| Serious game: a day dedicated to ... serious games |
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Report on the conference of 4 May 2010 at Imagix in Mons One certainty: the first event dedicated to serious games was a real success with the public. At first 150 people were expected, but the registrations quickly surpassed 400. A crowded room for this first conference, proof that the interest in serious game is not a waste of time. After a 'stylised' welcome by the company A-Hermes, specialised in event animation, Pascal Poty from AWT, master of ceremony on this occasion, opened the conference mentioning that the day would be an interactive one and that indeed it was. What is a Serious Game? A simple definition: using the interactive technologies and techniques of video games in service of a tool whose final goal is not to be played but to teach, train or raise awareness. A quick survey of the room with the help of the Now.be voting system quickly moved the participants to the core of the subject. We learned that for the people present, Serious Game is:
The debate hosted by Alain Gerlache from the RTBF then lead to several interesting thoughts from the invited experts: “Serious Game is still young, its goal is to make learning more appealing, but it should be possible to make it even more efficient, which means working on it from its inception on,” reacts Xavier Van Dieren of Now.be, expert in e-learning. For Sam Dahamani of 3Dduo, already working in Serious Game, video games have their own culture and today, we have a generation of users in demand of this type of applications. “The digital Natives or Generation Y, are today's entrepreneurs, using these tools comes naturally to them,” François Delpierre of Belle Productions add, who has been making Serious Games for several years now. In 2006, the arrival of the Wii and the DS expanded video games towards a new, more feminine and older public, and it made a new mutation of the field possible since the game has once more brought families together. Adding an extra layer dedicated to learning is a logical next step, even if a game will never replace teachers, it is not enough on its own. But it adds an extra element in the form of playful emotion. In schools the focus shifted from the notion of objectives to the notion of skills and today to learning. Serious games add a schooling vector,” Marcel Lebrun of IPM-UCL continues. “Learning goes back to the Middle Ages, when people would get together around one person who would read them a book, which was a rare medium at the time. Today, a particular interest is given to the personal implication of every learner, this notion is important to incite a desire to learn.” Yet, raising awareness is one of the goals of Serious Game, and a game makes it possible to meet this goal in a playful way. An example among others, “World of Warcraft has been used to train managers,” Xavier Van Dieren (Now.be) further explains. How to prompt the development of a Serious Game? The process is different than for normal video games where so-called “commercial” projects are taken care of by an editor. Serious Game is closer to a service provider, it is tailored work and the projects adapt to the needs and the budgets of the commissioning companies, be it for educational games, interactive e-learning or advergaming. Based on the subjects and starting at €10,000, a first game can be designed, even if usually the minimal cost range varies between €25,000 to €50,000, with some games going way over €150,000. These Serious Games are made for a target public, previously identified by the commissioner, be it for a business training course, games for competitions or to raise awareness. They are aimed at all sorts of audiences, from children to adolescents, business managers and retired people. Serious Game can be a standalone tool or be used as part of a larger communication campaign, the media of choice being computers via downloading and smartphones because it is necessary to adapt to the end user and therefore provide the tool best fitting with the audience for the distribution. Providing a platform which can be linked to social networking sites such as TWITTER or FACEBOOK is often a little plus which makes surveying the learning process possible. What are the differences with our neighbours? The sector is more structured in France, for historical reasons, and it receives public funding. National aid is often combined with regional aid. We need to recognize that our neighbours have quite some baggage when it comes to videogames; Ubisoft, Ankama and a couple of dozens of other worldwide known video game editors make up an important line of business in France. In addition to this game culture there are also a good number of studios (around 150). In Belgium, there are around ten companies making video games, the biggest ones in Wallonia are Fishing Cactus and Belle Productions, both TWIST members. Serious game is considered a tool of the future in Wallonia too and the success of this first conference definitely proves this, the mental attitudes may be ready for the accomplishment of big projects with leading edge companies in a promising line of business. The second part of the day presented a series of Serious Game projects in Wallonia. Presentation of the projects: For Serious Game, the service provider's approach should not stand apart from that of the commissioner, and for this first conference these duos presented their projects side by side.
Commissioner: Silverfit – Joris Wiersinga Service provider: Softkinetic – Virgile Delporte
Commissioner: AWT - Pascal Balancier Service provider : Omedia - Daniel Dehu
Commissioner : Microbus Service provider : Crossroads - Frédéric Mignon
Commissioner: Techno.bel - Hervé Docq Service provider : blupill Group et Victor Studio
Commissioners : Nestlé Waters, Materne Service Provider : Lemon Crush - Frédéric Dufour
Commissioner : Chancellerie du Premier Ministre Service provider : D-Side - Claire Collard and Belle Productions - Marc Meurisse
Service provider : François Delpierre for Belle Productions Commissioners – Philippe Harmegnies of the Passe-Muraille non-profit (with the financial help of the Minister of Health, Social Action and Equal Opportunities)
At the end of the afternoon, the public was asked to pick which project seemed most interesting to them for the Now-Belle award. Finally it is Les Secrets d'Ombyliss by Belle Productions which won the vote. Congratulations! Seriousgame.be took off, the organisations and private companies at the base of this first conference already saved the date in 2011 for the next edition of an event which proved the growing interest for this type of communication, training, learning and awareness raising tool. An important lesson to be learned from this initiative – supported by the AWT, the ITC Cluster (Infopôle), Twist, the MIC, Forem, Now.be, Belle.be and the Walloon training centres, is confirmation of the fact that the Walloon companies are ready and present in an upcoming field full of job opportunities. |
