On Saturday 18th April, the Vibewire Enterprise Hub held its first workshop of the year: Designing Serious Games, facilitated by Janine Cahill of Global Youth Futures.

From 11 a.m. until 5.30 p.m. eleven very enthusiastic, creative folks gathered at the hub to learn about and discuss serious games.

The first part of the workshop was more of a reflection on the concept of serious gaming and the different topics that people wanted to address (in connection with the e-Festival of Ideas); while the second part was more interactive. Participants formed 3 groups of 4 people each and walked around the area for half an hour to get some ideas from the outside, and then came back to the hub to start thinking about a game to design.
Here are the basics: first of all you need a theme, then you think about what the players might like to get out of it, and finally you think about how to create this techno-game in the outside world.

The workshop participants are working on the design/creation of the games–get ready to join the adventure and take part on May 10th.

*The 2009 Workshop series are made possible by Arts NSW