Microsoft’s Productivity Games

We’ve rounded up several posts about Microsoft’s productivity games, for an overview of what the software giant has been doing in this important subspecies of serious games.

Productivity games are applications designed to increase work efficiency while also increasing job satisfaction through the application of game aesthetics and mechanics.  Virtually all jobs have some degree of repetitiveness — some more than others — and nearly all of us hate that aspect of work.

Yet interestingly, games require repetition — and find ways to encourage us to embrace the repetition. If we can find ways to build some fun into job repetitiveness, both employer and employee should win.

The games described include Microsoft’s Windows 7 localization game, and their current game encouraging usage and feedback for Office Communicator.

Scroll down towards the bottom of this post (included in the overall roundup), look for “Helpful Material,” and you’ll get a great set of links for the further study on the topic of productivity games.

Robots Playing World of Warcraft?

It’s safe to say that Georgia Tech is on the cutting edge of serious game and simulation development, and this article provides an overview of some of what the school is up to.

A particularly interesting direction is in the use of game engines and virtual worlds to help train and teach robots:  if a robot can navigate and engage in a virtual world simulation, it will likely do better when it engages in the real world.  In addition, virtual worlds offer an environment where robots and humans may jointly collaborate on situations, preparing them for collaboration in the real world.

Robots aren’t actually playing World of Warcraft yet, but they may take a shine to it in the future…

Read the entire article:  you’ll also find out about AI applications in the field of intelligent narrative technologies, an area discussed in both End to End Game Development and Story and Simulations for Serious Games.

IGDA members: 25% discount on the book

If you belong to the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), you’re entitled to a 25% discount on End to End Game Development (see page 15 of the July 2010 IGDA Perspectives Newsletter for details) when you purchase the book directly from our publishers.

New York Public Library Weekly Highlights

We’re pleased to get spotlighted in the New York Public Library blog, and are eager to hear from any public library readers who take a look at our book.

Original iPad Serious Games and Simulations?

We’d love to hear about any ongoing iPad serious game or simulation development from our readers.  We’re aware of repurposing or porting over of iPhone apps to the iPad (an example here), including anecdotal discussions from recent app conferences — but are there new applications being developed that specifically take advantage of the form factor and interface?

Recently, a production company rolled out several interactive short films made specifically for the iPad, and this seems to be a very promising kind of application for soft skills simulations (human resources, customer interactions, etc.).  But leave a comment or get in touch for any bulletins from the front!

Q&A with Christy Marx

Christy Marx is the editor of the new Focal Press book Write Your Way Into Animation and Games (with several chapters contributed by End to End Game Development authors Nick Iuppa and Terry Borst).  She was kind enough to answer a few questions about the book for our readers.

Q: Tell us a little about ‘Write Your Way…’ and its mission.

Game Writing and Storytelling

Before we worked on serious games, we worked on commercial videogames, including the blockbuster space adventure games Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV.  Game-Central just completed a podcast with co-author Terry Borst about game writing and storytelling:  you’ll find some discussion about serious games, and a more general discussion of games, story and their intersection — along with the walk down Wing Commander memory lane.

Listen to the Game Central podcast with Terry Borst

A Night at Barnes & Noble – Santa Monica

Following the book panel and signing at Barnes & Noble on Wed., May 19 (for Write Your Way Into Animation and Games), from left to right: Jeannie, who was good enough to buy a book; contributing author Carolyn Miller; yours truly (contributing author Terry Borst); our moderator Susan Spohr; and contributing author Jean Ann Wright. A few signed copies of End to End Game Development are also available in this Barnes & Noble.

Free 3D Engines Cropping Up Everywhere

As this article lays out, free access to 3D game engines is becoming increasingly prevalent.

Crytek is joining the group with its CryEngine 3 platform, joining Unity and Epic (proprietors of Unreal) .  Unity Indie started the ball rolling late last year and the Unreal Development Kit quickly followed.

April 2 – ArtsLab UNM

Just a reminder about co-author Terry Borst’s Digital Lunch presentation on the book’s central topic at UNM ArtsLab Mon., April 2, 12 noon.