This is the blog of Games and Learning Alliance (GaLA), Network of Excellence for Serious Games, a project " 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.
The other key focuses of the project are: the support to deployment in the actual educational and training settings; the fostering of innovation and knowledge transfer through research-business dialogue; the development high-quality didactics on SG by promoting and supporting courses at Master and PhD level."
A blog by a recent game design graduate features posts about "presence in games," creating levels and other ideas and commentary, also potentially serving as the author's portfolio.
"The appearance of collaboration tools such as blogs, wikis, social media, and video games has altered the way individuals and organizations relate to one another.[i] There is no longer any need to wait on professionals to share material and report on new developments. Today, people communicate directly in an unmediated and unfiltered manner."
"HTML5 is the new shiny thing, and there's a lot of evangelism going on about it. The improvement process is rapid (too much so? that's another blog post), and browser vendors are trying to get the game makers in bed with them, some with means of money, some with fame."
"Editor's note: Ann DeMarle is director of the Emergent Media Center and associate professor of communication and creative media at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. "(CNN) Talking about Champlain's game development degree programs.
Abstract: "Mobile games - in particular, games played on smartphones and tablet computers - are becoming increasingly
popular. Yet, there has been little research into whether players can experience immersion while playing mobile games.
As the potential for immersive mobile games would be of interest to game developers, researchers and players, it is
proposed to measure mobile immersion by comparing Osmos, a multi-platform ambient video game, on three differentsized
devices - a smart phone, a tablet and a desktop computer."
"Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced the final winners of this year's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract awards-funds that are reserved for entrepreneurial small businesses using cutting-edge R&D to develop commercially viable technologies to solve tough problems. And there's something that may surprise you about the winning contracts: More than half-or 12 in all-are for games and game-related projects, more than in any previous year. That says a lot about the increasingly creative field of educational games, and the growing base of evidence indicating that games can be an important and effective component of our strategy to prepare a highly skilled 21st century American workforce."
The author reports data from a 2012 study on the diversity characteristics of students in game programs in the United States and future workforce implications.
"Five word summary: Nazis in Hell fighting demons. Five more words: It's pure Javascript and HTML5. Today's the day I finally decided to release Subbania to the public."
"Sam Anderson, critic at large for The Times Magazine, wrote this week's cover story on stupid digital games. He has most recently written for the magazine on Haruki Murakami and on the theme park called Dickens World. Some readers seemed irate that you described these games as "stupid.""