The Re-Mission video game for teens and young adults with cancer, designed to improve patient compliance.

Image from Remission by Hope Labs

Coronary Artery Bypass Trainer

CABG trainer is part of the SG2 series. Built to teach medical students the series of important steps to coronary artery bypass surgery. A very compact and easy to use application.

Image from CABG SG2 by Playgen

Nano Medicine V2

The virtual lab in NanoMission V2 allows you to go from the organ view down to individual cells, analyzing the cells compositions, travelling down the blood stream and seeing the medicine you’ve created in action.

Ima.ge from Nano Mission Series by Playgen

11:30 am : Serious Games for Government & Politics

Aims of the session:

We’ll explore a cross section of areas where games are used to engage citizens on important policy and political points of view, these include:

• Citizen engagement.
• Public policy and procedure engagement.
• Elections & Budget

Games Explored:

Floodsim

Using online gaming technology to bring important public policy decisions to life, measure attitudes and inform citizens and policy makers.

Image from Floodsim by Playgen

Serious Policy

Examples include: Gordon Brown joins a virtual Paris Hilton, a digital Alistair Darling and a simulated Keira Knightley as 3D characters in the SeriousPolicy Game.

Image from Serious Policy by Playgen

Budget Hero

Teaches teenagers abouts the federal budget system and how to manage future debt. Policies must be halted or created to provide a viable future in this game.

Image from Budget Hero by American Public Media

Prime Minister Forever

Take the role of one of England’s political parties. Fight for votes, squash your opponents, become prime minister.

Image from Forever Series by Theory Spark

ICED I Can End Deportation

Escape and evade the deportation officers, this game illustrates how unfair immigration laws deny due to process and violate human rights.

Image from ICED by Breakthrough

Oiligarchy

Play the role of a cut throat Oil tycoon company and progress by destroying the African government, killing off the Amazon rainforest and invade the Middle East.

Image from Oiligarchy by Molleindustria

1:30 pm : Serious Games for Defence (Military)

Aims of the session:

In this session we look at a cross section of approaches and interactive technologies used by the defence sector, looking at both possible and proven strategies.

• Discover some of the most innovative and cost effective solutions for training using gaming and interactive technologies within defence.
• Experience how Flash 3D can be used for delivering accessible and trackable training on the defence learning portal (DLP).
• See how an Open Source Virtual World can be used for locational awareness training and how it may be used in future training developments.
• Learn and share ideas on simulations and gaming technology for training new recruits and refreshing old hands.
• Engage with a large variety of solutions in the defence sector.

Games Explored:

Virtual DCTS

Using Flash as the delivery media there is no need for any client side downloads with the user accessing the game through a browser; this is an exciting development for the MoD as it proves engaging 3D training content can be delivered to a wide audience without the restrictions when operating within a Defence IT infrastructure.

Image from Virtual DCTS by Playgen

Cultural Awareness – Afghanistan

Cultural Awareness is an Interactive trainer that teachs soldiers the cultural differences when on operation in Afghanistan.

Image from Cultural Awareness – Afghanistan by Playgen

Battlefield Awareness

Battlefield Awareness is a military simulation that tests responses in a high-risk situation and enables players to learn from mistakes.

Image from Battlefield Awareness by Playgen

The Sift

Built  to teach about the “sifting” process when conducting job interviews and candidate selection.

Image from The Sift by Playgen

OSVW

Incorporating features found in the massively multiplayer World of Warcraft, we added the capabilities for defining and incorporating a single or multi-user quest based system for training objectives.

Image from OSVW by Playgen

2:30 pm : Commissioning Serious Games and Game Based Learning

The aims of the sessions

• Key factors on briefing, developing, testing, deploying and evaluating serious games and simulations.
• A variety of real-life case studies which provides practical insight in delivering a successful product.
• Provide a comprehensive overview from the initial idea to raising funds, understanding gaming mechanics in context of learning and engagement, selecting and negotiating with developers, producing specifications, understanding the users needs and choosing the right technologies and methods for reaching the target audience.
• Showcase a large number of serious games and simulations in a wide variety of sectors.

The areas which will be explored

We will focus on good practices on the entire life cycle of a product, from start of the idea to the delivery of the product and onto support and further development, our session will include :

Setting up game development

You’ve got an idea for a serious game, simulation or interactive; from making the business case to getting the right people on the case, we look at :

• Making the business case – why should we do it?
• Funding – who will pay for it?
• Choosing developers – what should you be looking for?
• Tools – what is out the that I may be able to use

Determining project goals

Serious games and simulations address specific issues or promote specific causes. Using a design led approach can identify the clients’ or users’ needs, set goals and answer those needs, and develop scoring and testing mechanisms to give both the user and client appropriate feedback.

• Creating the project timeline – what to do by when.
• Managing risks – what can go wrong and how to protect against it.
• Instructional design and what we want to the player to learn
• Business development and getting the all important meetings scheduled and carried out
• Production fees and payments
• Subject matter experts (SME’s) – the most important ingredient

Game design – the creative elements

Engaging an audience means getting them thinking, reacting and actively involved. It transforms their understanding and learning experience. Every one learns about the world around them as children through play. When done right, playing with games and simulations provides some of the most powerful tools around for engaging an audience of any age.

We look at the creative side from concept to a simulation; Designing and translating your idea into effective game play and game mechanics.

• Determining the variables for the Simulation
• Developing the concept document
• Prototypes (testing game play)

Game design – the technical

Choosing the correct delivery platform that fulfils client and user needs is paramount. As is the technical design document that informs the technical team of what they need to build.

• What are the game or simulations variables and how do they interact
• Which game mechanics will meet which objectives
• Whilst on the topic of gaming mechanics, what are they
• Adding ‘fun’ into the mix

Design Specification

• Delivery platforms (pros and cons) eg. mobile devices, online, offline, virtual world
• Design document -  (game/simulation overview, project scope and milestones, scenario and narrative, levels, scoring and evaluation, tutoring and remediation system, game mechanics, technology and tools, system design, interface commands, environments and levels, characters, assets and animations, audio, lighting, user data collection, testing and QA, marketing and distribution.)
• The marketing plan

Production and authoring

We’ll examine  production; how programmers and game and simulation designers produce core game play and how artists create user interfaces, characters and the scenery. Finally how by a miracle of development stable builds of the application are made.

• Graphics development, characters, objects, environments
• Media production, audio, cut scenes, training material
• The development pipeline (concept to alpha)
• Alpha and beta testing

The Finishing line

Once a release has been produced the serious game or simulation needs packaging (either psychical or digital), distribution and marketing. We’ll also discuss user assessment methodology so we can begin to evaluate the success of the application (whether in terms of improved performance by the game player, an increase in market share, or other metrics)

• Packing, distribution, and marketing – how to get the world to write about what you’ve done
• Assessment – How to assess
• Return on investment – How to measure how well you made your or your client’s money back?
• User support and evaluation – The long term view

How to get to the Serious Games Conference

Taking place at Playgen London – Google Map Link

Closest Tubes are Old Street (take exit 2, 7 minutes) and Liverpool Street (15min)

PlayGen develop and promote the use of immersive simulations, serious games and virtual worlds for learning, training, assessment, to inspire, to engage, to measure and to change behaviour.

Event Details:

The Serious Games Online Jam provides an online collaborative space for anyone interested in Serious Games to discuss, debate and vote on different topics of Serious Games. Participants will have the opportunity to post discussions, contribute to discussions, learn about the current movements and growth areas, and make connections with other participants.

The Serious Games Jam runs every quarter and each participant receives a summarised analysis of the discussions and will be notified of other Jam sessions throughout 2009.

What is Jamming?

‘A jam session is a musical act where musicians gather and play (or “jam”) without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements’.

Translating to the digital realm, Jamming is giving you the open area to contribute to a wide discussion, debate and ideas session. No comment is too outlandish, no question too stupid.

The SG Jam epitomises the freedom of the internet to contribute to a global industry from anywhere in the world via our forums, message boards and shoutboxes.

How Does it Work?

Forums and message boards

Posting ideas, commenting on other people’s inputs and thoughts is the essence of the Jam. The forums will be divided into different topics that will be announced prior to the Jam.

It’s simple to input onto the message boards and forum! Simply select a topic and begin inputting! Or even create your own topics. The only restriction is that you have to be a register user before beginning posting. If you haven’t already registered please follow this link.

Shoutbox

Just grabbing a quick five minutes? Got something to get off your chest? Use the Shoutbox.
A quick, easy way to participate in the Jam, just type your text into the shoutbox and…..shout! Guaranteed that someone will listen!

Karma

The more you participate in the jam, the more input you make, the more your Karma increases. Karma works differently that a normal star rating system. Instead of ‘grading’ users, we decided to make rating a little bit more interesting.

If you like the post or the reply, just give a ‘thumbs up’, otherwise give nothing or even worse ‘smite’ the author. As an anti-spam measure you can only give Karma to one user every six hours, so use it carefully.

Who is it for

We are gathering together, who we believe to be, some of the most innovative and forward thinking people from across the globe. These people range from Serious Games developers and users, to those considering Serious Games as the next innovative way to train their people with everyone having the chance to contribute.

The Serious Games Jam will run for five days, that’s 120 hours of pure constant online Jamming, making this online jam the most exciting contribution to discussions around Serious Games. It will also give you the chance to connect with other people to gain insight and knowledge around current topics and post any questions you have about Serious Games

At the end of the Jam session, information will be gathered, analysed and used to help steer developments through 2009. It will also add focus to the Hands On events allowing us to ensure we hit the most current areas of Serious Games.

The Serious Games Jam is for companies, large and small, individuals, researchers and developers that want to communicate in a new and thought provoking way. It is for those who want to make valuable contributions to the area of Serious Games and help turn those ideas into actions.

Why participate

Participants in the Jam will benefit from:

• Interacting with thought leaders and experts from around the globe who share their commitment to make valuable contributions to Serious Games.
• Learning about new opportunities, best practices and growth areas for Serious Games.
• Sharing ideas about key issues faced within Serious Games and ways to overcome obstacles.
• Helping shape ideas into actions to create successful and effective Serious Games solutions.

Event Details:

HandsOn Games and Interactive Digital for Social Change is focused on bringing together best of practice developments, developers, innovators, and commissioners creating digital means to highlight important issues and aid social change.

Join us for an afternoon of demos, peer meeting, discussion and hands on experiences with a wide range of developers and users of games and interactives for social change. The aims of the day are to:

• Experience and experiment with games and interactive digital creations developed for social change and to highlight important issues.
• Learn and share ideas and designs from practitioners’ experience of creating and disseminating games for social change – focus on the opportunities to play with the end results.
• Build a collective view of the state of the field – do we have agreed parameters, how are we learning and adapting to the changing landscape of digital training?
• Debate important drivers shaping this field – new technologies, an increasingly growing sector, changing appetites among service users and innovators.
• Identify the priorities for further events, strengthen your networks and negotiate the collaborations that will help the field shift gear. The workshop is participatory.

Demo machines are on hand to engage with the projects.

Show and tell will be relaxed and speakers will provide impetus, but you will have ample opportunity to pursue your goals.

Games and Interactives on show:

DeadEnds by RollingSounds (about issues around knife crime in the UK)

http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/D/disarming_britain/deadends.html

FloodSim by PlayGen (about issues around flooding in the UK)

http://www.floodsim.com

Climate Challange by Red Redemption (about issues around climate change)

http://red-redemption.com

GameLab -

http://www.gamelablondon.com/

Resist and Other development by Germination http://germination.co.uk/ (discussion from the point of view of producers commissioning a number of mechanisms for social change)

We will also cover the following games:

• Global Conflict – Palestine
• Ayiti – The Cost of Life
• Airport Security Game
• 3rd World Farmer
• Food Force
• Pictures for Truth
• Darfur is Dying
• Global Conflict – Latin America
• PeaceMaker
• McDonald’s Video Game
• and more…

Review of the event

The first serious games and virtual worlds technologies event for developers by developers, was held in London on 29th July 2008.

Organisers, PlayGen, who are firmly footed in the Serious Games space, hosted the event at their office location in Shoreditch, one of London’s most popular areas for Digital Media.

“The HandsOn conference is an opportunity for developers and innovators to get together in a relaxed environment without any hard selling” Kam Star of PlayGen and organiser of HandsOn.

“Usually people would pay to be here or buying would be free, but this is not what HandsOn is for. We believe that innovation only happens when you bring people together in a relaxed atmosphere and where they can mingle together, the key thing here is to create partnerships – get to know each other without the added pressure to sell or buy”.

Kam Star, Playgen	HandsOn Session

The plan for the event was a series of presentations from a variety of companies working in serious games and virtual worlds, followed by an opportunity to have a ‘hands on’ session with various games and technologies, and the event closed with an opportunity for discussion.

The HandsOn conference included speakers who were technology developers, technology innovators and entrepreneurs including Kam Star from PlayGen, Matt Seeney from TPLD Ltd, Dan Licari from West Midlands Serious Games, Gary Bracey from DigiMask, Ian Wilson from Emotion Ai, Dave Taylor from Imperial College and Rohan Freeman from SineWave Company Opensim.

“HandsOn is a community effort to bring the best of British Innovators in the digital sphere together, it’s a platform to come with your technology and be able to showcase it, get feedback and build the relationships that can take the work to the next level.” said Kam

The event started with a presentation from Kam on PlayGen’s latest safety awareness serious game for use in defence. Also included was, NanoMission.org a series of games designed to get youngsters interested in Science. FloodSim, which puts the player in charge of all UK government policy and decisions on flooding, developed to engage and educate the public on the vast variety of issues surrounding the topic.

Next up was Matt Seeney of TPLD Ltd, Matt showed us a number of boxed up products to increase team building, leadership training and also a number of school products. Matt also showcased InfiniTeams, which is designed to be used for corporate teambuilding, leadership, strategy and problem solving, recruitment and other forms of corporate training. InfiniTeams is the core product which can have a variety of training content wrapped around it.

We asked Matt where he sees Serious Games in two years time? “Used everywhere. Especially within the corporate industry, Serious Games can be particularly more useful for virtual teams. We are finding more business for team building, three major corporate companies have approached us in the last few months, and we are now beginning to see more of a demand for serious games in this type of environment”.

Followed by presentations by Gary Bracey from DigiMask showing how easy it is to develop 3d avatars of real people using one or two images, which could include for example, team members, leadership executives or famous role models, into serious games to add a more personal touch and better engagement for users.

Ian Wilson from Emotion Ai showcased their platform technology which uses emotional communication from the avatar being sad, happy or stressed.

Dave Taylor from Imperial College presented the latest updates on Second Life and how this is enhancing communication between facilities across countries, and finally Graham Freeman of Opensim who is the biggest retailer within Second Life …

TPLD	DigiMask	Emotion AI

The day ended with a round the table discussion followed by a drink or three within the local Shoreditch area.

We would like to thank PlayGen for organising the insightful event and West Midlands Serious About Games for providing lunch.