Serious Games and Edutainment

The world of computer games has changed dramatically since the first commercial video game »Pong« in 1972. Technologies pushed by the game industry include graphics hardware, elaborate simulation, sophisticated animation, realistic graphics and intuitive interaction. Actually, the computer game market is one of the fastest growing in the ICT sector, the mass production of gaming hardware allowing many other application areas to benefit from.

Of particular interest to the INI-GraphicsNet are Serious Games, i.e. the application of gaming technology, processes, and design to the solution of problems faced by businesses and other organizations. Serious games promote the transfer and cross fertilization of game development knowledge and techniques in traditionally non-game markets such as training, health, product design, sales, marketing, etc.

Closely related is Edutainment as a form of entertainment designed to educate. It typically seeks to instruct or socialize its audience by embedding lessons in some familiar form of entertainment: television programs, computer games, films, music, websites, multimedia software, etc. An example might be a computer game that teaches children conflict resolution skills.

Technologies developed by the INI-GraphicsNet for Serious Games and Edutainment cover manifold areas like e-learning, simulation, augmented reality, visualization, knowledge management, human computer interaction, user interface design, authoring tools, security, etc.