ZGDV Darmstadt initiated and organized the GameDays 2005 in cooperation with Fraunhofer IGD Rostock and Prof. Maic Masuch of the Uni Magdeburg. The GameDays 2005 took place at the Fraunhofer Institute in Darmstadt from May 24 – May 26.
At the first two days, participants from science and business came together and discussed current trends and hot topics around computer games ranging from game theory, game consoles (e.g. presentation of nintendo) or mobile computer games to game based learning applications or computer games for the upcoming soccer WM 2006. For instance, Prof. Dr. Heinz Liesen as vice president of the youth soccer foundation (chaired by Jürgen Klinsmann) introduced “soccer as language” and the idea to use game based approaches for playful knowledge transfer for kids. Hereby, storytelling technology is used to provide an exciting and suspenseful environment for knowledge transfer of facts and soft skills such as team spirit or fairness.
At May 26th (Corpus Christi Day) the whole family and espicially kids were invited to dive into the world of computer games and have a look behind the scene. Highlights of the program represented a lecture for kids about computer games, a gam(bl)ing room, a cinema and a course “game development” where kids developed their own (pacman- oriented) game in 3 hours.
Since the feedback and resonance of the GameDays 2005 was very positive (over 20 exhibitors, ~50 participants for “science meets business”, ~120 persons enjoying the family day, various press infos) the organizers decided to start a GameDays series on annual basis and the GameDays 2006 taking place at Darmstadt in early June, 2006.
