I had been meaning to participate in a conference on serious/educational games, but the timing and location of the two big ones, that is the Games for Change Festival, and the Serious Game Summit, weren’t going to work out for me. Then I came across GameDays 2011, to be held in Darmstadt – Germany. Since I’m currently living in Israel, I figured this would be a great excuse not only to attend such a conference, but travel in Europe a bit. I also set the date of this conference as a deadline for myself to have a demo of my current “serious game” ready (which you can try out now at http://gamesforsoul.com/extremes/). Below is some of what was presented, and my own reflections on them.

About a year ago an idea occurred to me (yes, it happens occasionally): wouldn’t it be great to make a game, and I mean a real AAA title, that was educational? That you could really learn something from? Of course we’ve all played games like Sim City and Civilization but one could argue that the potential learning involved there is more the means than the goal itself. And improved reflexes by playing first person shooters isn’t quite what I mean either.