Serious game project by Playware Studios Asia for the Singapore WDA launches

On the 26th of July 2012, the Workforce Development Agency of Singapore officially launched the Creative Industries Virtual World, which is a serious game and tool to provide training and career opportunities for professionals in the arts and creative industries. It is essentially a virtual community for the industry to foster relationships and network for career development.

TCS SMU iCtiy Lab (2012)

"The objective of the SMU-TCS iCity Lab is harnessing technology to put people at the centre of city management. Mr. TEO Chin Seng, Executive Director of iCity Lab, highlighted the research plan for the Lab and explained in detail how the lab would create futuristic solutions for delivering citizen services and managing the city of future. The Lab will collaborate with TCS innovation Labs on research and development in the areas of cloud computing, mobile applications, business analytics to enhance the governance experience of city administrators and living experience for citizens in Asia and Worldwide. The Lab will also formulate strategies and business models for cloud-based platforms."

More about the lab in this article about its inauguration

Playware setup 6 large interactive screens based on its new Transpro technology in the Lab along with a Toplay table and designed the experience of the visitors to the lab.

More information on Transpro soon!

NE Hub Future Zone (2011)

Located in the Greenridge Primary School, Jelapang Road, Singapore the 'NE Hub Future Zone' is part of the 'Time Trekker' Experience.  

The theme as reflected in the name Time Trekker, connotes an exciting journey through time, discovering, experiencing and gaining insights. The NE Hub has been totally redesigned and upgraded to bring visitors on a brief journey through key points in Singapore's history to the present and culminating in an Event Hall where visitors are aided to reflect on issues of the future posted on three 'Oracle Columns'.

Playware added an interactive mixed media blend to the entire Time Trekker experience with centrally controlled interactive environments, sound scaping and an immersive gaming studio. 

Maven (2011)

Maven is a Gamification tool for Educators. Developed for the Jurong Secondary School under the  Future Schools project. Maven is built as a gamigication and advanced GUI layer for the LAMS system.

LAMS is a revolutionary new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides teachers with a highly intuitive visual authoring environment for creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and collaboration.

Maven also allows educators to transform LAMS lessons into rich adventure and role playing games. Maven brings, to LAMS, game concepts such as Spacial awareness, Avatar Personalization, skills and reward cycles, sense of progression etc.

3DHive

3DHive is a patented technology that was developed by Playware Studios under the Future Schools project.  It is developed  in collaboration with the Canberra Primary School in Sembawang, Singapore. Read more about the 3DHive @ Serious Games Singapore a blog dedicated to the project.

3DHIve features a powerful Game creation tool called Esoteric. This is a fully GUI based editor platform that requires no prior knowledge of art, design or programming.  

3D HiVe is an advanced online games and virtual world platform designed to be used for Education. It features integrated multimedia support, multimodal communication and secure online environments. It is a Standalone virtual world that provides all the strengths of the virtual worlds without the need for external hosting. It thrives on user generated content and provides easy to use tools for creation of content. The Following can be created on 3D Hive:

4Di

4Di is a patented technology that was developed by Playware Studios under the Future Schools project.  It is located at the Canberra Primary School in Sembawang, Singapore. Read more about the 4Di @ 4Diplay a blog dedicated to the project.

Classroom of the Future (2011)

Developed by the National Institute of Education,Singapore the Classroom of the Future - COTF Live! showcase is an initiative set up to demonstrate and model technologies for use in the learning of tomorrow’s students. The COTF demonstrates a student-centric learning environment where technology is used to support pedagogical and instructional approaches. During the 40 mins guided tour, visitors will be immersed in the learning environment of the possible future to experience how learning can be unlimited by the constraints of place and time.

Playware has developed the immersive technology featured in the COTF 3.0.  Students gather at the climate simulation laboratory where they are challenged to think critically as they take on various roles to solve energy supply and climate warming issues. They will then be transported to various future scenarios to experience the impact of their decisions in a visual and realistic manner, hence deepening their understanding and heightening the need to think critically and work collaboratively.

The Simulator features a panoramic wraparound simulation with a computer controlled ambient physical environment. 

Bakery Palace (2011)

Developed for the Ngee Ann Poly-technique this is a Cost and Managerial Accounting Game.

This is a turn-based strategy game played by teams of up to 4 players each, with a maximum of 12 teams at any one time.  Each team will be responsible for running a virtual bakery, studying the game's volatile economic environment to make decisions about the bakery's equipment acquisition, production output, and sales strategy.

Much like in the real world, the teams compete with each other on the game board to maximize their revenue, profits and brand value.  At the end of each turn, the revenue, profit and brand value for each team is calculated.

Vishnu Interactive (2011)

Organised by the Indian Heritage Centre (Supported by the National Heritage Board) and Hindu Endowments Board, Singapore and showcased at the iconic Sri Srinivasa Perumal temple, this exhibition looks at Vishnu and Vishnu worship in the arts and traditions of India and South-East Asia. This Exhibit was completed and launched in 2011. 

Playware created a series of interactives for the members of the public to learn more about famous historical poets and composers devoted to the worship of Vishnu. 

Ramayana Interactive (2010)

Playware worked with the Ramayana Revisited exhibition put together by the Asian Civilizations Museum in Jan 2010, to create a special multi-modal interactive exhibit to create an eclectic multi-media collage of the forms that the Ramayana has taken around South-East Asia. This exhibit was based on the 4Di technology and housed in the Pernakan Museum.   

Visit the Heritage Board's online experience for the Exhibit ( here ) to find us on the Level 2 (click on the map and the top-left corner link) 

Mystery Matters (2010)

Developed for the Centre for Learning Innovation, Department of Education and Training, New South Wales, Australia. Link

How can you engage students in authentic learning while having fun in your classroom? How can you equip students with 21st century skills through fun online activities? You might find the answer in Mystery Matters. This new resource collection from the Centre for Learning Innovation targets middle years students, taking  them on an interactive journey where they gather information, solve puzzles, listen to and observe character interactions, hunt for clues, research answers and ultimately solve the mystery.

For CLI, Playware developed the the browser based game engine, the online portal, two learning games based on the engine, a graphics library and a GUI based editor and content management system.

Simplicity (2009)

Developed with Ministry of Education, Singapore, National Education Branch Simplicity is a game which is used as an assessment tool for Secondary School students. The Game is a City Building game. It was used across all Secondary schools in Singapore by the Singapore Examination and Assessments Board for 3 years.

Vanished (2009)

Developed with Ministry of Education, Singapore, National Education Branch Vanished is a game which is used as an assessment tool for Primary School students. The Game is a scrolling map based adventure game set in a fantasy world. It was used across all primary schools in Singapore by the Singapore Examination and Assessments Board for 3 years.

Ecocity (2008)

Ecocity © is a multi-user game where each role is dependent on other roles to provide resources or to purchase the products of players’ own economic activities. Collectively, dynamic interactions between the individuals should ideally lead to overall economic improvement, with minimal degradation of the environment.

There are four roles for players to choose from.  They are: Farmer (representing the primary industry), Manufacturer (representing the secondary industry), Retailer (representing the tertiary industry) and the Government (representing the organisational structure of society).  Each of these roles is critical in achieving national development.

The game master (usually the teacher) can control how much natural and human resources to grant to the players. These variables include land, raw water, skilled labour, machinery, technology and even undesirable output of production such as pollution. This control allows scenario-setting which can be used to frame the environment that players have to work within. Conditions can be set to simulate environments within DCs (Developed Countries) or LDCs (Less Developed Countries).

Alternatively, the parameters for these variables can be amended during the game. Through this, game masters can create random events which require quick thinking and reflex action to test the responsiveness of players, the robustness of the economic system players have built as well as to reinforce particular messages such as the importance of environmental protection.

This Game was developed with Ministry of Education, Singapore, Curriculum Planning and Development Division. It was released to all Secondary Schools in Singapore.

Petals (2007)

Developed with Ministry of Education, Singapore, Curriculum Planning and Development Division, this is a Teacher Training game package based on MOE's new PETALS teaching & learning framework. It contains 9 hours gameplay and was distributed to all primary, secondary & J.C. teachers.