Kristen spotted this, since I have no time to read websites while I’m here at GDC. But the Games for Health initiative has some cool stuff they are talking about here at GDC this year…

Study: Games are Healthy

PopCap Games and The Games for Health Project have released a new study in an effort to show that games can be healthy for developing bright minds. Playing strategy and puzzle titles can challenge the brain and help to push intellectual minds.

In a continuing effort to prove that games are not all about guns and violence, PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of casual games, and The Games for Health Project have released their first summary of findings of literature review of research and market development activities associated with the possible use of digital games for maintaining healthy minds. The release of this information coincides with the Serious Games Summit track at the Game Developers Conference this week.

So, I wasn’t actually at this session, so I missed what Jesper actually said… but I have a bone to pick with him, based on what GameSpot reported he said.

Read More “GDC Day Two: Jesper Juul and sandbox play”

I meant to post these in order, but oh well.

Designers Meet Social Scientists

moderated by Eric Zimmerman

There were three designers on the panel: myself, Heather Kelley of Ubisoft, and Matt Adams of Blast Theory; and three social scientists: Suzanne de Castell of Simon Fraser University in Canada, Mikael Jakobsson of Malmo University in Sweden, and Torill Mortensen of Volda College in Norway.
Read More “GDC 2006 Day One: Designers Meet Social Scientists”

From Ten Wackiest to one of the Hot 100.

Still good company. 😉

These are my notes on this session from the Mobile GDC. It’s got significant overlap with the previous posting on this topic, but there’s a lot of new material too.

Amy Jo Kim and Scott Kim

Putting the Fun in Functional

Uses Zimmerman/Salen’s definition of game, but an informal definition is “a structured experience with rules and goals that’s fun.” Under that definition ebay is a game.

How do games shape behavior?

– They leverage primal response patterns — consider the slot machine, powerful behavior modifier, using schedules of reinforcement.
– They also engage us in flow, where the challenge needs to be between too high a challenge and too low a challenge.

Read More “GDC Day Two: putting the fun in functional”