Top 5 SGS GDC 2007 Sessions:

1. Scot Osterweil, The Road From Zoombiniville
2. David Williamson Shaffer, Big Game, Little Game
3. Dave Gilbert, The Shivah
4. Santiago Siri, A Practical View on Interactive Storytelling: Drama Games
5. Ian Bogost, Persuasive Games: Introduction to Procedural Rhetoric

The Serious Games Summit GDC spotlights the rapidly growing serious games industry that features the use of interactive games technology within non-entertainment sectors.

Taking place Monday, March 5 and Tuesday, March 6 at the Moscone Convention Center North in San Francisco during GDC 2007, the Summit provides a forum for game developers and industry professionals to examine the future course of serious games development in areas such as education, government, health, military, science, corporate training, first responders, and social change.

If you are currently developing interactive, non-entertainment applications in the serious games space, the Serious Games Summit is a must-attend event.

At the Serious Games Summit GDC you will you gain access to:

• Developer training and education specific to serious game development
• Advanced seminars on design, production, implementation, and assessment issues related to the use of serious games
• Case studies pertaining to game-based solutions and simulations used within education, healthcare and training
• Results on cost-effective development and regulations for serious games
• Expert roundtables on the future roles of serious game development
• Networking opportunities at the Serious Games Summit reception
• 40+ sessions, lectures, panel and roundtable discussions

To register for Serious Games Summit GDC, you will need to purchase a VIP, Giga, or Serious Games Summit Pass.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL SGS GDC SESSIONS AND TRACKS

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MONDAY KEYNOTE:

"Serious Games Squared"
Ichiro Otobe
Chief Strategist, Square Enix

Monday, March 5
9AM - 10AM

What happens when serious games get backed and powered by a leading game company and what can we learn from it? In March 2006 Square Enix, one of the largest developers and publishers of interactive entertainment including the Final Fantasy®, Dragon Quest® and Kingdom Hearts series of games, announced it was forming SG Lab – a serious games oriented joint venture with Gakken, a major textbook publisher in Japan.

This announcement marked a specific point in the growth of the serious games field as it was entered directly into by one of the most respected game developers in the industry. Little to date has been released about the effort beyond its initial announcement and the venture's corporate website.

Click here to read the complete session description.

 

TUESDAY MORNING KEYNOTE:

"One Laptop Per Child and
Serious Games"
SJ Klein
Director of Content, One Laptop Per Child

Tuesday, March 6
9AM - 10AM

This presentation will discuss the potential of the OLPC as a serious gaming platform. It will address the hardware, OS, and game development support on the first wave of laptops that will debut later this year, and address strategies for learning through play that the OLPC team is formulating.

Click here to read the complete session description.

 

research & design KEYNOTE:

"The Future of Collective Play: Fostering Collaboration, Network Literacy, and Massively Multiplayer Problem-Solving through Alternate Reality Games"
Jane McGonigal
Lead Designer, 42 Entertainment

Tuesday, March 6
11:45AM - 12:45PM

In this important keynote, Jane will detail the world of alternate reality gaming, wrapping it in a serious games context. She will use 42 Entertainment's I Love Bees, the most widely played alternate reality game to date, as a core case study in the serious applications of alternate reality gaming. She will also examine other important examples of emerging work in the ARG space, including Cruel 2 B Kind and Cathy's Book.

Click here to read the complete session description.

SGS GDC - Current Session Picks
SGS: Game Design Next-Gen Conversational Characters for Serious Games	Michael Mateas, Faculty Member, UC Santa Cruz Andrew Stern, Designer and Engineer, Procedural Arts LLC
SGS: Learning & Instructional Theory Persuasive Games: Introduction to Procedural Rhetoric	Ian Bogost, Founding Partner, Persuasive Games
SGS: Assessment & Results Testing Assumptions: Creative Approaches to Gathering Evidence of Serious Game Impacts	Carrie Heeter, Professor, Michigan State University Brian Winn, Professor of Game Design, Michigan State University Richard Van Eck, Associate Professor, University of North Dakota Caitlin Kelleher, Ph.D. Candidate, Carnegie Mellon David William Shaffer, Associate Professor of Learning Science, University of Wisconsin

2007 HIGHLIGHTS

The goal of this year's SGS GDC is to create a mixture of tutorials, case studies, and interactive group workshops that will help to shape the agenda for the serious games field, widen our appreciation of what games and game technologies can accomplish, and to send all attendees home with a better understanding of how to create successful serious games projects.

WORKSHOPS & TUTORIALS

• Serious Games Next-Gen: A look at what you can do with next-gen hardware and current top portable systems beyond entertainment. The possibilities are more than you know!
• Lightweight MMOs: A tutorial focusing on providing you information on the many ways to develop MMO games and related serious game projects without having to assemble a massive budget or development team.
• Serious Games for Less:  A two-hour workshop focusing on tactics for serious game projects that cost $100K or less; learn and share best practices for low-end serious game development.
• What We Want from Industry: This interactive workshop creates a top 10 list of requests from the commercial entertainment industry that can help lead to further cooperation and progress in non-entertainment markets.
• Beyond the Game:  A workshop panel looks at the fundamentals of what a good serious game project has to do besides building a game.

ADVERGAMING TRACK
The advergaming track explores both the business case and the cognitive case relevant to the role games, game culture, and game developers can play in how we market goods and services now and in the future.

SERIOUS GAMES CASE STUDY BLASTS
This format makes it possible for participants to share with the audience a diverse field of projects and offer some useful thinking into the variety of ways games are being applied into new sectors.

GROUP MEET-UPS
These metings are held during breakfast and lunch to elicit discussions among key serious game industries including: education, health, social issue games, defense, and more.

Join serious game developers from around the globe for food, drinks, and business connections directly following day one of the SGS GDC conference.

SGS GDC Reception is Sponsored by: