Representatives from the recent Serious Games Showcase & Challenge have announced a call for submissions for the second annual competition, which aims to identify innovative game-based solutions to training problems that could affect personnel and systems today and in the future.
Finalists in the Serious Game Showcase & Challenge will be selected by a panel of leaders in the gaming, industry and academic fields, and will be invited to showcase their serious game at I/ITSEC 2007. The inaugural competition was held in December during the 2006 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), and selected finalists displayed and demonstrated their serious games during the event.
Official note that abstracts must be submitted between February 15 and May 31, while the deadline for submitting a serious game for consideration is August 31. The finalists will be announced on September 30, with the I/ITSEC Conference itself taking place from November 26-29.
Winners of the
recent competition included WILL Interactive's
Gator Six, Battery Command Virtual Experience as the winner of the award for “Best Serious Game”. In addition, the event's “People's Choice Award” resulted in a tie, with the honors being given to both Research Network Incorporated's
Game DIS and eSim Games'
Steel Beasts Professional.
The Challenge is open to a wide range of contestants, with potential categories including student, individual / small business, and businesses larger than 500 employees. PC game entries (or compiled for PC execution) will be accepted from across a wide array of applications, including "mods" for existing games, as well as mobile, virtual worlds and original development and gaming content focused on any genre, such as business, education, government.
According to event officials, entries will be considered a game if they involve an assigned challenge and employ some form of positive and/or negative reward system. Entries will be considered a serious game if they use they employ pre-defined gaming attributes in order to overcome a designated problem or deficiency, and provide appropriate feedback to the user about their efforts. In addition, submitted games must target users at the high school level, at a minimum.
More information about the second annual Serious Games Showcase & Challenge can be found on the competition's
official website.
