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Abstract: "Player coordination is a key element in many multi-player real-time digital games and cooperative real-time multi-player modes are now common in many digital-game genres. Coordination is an important part of the design of these games for several reasons: coordination can change the game balance and the level of difficulty as different types and degrees of coordination can make the game easier or more difficult; coordination is an important part of 'playing like a team' which affects the quality of play; and coordination as a shared activity is a key to sociality that can add to the sociability of the game. Being able to exercise control over the design of these coordination requirements is an important part of developing successful games. However, it is currently difficult to understand, describe, analyze or design coordination requirements in game situations, because current frameworks and theories do not mesh with the realities of video game design. I developed a new framework (called PLATO) that can help game designers to understand, describe, design and manipulate coordination episodes. The framework deals with five atomic aspects of coordinated activity: Players, Locations, Actions, Time, and Objects. PLATO provides a vocabulary, methodology and diagram notation for describing and analyzing coordination. I demonstrate the framework's utility by describing coordination situations from existing games, and by showing how PLATO can be used to understand and redesign coordination requirements."

"The game enjoyment threshold model was used to evaluate player feedback in the feasibility study of a serious game, Wellness Partners. This game was purposefully developed as a web-based application that combines digital gaming and social networking to promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. The game design team led by the second author consisted of current students and alumni at the Interactive Media Division at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California. The primary participants were middle-aged university staff (egos) and they were asked to invite at least one family member or friend to enroll in the game as their wellness partners (alters). Players can accumulate points by sending status updates about their physical activities or setbacks. They can redeem their points to collect virtual objects or play animations of a virtual character related to healthy activities. A tag cloud is generated based the frequency of physical activities reported by members in a playgroup."

Abstract: "We present a case study in the design of an educational video game about collecting, curating, and museum operations. A five-step cyclic design thinking framework was used by the studio during the design and development of the game, and the team was simultaneously the subject of a rigorous and detailed ethnographic study. Three stages of the game's design evolution are presented through the lens of the design thinking framework. The team's practice-based research is tri- angulated with our empirical data to produce four key findings: (a) that empathy for learning context is critical in aligning designs with learning objectives; (b) that meeting with stakeholders spurs empathy-building; (c) that there is a tension between horizontal and vertical slicing that is revealed by design thinking processes; and (d) that iterative design processes challenge conventions of higher education."

abstract: "Demon Dissension provides a strategic twist on the traditional fighting game experience to players and showcases co mplex game logic, networking, and fighting game design principles. Built entirely in the Unity engine and programmed in C#, Demon Dissension pits two players against one another in a battle for glory, challenging them to not only fight against the charact er in game, but the strategies being employed by the actual opponent . A team of two artists and two programmers took four terms to create a deep multiplayer battle experience." Becker student Breeze Grigas participated in this project.

Abstract: "Reality-based interfaces bring new design opportunities to social games. These novel game interfaces, exemplified by Wii, Kinect, and Smart phones, leverage players' existing physics, bodily, environmental, and social skills. Moreover, they enable a shared hybrid physical-digital space in which the players' co-presence can be enhanced by their physical and digital co-location. However, many digital social games occupy players' attention with the digital display and content, reducing their attention spent on one another and limiting the synchronization of actions and emotions among players. How do we design technologies that do not interfere with social play but enhance and innovate it? In this thesis work, I focus on one particular kind of reality-based interfaces, Handheld Augmented Reality (HAR), to extend players' interaction from the small mobile devices to the shared hybrid space around a computationally trackable surface. This thesis explores how to encourage social play with HAR interfaces, which brings in challenges of designing with the affordances and constraints of the HAR interface, understanding the complicated phenomenon of social play, and integrating these understandings in multiplayer HAR game design. Adopting Research-through Design as the overarching research method, I collaborate with multiple teams, design and study three multiplayer HAR game prototypes. I present four main contributions. First, this work yields design artifacts and examples of social games with HAR interfaces. I communicate to the game design and Augmented Reality communities through these prototypes, including BragFish, ARt of Defense, and NerdHerder. Second, I provide empirical findings on social play in a shared hybrid space. Through lab-based user studies, observation, video analysis, interviews, and surveys, I collect and analyze interpersonal play behaviors and emotions in the shared hybrid space enabled by the HAR interface. Third, I adopt and adapt sociologic

"The Becker College Department of Design announced the winning teams in the seventh bi-annual 24-Hour Game Jam, held from 5:00 p.m. on October 19 to 5:00 p.m. on October 20. The submissions were judged by a panel of Becker College faculty, advisors, and student representation, basing their ratings on each team's ability to represent the theme/object they received, the creativity of the game design, the quality of gameplay, overall appearance, and the fun factor."

Reflection on game design and teamwork process

Abstract: "Commissioned by the campus Office of Admissions, we have built a series of three campus tour and orientation games over the past academic year with undergraduate student project teams. Based on well-established game industry practices we followed an iterative agile process with Scrum and managed to avoid many classical pitfalls in game development. While we achieved some measure of success, in post-project analysis, it becomes obvious that our process would have benefited from the heavy emphasis of "users" in the User-Centered Design (UCD) methods. In this position paper, we propose that the serious game development community continue to critically analyze the results from the UCD projects to benefit from its lessons, well-understood good practices, and development paradigms."

NASA Announces Student Winners in Space Game Design Challenge BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. -- Three school student teams in the fifth through eighth grades have been selected as the winners of NASA's second annual Spaced Out Sports challenge. The students designed science-based games that will be played by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Mobile health games developed by teams at University of Pennsylvania nursing school

"A WOMAN from Aylesbury has won a top competition to design a video game for the iPhone. Catherine Forsyth's team won the first ever UK competition to set up, make and design their own computer games, held at the Gadget Show Live at Birmingham's NEC."

"This is a story of four university faculty, two men and two women, and the research team they formed based on an NSF grant opportunity. There is also a cadre of university students that are learning real-world lessons on group roles in a research endeavor."

form the introduction: "we will discuss the cultural role of mixed reality gaming, and introduce some findings from an experimental game design project carried out by our research team. The chapter aims to bring together theories of play and practices of game design, and to make the nature of digital play more concrete while also discussing future opportunities. The focus of discussion will be on the construction of playful reality through experiences derived from experimental, hybrid reality game design."

Abstract: "The video game industry is a billion dollar industry with an ever-growing fan base. Massachusetts, along with other states, has begun to take an interest in further developing this dynamic industry. A problem facing many policy makers and economic developers is accurately defining the video game industry, determining the types of workers that form of human capital within its workforce and where these businesses are located. This study helps to solve this problem by converting video game credits, found in all video games, into Standard Occupational Codes to identify the types of workers who comprise the industry and by conducting spatial analysis using Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS). It also uses the Occupational Information Network to evaluate what forms of human capital comprises the video game industry. The results show the video game workforce comprises both creative workers such as artists and musicians, but also computer programmers, engineers, and business management and marketing professionals. This workforce tends to be concentrated not only in larger U.S. metropolitan areas but also in regions with a significant high-technology workforce, college towns, and government laboratories. Also, as this diverse workforce contains a wide variety of skills and abilities, a common theme is being able to work together as a team to develop a product. This study is part of a growing body of research and initiatives to identify and to locate new, creative industries within metropolitan regions. This research will contribute to future research using occupational analysis to identify new and growing industries."

Interdisciplinary team at University of Albany, supported by Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), in partnership with a local game company

Electronic Arts Inc. and NCAA Football announced that Richard Mancuso and Clint Oldenburg will join the EA Sports NCAA Football development team as a part of the inaugural EA Sports NCAA Football fellowship, a sixteen-week full-time, paid opportunity for former football student-athletes to apply their skills and knowledge of the sport to the development of the NCAA Football videogame.

Teams of independent game developers given space and technology to pursue products in San Francisco

From Iowa State University students, Metalblast : "The game takes place in the year 2052. Plants are dying, and there is a developing ecological crisis. At the same time, an expert team of plant scientists has disappeared. The player, represented by a novice undergraduate student in the research lab, must shrink to microscopic size, enter the plant cell, rescue the lost scientists, discover what is killing the plants, and save the world - all in the game's virtual, 3-D environment. Along the way, players must solve problems and answer questions about the cell and metabolic biology. "

"Move over Kickstarter. Gambitious is launching a crowdfunding platform to allow game developers to raise money from fans to create ambitious indie games. The Amsterdam-based Gambitious team includes the founders of Gathering of Developers, the head of Mastertronic, and a Dutch equity-based crowdfunding platform."

"The design and development of commercial AAA videogames is a difficult and complex endeavor. It involves large development teams that together aim to create high quality, entertaining games that sell well. Up to now, very few scholars have documented or problematized this practice."