Dates: June 10th, 2019, 6:00pm-9:30pm
Location: Drexel Square Park, 3001 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

On this evening, we will hold a public showcase of student developed video games displayed on the 29-story Cira Centre skyscraper. The event will be held at Drexel Square, Philadelphia’s newest green space. The event is free and open to the public.

Festivities begin at 6 p.m. at the newly opened Drexel Square park, on the northwest corner of 30th and Market Streets, with music, food trucks and games for people of all ages. Local game studios will show their latest experiences throughout the evening.

The highlight of the night, an opportunity to play video games on a display created by the LED array of the Cira Centre, will begin at 8:30 p.m. Everyone in attendance will be eligible to enter a free drawing for a chance to play the games

Skyscraper Games

If you’re an educator or developer interested in designing your own game for the Skyscraper, click above to find tutorials, game samples, and even a live codeable version of the Skyscraper itself.

A two-day workshop held at  Drexel University in Philadelphia will bring together 20 leaders in games for healthcare from the UK and the US. The workshop will begin with presentations from the invited participants followed by a funding agency panel, which is open to the public. The remainder of the workshop will be for participants only. Agenda is listed below.

Agenda

Tuesday, 22 March, ExCITe Center

[**Invited Talks section is open to public. If interested please RSVP here https://ukusgamesforhealth.splashthat.com/ **]

Breakfast (8:30-9am)
Welcome (9-9:30am)

Catharine Young – Head of DC, UK Science and Innovation Network, British Embassy.
Frank Lee – Associate Professor of Digital Media, Drexel University, US.
Suzanne Austin – Deputy Director for Research Councils UK.
Pam Kato – Professor of Serious Games, Coventry University, UK.

Invited Talks (9:30am-1:05pm)

Barbara Sahakian, Cambridge University, UK: “Serious Games for people with schizophrenia, people with mild cognitive impairment and also for healthy people”

Joaquin Anguera, University of California, San Francisco, US: “Using digital health to build good brain health”

Aaron Seitz, University of California,  Riverside, US: “The promise of brain training games”

Art Graesser, University of Oxford, UK: “Challenges in Developing Serious Games to Promote Challenging Subject Matters”

Dave Taylor, Imperial College, UK: “Major Incident Response Training for hospital staff”

Minhua Ma, Huddersfield University, UK: “Serious Games for Respiratory Therapy”

Walt Scacchi, University of California, Irvine, US: “Emerging Challenges with Game-Based Stroke Rehabilitation in a Nationwide Clinical Trial”

The Future of Research in Computer Games and Virtual World Environments: NSF Workshop Report.

Pam Kato, Coventry University, UK: “Perspectives from Both Sides of the Atlantic: Serious Games in the US and the UK”

[** Remainder of the workshop is for invited participants only **]

Lunch (1:05pm-1:45pm)
Funding Agency Panel (1:45- 2:45pm) 

Moderator: Frank Lee
Panel Participants: Suzanne Austin, Research Councils UK and Jon King, National Institute of Health

Break (2:45-3pm)

Breakout Session (3-4pm)

Facilitator: Pam Kato
Discussion about regulatory issues for serious games.
Leaders: Aaron Seitz, Thomas Talbot, Barbara Sahakian, Art Graesser

Breakout group presentations (4-4:30pm)

Dinner (6pm) – Cozara, 3200 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia PA. Google map

Wednesday, 23 March, ExCITe Center

Breakfast (9-9:30am)
Breakout Session (9:30-10am)

Facilitator: Art Graesser
Discussion of yesterday’s breakout session and review of first day.

Breakout Brainstorming (10-11am)
Break (11-11:15am)
Breakout Presentations and Discussion (11:15am- 12:15pm)
Lunch (12:15-1:15pm)
Panel from industry (1:15-2:15pm)

Moderator: Ioannis Paraskevopoulos
Panel Participants: Aaron Seitz (Carrot Neurotechnology), John Yosaitis (Medstar SiTEL), Paul Manning (Pfizer), Paul Diefenbach (enAble Games)

Break (2:15-2:30pm)
Next Steps and Whole Group Discussion (2:30-3:30pm)

Facilitator: Pam Kato

Media

“Drexel profs play games with Brits to improve health” Philadelphia Inquirer. (Front Page, Business Section).
“Philly’s health IT scene should pay attention to the rise of ‘serious games’” Technically Philly.
“Drexel Hosts Workshop For Therapeutic Video Games” CBS Philadelphia.
“Drexel workshop to discuss if video games can improve health” Philly Voice.
“Drexel’s US-UK Games for Healthcare Workshop” British American Business Council.

A wonderful curated tweet stream of the event on Storify.

“Controlling Chaos: Designing Compelling Combat in an Action Game”

Combat is unpredictable and chaotic. If games tried to realistically model combat, it would create random-feeling combat. We can use systems and design principles to create scenarios where we can control the chaos and teach the player to predict what may happen.

Adam Bormann is currently the lead gameplay designer at Hangar 13. His titles include, Tomb Raider (2013), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (2010), and Tales of Monkey Island (2009).

Media Coverage:

The Triangle