Serious Games Showcase & Challenge Announces 2024 Finalist Games

The Serious Games Showcase & Challenge (SGS&C) committee has selected the 2024 finalist games to be showcased at the Interservice/industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), in Orlando, FL, Dec. 2-5 in booth 2285 as part of the EcosySTEM of Learning Discovery Den. Winners from this group will be recognized at an awards presentation on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 1:00 p.m. in the Innovation Showcase booth 2909.

“Over the past year we focused an initiative to reach out to the broad community of university game development programs to encourage their participation in the SGS&C, that effort brought in diverse academic lab and student-developed serious game submissions, and we are excited by the number of universities represented among our finalist this year.” said Matt Becchio, Engineering and Computer Simulations, and the 2024 Industry Chair.

Below we announce the 17 finalist serious games chosen for 2024. Our Evaluation Committee is hard at work evaluating the games to determine the winners of the: Best General Audience Serious Game, Best Government Audience Serious Game, Best Student-Developed Serious Game, Best Serious Game Innovation, Students’ Choice, and People’s Choice.

17 Serious Games will be Showcased at I/ITSEC in Booth 2285

This year’s finalists categorized by audience are:

General Audience Games

• Answer Campus by students at NERDLab at the University of Miami
• Building Resilient Communities by Virginia Digital Maritime Center at Old Dominion University
• Culture Quest featuring PeproTech recombinant proteins by Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Election Edge by Second Avenue Learning
• Deepfake Elicitation by BridgeFour
• Flooded Folds by Team Paper students at University of Florida
• Home N’ Work by students at Savannah College of Art and Design
• Microchip Mayhem by Engage to Innovate (E2i) Creative Studio, Institute for Simulation & Training, University of Central Florida
• OnOrbit – Virtual Space Lab by OnOrbit
• StoryQuest: The Fall of the Berlin Wall by QuestSim powered by UltiSim Inc
• Siege of Jerusalem: Another Story by students at Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) for the Judaic Studies Department, both at the University of Central Florida
• Wings-101 by Blueflame Digital Ltd and 2024 SGSCE winner

Government Audience Games

• AI’s Anatomy by the Serious Games Initiative, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
• Cyber Siege by students at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) at the University of Central Florida for the United States Air Force 338th Training Squadron (USAF 338th TRS)
• Land Engagement Adjudication Platform (LEAP) by students at the USAF Academy at AFRL Gaming Research Integration for Learning Laboratory (GRILL) for the Multi-Domain Laboratory at USAF Academy Strategy & Warfare Center
• The PEACEGAME by CRISP – Conflict Transformation and Principles for Peace Foundation
• The Plastic Pipeline by Serious Games Initiative, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Jennifer McNamara, Breakaway Games, and SGS&C director, said, “Once again, our showcase highlights creative approaches to learning and assessment, we’re excited to welcome finalists from outside of the standard I/ITSEC community who have never participated at I/ITSEC before. We encourage everyone attending I/ITSEC to visit the showcase in booth 2285 to interact with the developers and their games. Playing the exemplar games and having conversations with their developers could spark innovative ideas for future training systems. Plus, every I/ITSEC attendee has a ballot in your badge to vote for the 2024 People’s Choice Award, make sure to cast your vote for the winner.”

The SGS&C Appreciate the Support of Our Volunteers and Generous Sponsors

This event wouldn’t be possible without the support from our all-volunteer committee, and our global evaluators. We thank them and their organizations for sharing their valuable time to help build the showcase of exemplar serious games as part of I/ITSEC and to determine the winners of the SGS&C Awards.

We thank our 2024 Sponsors for their monetary and in-kind support of the SGS&C: Virtual Heroes Applied Research Associates, Engineering and Computer Simulations, Inc., Mass Virtual, Hatalom Corporation, Box, HP, NTSA, and BreakAway Games. Additional sponsorships remain available, see the prospectus or contact us for for an overview of available sponsorships and benefits.

Questions about the competition, becoming an evaluator or sponsor, or serving on the committee? Send us an email to [email protected].

About SGS&C

SGS&C grew from a Team Orlando initiative spearheaded by Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division and sponsored by National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA). SGS&C’s first I/ITSEC was 2006 and it has been a thriving part of the I/ITSEC experience since, bringing first-in-class serious games and novel game design and technology demonstrations to the I/ITSEC community.

More information about SGS&C can be found on the SGS&C website (https://sgschallenge.org/.)