GameHUB Event, 25 oktober 2011, C-Mine Genk
The play&game research group is one of the partners in the GameHUB project.
During the GameHUB event several keynote speakers will talk about the actual situation of the existing game companies in Flanders and The Netherlands and share their experiences and visions on this evolving market. Workshops organized in the afternoon will illustrate the knowledge gathered in the GameHUB project and give the participants a first hands-on introduction to specific topics of the game development process.
Infographic: Video Games and Education
Game Summit, 30 september 2011
Op vrijdag 30 september 2011 organiseert MEDIA Desk Vlaanderen, in samenwerking met enkele partners, voor de tweede keer de Games Summit. In 2008 gaven we een publiek van 150 Europese game developers, beleidsmakers en andere betrokken partijen een overzicht van wat games kunnen zijn –zowel hun maatschappelijke, culturele, economische als creatieve waarde.
Ondertussen, slechts drie jaar later, is veel veranderd. Games en de gamesindustrie zijn verder gegaan op verschillende vlakken. Zo is er meer verbondenheid onder spelers, al zijn ze duizenden kilometers van elkaar; de opkomst van handheld devices beïnvloedt het gedrag van de gamer en de mogelijkheden van de developer; business models in de gamesindustrie veranderen. De evoluties sinds 2008 indachtig, tonen we op deze nieuwe editie van de Games Summit wat games en de gamesindustrie anno 2011 betekenen.
Daarnaast stellen we ook de vraag naar beleid. In Vlaanderen is er heel wat talent aanwezig op gebied van game development. Dat wil echter niet zeggen dat er voldoende draagvlak is. Wat kan het beleid doen om een industrie te vormen, structureren en onderhouden? In de Noordelijke landen is alvast een industrie ontstaan, waarin de overheid een belangrijke rol speelt. Een ontmoeting met de Nordic countries (Denemarken, Finland, Zweden, Noorwegen, IJsland) en hun beleidsmakers is dan ook een van de aandachtspunten van de Games Summit.
In de prachtige Studio van Villanella in Antwerpen komen op 30 september enkele internationale sprekers samen die de state of the art van games en de gamesindustrie toelichten, is er ook aandacht voor de uitdagingen binnen het (Vlaamse) beleid, worden de projecten van het Business and Development Lab gepitcht en stellen we werk van eigen bodem tentoon. Op 1 en 2 oktober kan het grote publiek de spellen, creaties en demo’s zelf ontdekken tijdens de eerste Gamezone in De Studio.
Houd www.mediadesk-vlaanderen.eu en www.gamessummit.eu de komende tijd dus in de gaten. Daarop zullen we het programma publiceren en de inschrijvingen openen.
De Games Summit gebeurt in samenwerking met MEDIA Desk Denemarken/Duitsland en:
Report of the Play (2010) module
Some of the researchers of the Play&Game research group also teach at the MAD-faculty. Here is a report of what CMD (Computer Media Design) master students created in the module ”Play”, guided by Thomas Laureyssens and Steven Malliet.
The goal of the course was to create play-interfaces suitable for public space that improve communication between the workers of the textile sorting centre TexOkazi in Hasselt, Belgium. The majority of the workers are immigrants who don’t fluently speak Dutch, the common language on the work floor. These laborers come from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and often stick in small group with their kin. Since the recycling centre also serves for social integration, one of the goals is to get the workers ready for the regular labor circuit where good communication skills in Dutch are a necessity. Thomas Geusens from StreetWize, a training & development organization partnering with MobileSchool, proposed the partnership with TexOkazi to us.
The course lasted 9 full days spread over a duration of 11 weeks in which we let the students experience user-centered design through rapid iterations of prototype building and successive play-testing.
On Week 3 of the course, the students observed the factory floor and had focus-group sessions in which they got feedback on their first ideas. These sketches had the form of paper prototypes in which the interaction could be simulated. The students had both feedbacks from groups of 4 workers, as well as feedback from both the staff of TexOkazi, StreetWize and the teachers. On Week 6 the students play-tested their first interactive prototypes, closely followed by more such sessions on Week 8. Final presentations were on Week 11 on the factory floor. The many contact moments proved very efficient as well as motivating for the students, who where highly motivated to create the best prototypes possible for their target-group.
The students were divided in 4 groups, assembled by the teachers based on the skills of the students. CMD students often have different profiles: there are designers, developers, and some others like to fiddle with custom made electronics using Arduino. The focus was to create interfaces that would be as integrated as possible within the working environment, including objects and actions from the factory floor into the design. Students were free to use any technology they wanted, like RFID, Augmented Reality, Wii Controller and Touch Screens. One group even created a solution using a DSLR camera and an iPad.
FotoKazi
Mathijs Beks, Yolien De Moor, Robin Houdmeyers, Dennis Janssen
The idea of this project was transform the daily actions of the workers (sorting clothes), into a playful action: finding clothes and accessories as a preparation of a weekly dressing party. The students proposed the following scenario: at the start of every week, there would be a cryptic mission description to let the workers look for clothes on a specific theme. During the user-test, the group used themes like “Winter Fun” and “Beach”. On the day of the dressing party an automated photo boot guided the people though a series of photo games like imitating a picture or fitting the player’s heads into a cut-out photo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VduA0lGoxeI
http://blog.vislab.be/2010/12/play/
JuKazi
Michiel Vanreyten, Evelien Dupont, Nicolas Schepers
This project started from the observation that in the recycling centre there is always a radio playing. A hybrid between a skee-ball game and a jukebox was invented which enables the factory workers to choose musical genres by playful interaction. Songs can be added to a play list by hitting characters corresponding the musical genres with coins. The coins can be thrown by aiming a Wii Controller to the screen. The workers can choose between Pop, Rock, Hip Hop, House, Russian and Arabic.
Fooz
Ben Mercx, Maarten Princen, Ronald Vandenbosch
Fooz is inspired by the controls of the Foosball game. In this game, two teams of 2 players control little football characters by turning bars, and thus can shoot a ball across the playing field, hopefully towards the right goal. Anyone who has seen this being played knows it’s a good recipe for fun interaction.
The goal was to start from those physical controls and create a game in which 2 teams of 2 players should communicate and collaborate in order to win the game. The proposed solution is a box with 4 bars with 4 sensors attached. By pulling and pushing the bars the players control 2 types of game elements. Each team has 1 player who controls a pong-style-paddle that bounces back a ball. The other player has to aim the direction the ball is bounced back.
Avatar
Annelies Fleurbaey, Bob Coeradi, Gert Pellens, Johannes Govaerts
The project aims to let the factory workers communicate to each other by exchanging clothes for their personal Avatars. Every player starts with a random set of clothes, which can be traded with other players to collect matching sets of clothes. The system identifies the players when they bring their RFID batch close to a reader. Several people can be logged in at the same time and drag clothes from one player’s wardrobe to another’s with a touch screen. Additional clothes can be obtained by playing several types of quizzes, which you answer by rotating an object with Augmented Reality tags in front of a camera.
Game Jam at C-Mine, Genk
Another GAME JAM in Belgium!
For all of you artists and programmers who missed the Global Game Jam
in Antwerp end of January, we’ve got great news!!
C-MINE the new site in Genk with ambitions to promote the creative
industry is offering their under-construction location in Genk for the
next Belgian Jam!
When? Very soon!
*******6-7-8 th of MAY 2011*******
The Game Jam starts at 17h00 on Friday and end on Sunday at 17h00.
This time we’ve even got some real prizes to win!
Win a UNITY3D iphone or android indy license!
Interested? More info on: http://www.gamejam.be
CALL FOR SPEAKERS
Are you a game industry expert or do you think you have something
interesting to say to the Belgian gaming community?
You might be the person we are looking for to motivate our
participants at the start of the event on friday… contact me:
wim@grin.be
CALL FOR PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS:
The following game development companies support Game Jam Belgium:
- GriN Multimedia
- Sakari Games
If you are not on this list and would like to support the Game Jam
project by promoting our events to your fellow developers, network,
please contact me: wim@grin.be