Tag Archives: games

Last spring, my company Dreamkind won the first Cooney Center Prize for Breakthroughs in Literacy Learning. Thanks to the Cooney Center, Sesame Workshop and the Electric Company, there are lots of good things to report since we won the award. Most importantly, as a result of winning the contest, we were able to meet and collaborate with a bunch of really talented producers from The Electric Company. We proposed different ideas to them, exchanged concepts about developing educational gaming curricula…

The game that has knocked “Angry Birds Seasons” off its perch as the top free game in the iTunes store was designed by a self-taught 14-year-old programmer. According to ABC News, Robert Nay decided to design his own game after doing some research in the public library and downloading Corona, a software developer’s kit. With some help from his mother, the eighth grader spent a couple of hours each night over the course of a month designing “Bubble Ball,” a…

Where we’re going, we won’t need remotes. In the slim chance that you haven’t heard yet, Microsoft released a game-changing new system called Kinect on Thursday. As the Wii revolutionized the market with a motion controller, Kinect throws the controller out the window altogether and literally puts you, the player, in the driver’s seat. Kinect attaches to the Xbox 360 and lets you use your very own arms, legs and body (it tracks 48 parts of your body) to make…

Guest post by Sara M. Grimes, PhD Years ago, when the idea of “games for learning” was still a relatively new concept, a small but important movement emerged around issues of gender in gaming. Led by scholars, designers and members of the game community, the primary objective was to address a gaming gender gap that had formed in the 80s and early 90s. Then as now, boys were generally gaming more (and more often) than girls, male characters appeared far…

Today, E-Line Media and the Institute of Play are launching Gamestar Mechanic, a game-based learning platform that teaches the principles of game design as a form of 21st Century skill building in a highly engaging and creative environment. Gamestar Mechanic was created through a unique public private partnership that includes leading foundations, non-profits, academia and the game industry. Development of the game was initially funded through a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to the Institute…

Gamasutra and the Serious Game Source do a great service to our industry by posting weekly round-ups of gaming jobs. Check out the summary for the week of August 27th.

39 Clues, Book 10 will be released on August 31, 2010, and kids can converge for a live Q&A with the series’ authors from all 10 books. This highly interactive series includes online and mobile games and is a good model for inspiring kids to enjoy reading.  Tune in today — August 31, 2010 at 4pm EST for the live Q&A Download related classroom resources 

M2 Research and partner KidSay recently rleased the first in a semi-annually report series. Their first publication, Kids and Games: What Boys and Girls are Playing Today, shows a significant increase in kids’ online gaming and social media usage. 90 Percent of tweens are playing games online, with mobile and social media use on the rise, as well. The report includes over 80 gaming charts and outlines key trends and companies. Survey data was collected from over 5,000 kids across…

Cooney Center Prize winner, Yasser Ansari (team leader for Project NOAH), dropped in last week to update the Center on the progress of their mobile app since winning in June. View the video now! Learn more about Project NOAH   Learn more about the Cooney Center Prizes and stay tuned for info on our National STEM Video Game Challenge, starting this Fall.

Check out the Game Industry Black Book Q3 Q4 2010. Excellent opportunities and resources on development, career, distribution, platforms, marketing, and other business opportunities.