Group items tagged

Certificate program "aimed at professionals with a degree in computer science, information technology, or art who seek entre into the growing digital games industry."

Of the innovative science and technology school programs (with and without external funding,) the last mentioned here is an after school program Intro to Computer Programming and Intro to Video Game Design, sponsored by DeVry University, at the Tutorspree school in New York

An announcement from Convergence Technologies about a Kickstarter crowdfunding for "The Bridge, an all-in-one wireless keyboard, mouse and universal remote for computers, Smart TVs and home entertainment systems." Described as combining a smart phone keyboard with common video game controller.

Discusses companies hiring artists for game design and development, lengths which artists go to achieve realism, and traditional art colleges and programs adding video game courses and majors.

Focus on MassDiGi's efforts to bring together game companies and aspiring students, a panel from the MIT Enterprise Forum will be held on December 1 and feature Becker's Timothy Loew among others.

Open for submissions through March 12, 2012

From the abstract:"Based on game qualities like simplification and coherence, my approach aims at designing aesthetically holistic games. Other aesthetic qualities that are treated in relation to the design process include representation, embodiment, presence, immersion, flow, fun, pliability and pace. The approach is argued to have strengths in the sense that it does not conform to pre-established genres, is more player oriented, can create coherent experiences and aid innovation. The backdraws are that it is not effective and does not guarantee that the outcome is neither pleasurable nor playable."

Abstract: "With the advent of the increasingly participatory Internet and the growing power of the crowd, "Serious Games" have proven to be a fertile approach for gathering task-specific natural language data at very low cost. In this paper we outline a game we call Doodling, based on the sketch-andconvey metaphor used in the popular board game Pictionary ®2, with the goal of generating useful natural language data. We explore whether such a paradigm can be successfully extended for conveying more complex syntactic and semantic constructs than the words or short phrases typically used in the board game. Through a series of user experiments, we show that this is indeed the case, and that valuable parallel language data may be produced as a byproduct. In addition, we explore extensions to this paradigm along two axes - going online (vs. face-to-face) and going crosslingual. The results in each of the sets of experiments confirm the potential of Doodling game to generate data in large quantities and across languages, and thus provide a new means of developing data sets and technologies for resource- poor languages."

Mass DiGi summer program including eighteen students from nine colleges

"Organized by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, GDC 2013 is the game industry's most comprehensive and longest running professionals-only event where game developers converge for a week of learning, networking and inspiration. GDC 2013 will take place March 25 - 29 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. Session proposals can be submitted via the official GDC website at www.gdconf.com. PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1ifpS) "

Abstract: "Citizen science is a form of social computation where members of the public are recruited to contribute to scientific investigations. Citizen-science projects often use web-based systems to support collaborative scientific activities, making them a form of computer-supported cooperative work. However, finding ways to attract participants and confirm the veracity of the data they produce are key issues in making such systems successful. We describe a series of web-based tools and games currently under development to support taxonomic classification of organisms in photographs collected by citizen-science projects. In the design science tradition, the systems are purpose-built to test hypotheses about participant motivation and techniques for ensuring data quality. Findings from preliminary evaluation and the design process itself are discussed."

Abstract : "This paper explores how supernormal stimuli may have contributed to the remarkable popularity of several types of video games: first-person shooters (FPSs), massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and Minecraft. Human culture, technology, and environments have advanced so rapidly in the last 10,000 years that the brains of Homo sapiens have not been able to keep up. Humans survive in the modern world, but still retain a mind stuck in the Pleistocene. Supercharged representations of ancient stimuli, which appealed to prehistoric human ancestors in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA), appear in many video games and may be hyper-stimulating humans' adaptive instincts. These supernormal stimuli appear to correlate with the remarkably engaging, pleasurable, and satisfying experiences human players derive from playing these games. This paper goes on to propose that greater recognition of the potential of supernormal stimuli, and experimentation with the creation of virtual worlds stand to improve not only digital games, but the way in which humans live, work, and play in the real world."

"Given the accessibility of games, Fiellin and other Yale researchers see them as an ideal way to teach kids the skills they need to prevent HIV infection. The project is being funded by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program at Yale."

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) disrupts the central and executive mechanisms of arm(s) and postural (trunk and legs) coordination. To address these issues, we developed a 3D immersive videogame-- Octopus. The game was developed using the basic principles of videogame design and previous experience of using videogames for rehabilitation of patients with acquired brain injuries.

A discussion of frustrations with not being able to make the next level and see other parts of the game, with examples

"we theorize the unique storytelling potential of mobile games while describing our experience attempting to harness that potential through the design and implementation of our hybrid-reality game University of Death."

"Rather than being vilified, video games should be recognised as an art form appreciated for the way they tugged at our emotions and stimulated creativity, Prebble said"A playwright emphasizes skills exercised in video game play.

An emerging game company in the Western MA area focusing on social games

A course blog from Georgia Tech