The Netherlands is partner country for the 9th Nasscom Game Developer Conference 2016, taking place on November 10-12 in Hyderabad, India. After a successful India Games Roadshow in april 2016, the Nasscom Gaming Forum invited 8 Dutch game companies to the conference, providing showcasing, speaking and networking opportunities for them as well as a representation of Dutch best-practices in a whitepaper on applied gaming.
The trip to Hyderabad is a joint effort between the Nasscom Gaming Forum, Trade Network India, Dutch Culture and the Dutch Games Association. The companies showcasing and speaking at the conference are QameZ (publisher), Hulan Studio (educational games), IJsfontein (playful learning solutions), Wind Tales (health games), Ellis In Wonderland (applied play consultancy), ThinkFast Studio (indie developer), Monobanda Play (VR experience and health games research foundation) and Pillo Games (health games, special needs games). The group is guided by the Dutch Games Association and the embassy who are looking into possibilities to start up a lengthier program of collaboration between the Dutch and Indian games industry with the aim to enhance each other’s industries by combining India’s technical know-how with the Dutch creativity and innovative mindset.
Whitepaper on the possibilities of applied gaming using Dutch best-practices
The whitepaper has been prepared by the Special Interest Group on Applied Gaming, that is part of the Nasscom Gaming Forum in collaboration with the Dutch Games Association to highlight how applied games can provide solutions to the grand societal challenges that India and the Netherlands are facing. Four Dutch best-practices have been included to illustrate the variety of solutions that games can provide in different sectors such as health, education, advertising and elderly care: Underground by Grendel Games, Monsterzoo by &ranj, AHDino’s by Little Chicken and &samhoud media and Tovertafel (“Magic Table”) by ActiveCues. The games show the broad array of possibilities of Dutch applied games from surgeon-training (Underground), to fine motor skills-training needed for writing (Monsterzoo), bring Dinosaurs to life in VR and AR with an affordable solution for all Dutch children (AHDino’s) and how to activate elderly with severe dementia (Tovertafel). Each of the examples is a case of how research was successfully incorporated in game providing a trusted solution, or – in the case of AHDino\’s – how Dutch game companies are able to deliver fun, state-of-the-art interactive advertising campaigns for large corporations.