Serious Play Conference Speaker -- The holodeck is finally here. Inexpensive consumer devices and license-free game engines make it affordable to deploy engaging virtual reality learning solutions at every point of need. This presentation will inspire insights as you consider how to integrate virtual reality – “the ultimate learning machine” – and gamified learning into your organization. The session will inspire participants with examples from industry leaders like Walmart, KPMG, and Novartis who are ushering in a new era of experiential and visceral learning. Bring your question as we discuss the future of learning.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- VR-Based Multiplayer Squad / Soldier Virtual Training -- Squad/Soldier training requires coordination, communication, and realism to speed learning and improve retention. This talk presents an example of networking multiplayer immersive VR learners with simulation servers to provide realistic, coordinated training environments in support of an Army call-for-fire training scenario. We will present the objectives of the program, the challenges of using this approach, and where we expect to take this capability in the future, along with a live demo.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- Attendees will understand how STEM games can be used in K-12 classroom settings. They will learn about an overview of games on the market, from elementary school through high school. They will then learn how to design simple games that can be used to convey a key STEM concept within one class period. By the end of the workshop attendees will have collaborated to produce paper prototypes of such games. We hope to host these files as free online print-and-play games for teachers, as a service to the community.

Serious Play Conference Speaker In this talk attendees will learn easily applicable techniques for taking their already existing curricula and making it more engaging. In this talk, veteran game designer and writer of the YouTube show Extra Credits, James Portnow, will talk about the lessons we can learn from games to make learning something everyone wants to do. This won’t be about how to make edutainment or how to build games for the classroom, but rather about the broader techniques, like pacing and interest curves, that entertainment industry utilizes, which can be applied to any topic and any classroom.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- Serious game developers must consider client needs and constraints. To most, it is obvious that the end users’ desired training, behavior change, assessment, or experience outcomes shape the focus of the game. But the client organization’s funding, IT infrastructure, data needs, and personnel impact design as much, if not more, than end users’ needs. This session will share experiences where these factors significantly impacted game design and make recommendations for identifying and addressing these needs early in the design process.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- I’m the founder of Fourdesire. I created games include keeping people to stay hydrated (via Plant Nanny), motivating them to walk more and stay healthy (via Walkr), and helping them to keep track of the knowledge behind these healthful activities. Our titles Plant Nanny, Walkr and Fortune City have been used by tens of millions of users globally and were covered by Washington Post, Business Insider, IGN, Polygon etc.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- The session will cover how Unity and C# can be used in the classroom to teach coding and digital design via the creation of games (including edugames) and Virtual Reality simulations. The presenter will share how he has used it in the past 2 years in the classroom and give examples of student work. He will also go over the hardware and software requirements, including how he has used the cheaper Mixed Reality headsets, from Microsoft partners such as HP and Lenovo, to develop for SteamVR, meaning the VR simulations will also run on HTC Vive. He will also have at least one Mixed Reality headset with him so that attendees can try out some of the student developed VR simulations at the end.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- Attendees will learn to think about commercial, off-the-shelf games as curricular tools. They will learn how to guide students to “skin” or “mod” a game to explore content (e.g. earth science, Hamlet) while deepening their critical- and systems- thinking. We will play a commercial, off-the-shelf game, Fluxx.When participants are familiar with the game’s mechanics, they will create modified versions of the game for their area of interest.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- What is the Synthetic Training Environment? The STE will provide the Army and services a usable, realistic, and complex training environment that improves readiness through repetition to achieve mastery of warfighting skills from Soldier/squad levels to the highest Army echelons.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- The talk will focus on examination of the use of a serious game to improve theoretical concept reinforcement through practice in the domain of project risk management. Participants takeaways are as follows: 1. Understand the role of games as a tool for deep learning (i.e. constructive alignment) & reinforcement. 2. Identify potential best practices associated with the use of game-based learning / serious game approaches that work / don’t work. 3. Understand how to map/measure game experiences as it relates to learning. 4. Learn some key tips/tricks associated with designing serious game experiences within Higher Education/Training & Development environments.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- Immersive headset-based Virtual Reality as seen in the Oculus Rift and the Oculus Go offers a profound advantage compared to standard 2D-delivered training. As an example, our VR Brain Exploration project is creating a virtual brain patients traverse in an immersive virtual reality headset to improve understanding of brain mechanisms, confidence, and interest in learning more about the relationship of brain function. The talk discusses the potential of VR for understanding complicated 3D structures. Immersive headset-based Virtual Reality can help patients understand the true mechanisms behind their suffering and that impact risks to their health. In VR they visualize the intended impact of treatment modalities and take control over outside parameters, such lifestyle choices, and exposures. Users can apply virtual success to real-world challenges, where they can further build confidence and patterns of success.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- Adapting gameplay difficulty and content based on player profiles is vital for better retention. The Free-to-play Dreamwork’s TrollhuntersRPG is taken as an example for an in-depth look at how Machine Learning algorithms can be employed to discover player profiles and present profile relevant content. The discussion includes implementation details on how these methods can be crafted and adapted for other game genres or use cases and how they can positively impact player retention. Primarily the talk deals with a special breed of Machine Learning methods called Recommender Systems that can be used to take the load off the designers and learn from players about their skill level and preferences and use that information to tailor in-game content.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- Thomas Talbot, Principal Medical Expert, USC Institute for Creative Technologies. As gaming and simulations become more immersive due to improved realism and the advent of affordable virtual reality and ubiquitous AI, the need to naturally engage in conversational interactions with virtual human characters is the next new challenge. Verbal interactions can either be thin and informational or simple and command like in nature. If exploited properly, they can also become a rich new gamescape for players. Dr. Talbot, a physician and expert in virtual human technology in the medical domain, introduces a variety of compelling scenarios and shares how challenging conversations can have compelling gameplay and result in deep, emotionally impactful learning experiences.

Serious Play Conference Speaker -- Sometimes financial, physical and content constraints on graduate programs force university researchers to be creative. This presentation talks about how FIEA faculty designed a class called GameLab to help expose students to Serious Games while simultaneously fostering lasting research and development partners outside traditional entertainment industry partners.