The fifth round of Iran’s Serious Games Prize (SeGaP2021) festival organized by Iran Computer and Video Games Foundation awarded 18.7 billion rials ($64,500) to 63 winners.
Wrapped up on Nov. 26 at Tehran University, the event was held in three main sections, namely Serious Games Festival, Serious Games Hackathon and the International Serious Games Symposium, the foundation’s website Ircg.ir reported.
The competition presented opportunities for game researchers and developers to conduct research, create games and share their knowledge in gaming arena.
Winners in the three sections were awarded commendation plaques, a total of 2.54 billion rials ($8,760) in cash prize and 16.2 billion ($85,260) in financial aid for commercialization of games.
In the Serious Games Festival, divided into three subsections (game of the year, serious game and the best update game), 39 games and applications were selected winners among 80 finalists.
During the hackathon section, held in Tehran, Tabriz and Isfahan simultaneously, the foundation brought together people for planning, designing and creating game demos within 72 hours. The marathon was held on Nov. 3-5 with the participation of 39 teams that featured four board games and 35 digital games.
The hackathon awarded 15 winners in the closing ceremony.
A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest) is a design sprint-like event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers and others, collaborate on software projects.
The third section, the International Serious Games Symposium, gathered scientific papers on serious games in English, with the priority given to the field of “research methods and commercialization of serious games”. From among 30 participants, nine papers were selected.
This year’s event had a more comprehensive approach toward targeted entertainment and attracted a wider network of sponsors and partners, supporting other serious categories such as escape rooms, board games, or simulators, in addition to digital games.
According to the foundation’s website, the event endeavored to promote serious games in Iran. Organizers aimed to help young developers form new teams and provide insight into the rapidly expanding gaming industry.
A serious game, or applied game, is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally used to refer to video games used for educational purposes. Such games try to convey messages related to scientific exploration, health care, emergency management and city planning.
In addition to Iran Computer and Video Games Foundation, other private and public institutions contributed to the event, including the government-backed Iran's National Elites Foundation, Digital Games Research Center (DIREC), Cognitive Sciences and Technologies Council, Iran's National Elites Foundation, Institute for Cognitive Science Studies, Iran National Innovation Fund, Faculty of Multimedia at Tabriz Islamic Art University, University of Isfahan, Iran Games Development Institute, Automation and Digital Technologies Development Headquarters of the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology, National Institute for Medical Research Development (NIMAD) on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Iran Public Libraries Institution and AvaGames, a startup accelerator that helps game developers commercialize their ideas and products.
Training for Developers
The Serious Games Hackathon 2021 was accompanied by empowering workshops based on developing Cognitive Serious Games as a prerequisite for participating in the Hackathon.
Cognitive Sciences and Technologies Council, as the main designer of the Hackathon, proclaimed "talent identification and empowerment with a cognitive approach" as the theme of the competition.
During the event, mentors helped participants develop a demo version of a video game to address a variety of issues. All the participants had been provided with further assistance, including loans and training courses.
Experts with NIMAD assisted participants to develop healthcare-related games.
NIMAD and the games foundation help developers forge teams, create startups, enrol in startup acceleration programs and seek investors.
As part of the SeGaP2021 program, AvaGames and the foundation had joint plans to provide training and investment assistance to developers.
Winners
Chelcheli, developed by a namesake group, was named “game of the year” in the festival section. The team received a commendation statuette and 200 million rials ($690) in cash prize.
Cognitive Escape Room, the runner-up of the festival, was developed by the Raash team. The game, classified as a “serious entertaining game”, was awarded 50 million rials ($172).
Eureka, a game developed by Hezartou team, was the third winner. It received 30 million rials ($103) as the best “game update”.
In Tehran’s hackathon, Tirnam team for its Green Head, Andragogy team for its Noushdarou and Pranious team for River Raid Cognitive game, respectively won cash prizes worth 120 million rials ($413), 20 million rials ($68) and 20 million rials ($68).
In Tabriz’s hackathon, Arma team for the game En’ekas (meaning Reflection), StarJam team for Rescue Siren game and Mado team for Jooya game were respectively awarded 50, 20 and 20 million rials ($172, $68 and $68).
In Isfahan’s competition, a game called Kook, developed by a namesake group, SeriousMobs game by Bit Adventure-8 team and Nabegheh (meaning genius) made by the Alvand team won the first to third best game awards, respectively, receiving 120, 100 and 80 million rials ($413, $344 and $275) cash prizes.
Finally, in the symposium section, Sheida Mirzakhani and Hadi Moradi won the best scientific paper award for their studies on “The Impact of Competition on the Effectiveness of Cognitive Games”, receiving 50 million rials ($172) of cash prize.
Iranian Gamers
Based on the latest official data released by DIREC, by the fiscal 2019-20, 32 million gamers in Iran had generated 2.9 trillion rials ($9.83 million) for the local gaming market.
The penetration rate of mobile games reached 92% among gamers. Console gamers, however, accounted for only 22% of gamers and computer gamers constituted 20% of the gamers.
DIREC says Iranian gamers spent an average of 93 minutes per day on games.
The gamers’ average age has also risen from 19 years in 2017 to 22 years in 2019-20. During the period, the number of female gamers also witnessed a slight increase from 35% to 38% compared to the male gamers.
