A Game Development Tour-torial. Seriously. Company: Serious Games Tutorials Product: Serious Games Tutorial Three leading voices in the field of serious games announced today a series of two-day workshops on serious games design, development, and distribution. The Serious Games Tutorial created by Ben Sawyer, Noah Falstein, and Bob Bates is the first training retreat dedicated to serious games design and project development. The Serious Games Tutorials will take place throughout the spring and early summer of 2007 in several different locations around North America: San Francisco, California on March 28-29, 2007 Orlando, Florida on April 26-27, 2007 Washington, D.C. on May 8-9, 2007 Toronto, Ontario in June (final dates pending) Chicago, IL (final dates pending) "Serious games is a growing field with many unique elements, and its growth depends on getting more people -- both sponsors, and developers - deeply educated on how to use games in new ways. By creating an intense two-day retreat on the subject we are answering a huge need by providing a great deal of knowledge in a short period of time." said Ben Sawyer, co-founder of the Serious Games Initiative and one of the tutorial's three faculty members. The two-day tutorial explains in detail how to create and use both games and game-related technologies for purposes beyond entertainment. The program draws heavily on the experience of all three developers, who together have designed, or been involved in the launch of over a dozen serious games. "Commercial and serious games are critically related," said Bob Bates, veteran game designer and former Atari studio head. "Serious games are not effective if they're not fun, and what our tutorials offer are commercially proven techniques for designing in the "fun factor" that so frequently gets lost in the midst of project development. Our goal is to send attendees home to their projects with insights not found anywhere else in this exciting new field." The tutorials feature over 15 hours of classroom time focused on three core goals: Improving attendee's general understanding of games and how their associated resources and technologies can be utilized for purposes beyond entertainment. Teaching how to design great serious games by applying the best ideas and practices of modern-day videogames to problems that are unique to serious games. Explaining production and project management techniques crucial to creating games that entertain, fulfill their purpose, and still get the most out of their budget. Noah Falstein, who for over 25 years has been involved in the design of dozens of commercial and serious games, said, "As a designer I'm eager to share the approaches I've honed that blend key principles of game design with new thinking about learning, training, informatics, user interface, and social networking. I believe these tutorials will not only help attendees but the general field of serious games because it will help more projects get underway with a deeper level of experience." Pricing & Discounts Admission starts at $445.00 for early bird registrants and rises to $695.00 closer to each individual tutorial. Group discounts for three or more registrants from the same organization are available. -GameVortex Staff, GameVortex Communications AKA R2-GV Related Links: SG Tutorials Web Site (for More Details)