Serious About Games - Competition

Hi All,

I'm excited to announce the launch of the Serious About Games Competition!

Are you serious about games? Interested in the use of games to bring about social impact and innovation? We’re launching South Africa’s biggest serious game competition to engage communities in reimagining their spaces for economic prosperity.

THE CHALLENGE
Apartheid urban planning has led to a highly split society and huge socio-economic challenges across the Western Cape. Let’s create a game that allows poor communities to think innovatively and reimagine their neighbourhoods for economic growth.

Serious About Games is challenging all current or aspiring game developers, digital creatives and designers to use a user-centred design approach to conceptualise a game that addresses the above challenge. The winning team will receive R1 000 000 (yes R1 Million!) to develop the game in 2017.

The Launch Event
When: 16 November, 6.30pm
Where: Bandwidth Barn, 3rd Floor, Block B, Woodstock Exchange
Who should come? All game developers, digital creatives, design thinkers, urban/ civic planning organisations – anyone who is interested in game development or civic planning.
What: We’ll be introducing the collaboration, the game brief, and the competition schedule – all over a drink and a snack.
Click attending on the Facebook event, or follow us on Twitter.
Get your free ticket.

This competition is led by the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) in collaboration with Interactive Entertainment South Africa (IESA), 67Games, the Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI), and supported by the Western Cape Government’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

Serious About Games will be hosting a series of workshops and gaming popup events over the next few months, to equip teams with knowledge on serious games, relevant business acumen and allow them to engage with their audience.

Come along on the 16th to find out more!

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Update, the submission deadline was on Monday, and we have had 17 Submissions in total, which is fantastic for a first time running and the niche nature of the competition. All the entries look fairly solid and there is potential for some excellent games to come from this!

Thank you to everyone from the community that entered, and good luck!

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We will be announcing the winner tomorrow at an event at the Bandwidth Barn! I hope that I will be seeing a lot of you there. This is a really exciting point for the game dev community. The backers of the competition seem to be pleased with results of the competition, and I will definitely be looking to make this an regular event!

You can get your tickets online here: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/27351-the-final-sas-biggest-serious-games-competition/#/

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Congratulations to @Shanemarks and Renderheads on winning the R1million prize for the Serious About Games Competition!

Comments

  • Awesome, looking forward to this!

    Is it open to participants outside the cape area? I'm guessing it might be up to them to get to the cape to present their work, but that they can probably do most of it from anywhere.

    What time is the event starting? I've seen 17:30, 18:00 and 18:30 in various places.
  • @francoisvn

    Teams can include members from out side the Western Cape, but the majority of the team needs to be based in the Cape. Organisations outside of the Western Cape can partner with an organisation within the Western Cape if they wish to enter.

    The Event starts at 18:30, but we are asking people to be there by 18:00
    Thanked by 1francoisvn
  • edited
    I'm jhb based but I'd be happy to team up with somebody cape side if they are willing to be the representative in the team. I have a very adept level of programming and art skills if anybody is interested.
    Thanked by 1Mexicanopiumdog
  • Super interested. Need to get someone to work with on the other side. someone who can attend the meeting and do anything else he or she would be interested in. I can pull the art work, got a little concept and the programming.
    But also, is there a way to register without being there next week for those living in JHb?
  • edited
    Oh man. Add one more interested but am stuck on the taller side of the world (Joburg of course). Unity, game design and BOARDGAME design experience. I believe boardgame design could play a big part in engaging with those who are economically challenged.

    Above all, really hope some real economically empowering good comes out of this :)
  • I am so interested I how does one enter do you make a proposal or will we find out on the 16th?
  • I'm going to try and make it to this one!
  • edited
    Glad to see serious games, getting some love. :) I m working on something to also submit to http://www.gamesforchange.org/ 2017. If the game is made for this competition can we re-submit it to http://www.gamesforchange.org/ for 2018 (not sure about the rules of submission etc.) ? Maybe I am getting ahead of myself, but this can be good to further the message presented via the game, and some motivation for the competition . ;) Really happy to see this.
  • I just wish I was in cape town
  • oooh I'd really like to be part of this. I'm currently studying third year game design at wits and I am really interested in games that try to trigger thought and change. I have basic knowledge in Unity and programming and enjoy doing 2D art. I'm also super enthusiastic :D

    I'm based in Joburg and would really like to collaborate.
  • Any feedback on the event?
  • The event was fairly packed and the turn out was great. There were some speakers who gave brief inputs on the scope of the competition with some insights on how to look at the topic from a user-centric perspective. They also announced some workshops and pop-ups that will be happening in the next month(s). They are hosting these pop ups all around Cape Town for the participants to learn basic researching skills and the tools on creating serious games.

    Also there was Pizza.
  • Cape town people are always getting awesome things... Will it be possible for some of us who are not in cape town to participate in the competition?
  • Apparently most of the details can be found here: http://seriousaboutgames.co.za/ There were some questioned answered at the event (which aren't listed online), and I don't think all the information from each of the following events will be available online though.

    They did say that a majority of the team needs to be based in the Western Cape, and that teams that attend the events around the Cape will get some preference (it's not clear how significant).
  • There was a wall with lots of contact numbers and details of members wanting to form teams at the event. Does anyone know where/if this was digitized? On http://seriousaboutgames.co.za/ also I am struggling to find the digital submission button/form: I guess it will become available more towards January? I see the calendar is now updated with 2 up and coming events. Originally thought it was blocked since it said I could not access the calendar :)
  • edited
    @LexAquillia Quicket Page links to a cul de sac :(
  • Congrats on the team that won this!

    (I don't have the details, and they're not present on the website, but I heard that the final 4 games were really great and one team was chosen as the winner)
    Thanked by 2edg3 BenJets
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