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GaLAGame and Learning Alliance

The European Network of Excellence on Serious Games

SIG3.5: H&H

Michela Mortara CNR IMATI

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Game overview

• Medieval Dublin • NatGeoGames: Mystery of Cleopatra• Discover Babylon• ICURA• Travel in Europe• 80DAYS • Playing History

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Medieval Dublin (2011)

• Medieval Dublin -- From Vikings to Tudors is an interactive DVD commissioned by Dublin City Council in partnership with the Office of Public Works, Dublinia, Christ Church Cathedral and the National Museum of Ireland

• an interactive experience and an educational tool teaching Dublin’s history to schoolchildren in a visually attractive environment.

• 700 year of history in two DVDs, containing a tour of nine medieval sites using a blend of 3D visualisations and modern live action footage and a detailed 3D model of Dublin that illustrates how the whole city developed from 840 to 1540.

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Medieval Dublin (2011)

• Players access videos and games covering daily life, historical events, interesting stories, and famous characters.

• “Children enjoy the narratives, characters, and interactive animations, and teachers praise the way in which it brings the History curriculum to life,” says Breffni O’Malley, head of content at Noho.

• the Irish Minister for Education described it as “a very useful resource for children” and “a model for standards of accuracy and presentation in this area.”

• Granted with the Award for the Best European Cultural Serious Game in 2011 by the Fun& Serious Game Festival in Bilbao on November 8 2011.

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Medieval Dublin (2011)

• http://www.medievaldublin.ie/• For sale at 15€

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZOVmmDTAWc

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NatGeo Games – Mystery of Cleopatra (2011)

• Cleopatra is remembered as one of history's most amazing figures in a time where love, power, and deception surrounded Rome's transition from republic to empire, casting its shadow of struggle over Egypt.

• As the Queen's Advisor, investigate the murder of a Roman soldier who broke into Cleopatra's palace. Follow the clues through a world of national politics and personal revenge. Find objects and piece together evidence, exploring beautiful Alexandria as you hunt for the murderer (Hidden object game)

• Explore beautiful Alexandria including the Library and Royal Palace

• Learn historical facts from this majestic era

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Mystery of Cleopatra (2011)

• http://natgeo.trymedia.com/t_14th_feature/s6_3036_15486/MacGames/Hidden-Object/Nat-Geo-Games-Mystery-of-Cleopatra-for-Mac.html

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hApC2rLMBw• For sale at $6.99• Same genre: the fall of Caesar (2011), Salem (2011)

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Discover Babylon (2006)

• Discover Babylon TM is an educational video game that features Mesopotamia’s diverse contributions in writing, mathematics, literature, and law.

• The game is a joint project of the Federation of American Scientists Learning Technologies Project, UCLA’s Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, Escape Hatch Entertainment, and the Walters Art Museum.

• Targeted at ages 8 –14, Discover Babylon TM will use sophisticated video gaming strategies and realistic digital environments to engage the learner in challenges and mysteries that can only be solved through developing an understanding of Mesopotamian society, business practices, and trade.

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Discover Babylon (2006)

• Features include:– Accurate historical and scientific information – 3D photorealistic simulations of temple complexes that will allow

the user open-ended exploration and discovery – Contextualization of museum artifacts used by avatars in the

virtual environment Multi-player game technology – Question & answer management tools to stimulate learning – Compelling, age-appropriate challenges and assignments for the

player

• Discover Babylon TM will explore new ways to reassemble and restore the material culture now spread across many different museum and library collections, contribute new research on information management, and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration.

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Discover Babylon (2006)

• Discover Babylon TM has received favorable press attention from:– “Video Games Can Reshape Education: U.S. Scientists“, Canadian Broadcasting

Corporation – “Science snapshot: A video game with a history lesson“, USA TODAY – “ESA chief calls for socially relevant, educational games“, HackenSlash – “New Video Games Target Children’s Intellectual Curiosity“, WUSA TV – “Educators take serious look at video gaming“, eSchool News – “Despite Allure, Using Digital Games for Learning Seen as No Easy Task“, Ed Week – “Learning with Visualizations“, Converge Magazine

• Discover Babylon TM was invited to be part of the Entertainment Software Association’s Net Day in October 2005.

• Preliminary results of the Discover Babylon TM project have also been presented at academic conferences and international meetings including the 120th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in Philadelphia, PA and the Middle East Digital Library Workshop in Alexandria, Egypt; the 2006 Webwise conference in Los Angeles and the 2006 Museums and the Web conference in Albuquerque

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Discover Babylon (2006)

• http://www.fas.org/babylon/ • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlqafevXOWY • Available fo download

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ICURA (2010)

• ICURA is a 3D serious game in which the player learns about Japanese culture and etiquette. It can be used as a tool to gather information about the Japanese language, behavioural rules and culture in a playful way, either for pre-trip planning or for raising interest in another culture. In order to complete the game, the player has to investigate the 3D environment, collect items, combine them and talk to people.

• the learning content is split up into the subject areas: language basics, behavior & etiquette and culture & society

• It is the result of a research project and gives information about the game evaluation session.

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ICURA (2010)

• The goals of the evaluation are:– Finding out, how much information the game communicates,– Finding out, which information about the travel destination is

considered useful in general.– Finding out, if the information ICURA communicates is

considered useful and ifthe game arouses interest in other cultures.

– Finding out, if the game is fun to play and if the design of the 3D environment isconsidered as convincing.

• The whole evaluation process will be divided into five stages: Pre Questionnaire, Pre Test, Playing the game, Post Test, Post Questionnaire. The test will be a Single Choice/Multiple Choice test that is filled in before and after playing ICURA. The results will be compared and visualized by a learning curve.

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ICURA (2010)

• http://www.itchy-feet.org• Video??? • Paper:Design and Evaluation of a Serious Game for

Immersive Cultural Training, Josef Froschauer, Ingo Seidel, Markus Gartner, Helmut Berger (Matrixware Information Services GmbH) Dieter Merkl (Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems, Vienna University of Technology) Virtual Systems and Multimedia (VSMM), 2010

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Travel in Europe (2008?)

• Travel in Europe Project, funded by the European Union under the Culture Programme

• http://www.tieproject.eu/ • http://

www.youtube.com/v/NAGmXYVpJoA?f=user_uploads&app=youtube_gdata&autoplay=1

• The serious game relies on an online 3D environment, based on a game engine enriched with AI for experience management.

• This game is an example of Sand Box Serious Game, where the player explores a 3D environment and lives meaningful experiences there.

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Travel in Europe (2008?)

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80DAYS (2010)

• EU project: Around an Inspiring Virtual Learning World in Eighty Days - http://www.eightydays.eu/

• The demonstrator game is teaching geography for a target audience of 12 to 14 year olds and follows European curricula

• The player assists the alien Feon to explore the planet and to create a report about the Earth and its geographical features. This is accomplished by the player by means of flying to different destinations on Earth, exploring them, and collecting and acquiring geographical knowledge.

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80DAYS (2010)

• Psycho-pedagogical and technical efforts lead to a compelling demonstrator game teaching geography.

• This demonstrator also represents the substantial steps towards achieving a multi-adaptive system that not only adapts discrete elements of the game towards educational purposes, but also adapts the story to accommodate larger educational objectives.

• You can download the game from: http://css-kmi.tugraz.at/80Days/downloads.html

• Several publications and videos

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntJ6rHVJV7U

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Playing History

• Website: www.playinghistory.eu(so far there are two: "The Plague" and "Slave Trade". A third game is in the pipeline).

• Play demo: www.playinghistory.eu/playdemo(Here you can try playing part of the game for free)

• Educational material: www.playinghistory.eu/teachermaterial(Downloadable edu. material for the teacher)

• Press releases: www.playinghistory.eu/pressroom/content/press-releases(Unfortunately only one of them is in English)

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Playing History

• Awards:

– Won an award for Best Learning Game ("Playing History: The Plague") at the Serious Games, Education & Economic Development Conference in Ioannina, Greece (2010)

– BETT finalist (2012) in the Primary Digital Content category

• New: The game has just been released on the AppStore(http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/playing-history-the-plague/id482536260?l=us=1&mt=8)

• Sales: The game has so far been sold to around 75-100 Danish schools.

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Playing History

• Demo by SERIOUS GAMEs INTERACTIVE

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Maybe check also

• Thiatro – the immersive art training online• http://www.thiatro.info/