The master course ‘Building serious games’ overturns all prejudices about nerds gaming all day. Five groups successfully developed serious games and presented their results.
Students are playtesting the game Hot Pipe. (Photo: Hard Rock Studios)
“Building serious games is kind of a weird master course,” says teacher Rafael Bidarra. His students worked on developing games in project groups for nearly 10 weeks. The course is interdisciplinary which means students from across campus can join. It even goes beyond TU Delft as students from Leiden University also took part.
Each group received an assignment from an external commissioner and had to build a game to solve the problem presented by that commissioner. Last Friday, all five groups presented their final results. Delta attended the event and is now seriously into serious gaming!
The logo of the game Star Tag. (Photo: Holo Heroes)Super human sports
Holo Heroes/Star Tag
The Sports Engineering Institute provided an assignment to get the gaming community physically active. The Holo Heroes seized this opportunity by creating an augmented reality superhuman sport which also involves audience interaction. Conquer planets by moving around, ideally on a soccer field where running is a must!
A student playtesting Loud & Clear. (Photo: Loud & Clear)Audio Game
Loud & Clear
As commissioned by Orbit Games, this group developed a game that helps sighted people understand the challenges and abilities of blind people. Unique in its kind, the game supports only audio. With blinded VR goggles, players move through an escape room and solve puzzles based on sound. Check out the trailer of this game and make sure you’ve got your headphones on!
A screencapture of the Grapplenauts game. (Photo: Grapplenauts)Connecting People
Grapplenauts
The Grapplenauts game was created on behalf of Orbit Games and is based on research into the aspects that make highly creative and efficient teams. Each team rides in a spaceship and collects valuables. On their quest the team members save each other from green slimy space snot and at the end try to defeat their boss. Watch a trailer of the movie here.
The starting screen of the game Hot Pipe. (Photo: Hard Rock Studios)Geothermal Energy
Hard Rock Studios/Hot Pipe
This game informs users on how to use hot water to heat our homes and why we should be doing it more. Commissioned by Dr Richard R. Bakker and Dr Thomas Reinsch, the students of Hard Rock Studios developed a game in which players get a grasp of basic geothermal concepts. While they are having fun and enjoying challenging puzzles, information is relayed to the players without any excessive reading, but instead, through the visuals and the gameplay itself.
Hydro Hero is developed for kids beteween six and 14 years. (Photo: Rubberduck Studio)Water Lab Game
Rubberduck Studio/Hydro Hero
Put to work by the Science Centre, this group developed a game to help teach kids between six and 14 years about challenges related to canal water management. In Hydro Hero, players clean and maintain a canal by controlling an avatar flying over the canal. The game is similar to non-stop running games like Temple Run and Falling Fred.
Ready to get addicted? You can playtest the game here.
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m.vanderveldt@tudelft.nl
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