CALL FOR PAPERS, SHOWCASES & EXHIBITS
JCSG 2016 - Joint Conference on Serious Games
26 - 27 Sept, Brisbane, Australia
http://jcsg2016.org

The international Joint Conference on Serious Games – JCSG 2016 brings together the 7th Serious Games Development & Applications (SGDA 2016) and 6th GameDays 2016 conferences. JCSG 2016 will be held in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland in Australia, and hosted by Griffith University on Brisbane’s beautiful cultural precinct, South Bank.

Games, Play, Interactions and Art with Purpose
Serious games are simulations and games for purposes beyond pure entertainment. Serious games stretches across a broad spectrum of application domains, ranging from game-based learning, simulation and training, through games for health, well-being and behaviour change, marketing and business, to games for tourism and cultural heritage, and games to raise awareness and provoke questioning on environmental, moral and social issues.

The development of serious games is a creative and multidisciplinary pursuit, creating new ways to play, interact and experience. The Joint Conference on Serious Games invites researchers, developers, practitioners, designers, writers and artists of serious games to submit their work and join us at JCSG 2016. Accepted papers are expected to present high quality material that illustrates the broad range of work in serious games and gamification, with particular interest in best practice and field / case studies, but also underlying theories, models, designs, and artwork. We seek submissions on serious games, supported on, or across, any technology and delivery platforms, including traditional or novel, augmented and virtual reality, mobile and location-based, and transmedia, etc.

Keynotes
Tracy Fullerton is associate professor and director of the University of Southern California’s (USC) Games program. Her research center, the Game Innovation Lab, has produced several influential independent games including Cloud, flOw, Darfur is Dying, and The Night Journey with artist Bill Viola, and she’s currently working on Walden, a simulation of Henry David Thoreau’s experiment at Walden Pond. She’s designed games for Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, MTV, among many others, and received numerous honors including an Emmy nomination for interactive television, Indiecade’s “Sublime Experience,” “Impact,” and “Trailblazer” awards, Games for Change “Game Changer” award, Time Magazine’s Best of the Web, and recently, “The Ambassador Award” at GDC 2016 for helping to advance video games.

Sara de Freitas is Pro Vice Chancellor and Professor of Learning and Teaching at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. Prior to this, Sara was Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute, UK attracting millions in research income and brought together commercial and academic partnerships to fuel regional economic growth. She currently holds a Visiting Professorship at Coventry University, a Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of London and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She’s undertaken consultancy work with government departments and agencies, and has experience of working in the manufacturing, ICT, education, health and risk and resilience sectors. Sara is a passionate advocate of pedagogy-led blended learning, accelerated learning and activity-led learning. Her current research focuses upon learning analytics, online learning and higher education policy. She’s published seven books and over 100 journal articles, conference papers and reports. Her most recent book, Education in Computer Generated Environments (2014), published by Routledge in the Research in Education Series, outlines a vision for future learning in higher education. http://jcsg2016.org/keynotes/

Submission and Publication
Accepted papers, posters and showcase & exhibit extended abstracts will be published in the JCSG 2016 proceedings, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). Submissions are divided into two main streams: Technical Papers & Posters, and Showcase & Exhibition, as follows:

Technical Papers & Posters
Full papers (10 – 12 pages) describe latest design and development, new concepts / theories, methodologies / approaches for design and assessment / evaluation, and study results of work not previously published. Short papers (5 – 6 pages) describe late breaking, less mature, on-going or more focused work. Poster papers (2 – 4 pages) provide an opportunity to describe new work or work that is still in progress – posters are ideal for research students or researchers, developers and practitioners who wish take advantage of the interactive poster sessions with conference attendees.

Showcase & Exhibition
Games, simulations, interactive / responsive media, artifacts and art with purpose will be presented / displayed and available for JCSG 2016 participants to play, interact and experience. These are newly released, novel, unique, innovative, repurposed or are an updated version. Submissions of extended abstracts / proposals (2 – 4 pages) consist of two parts: (i) summary or concept statement (150 words max) – this will accompany your showcase or exhibit during the conference; and (ii) detailed description of your showcase or exhibit (e.g. purpose, play, mechanics, interaction, experience) with supporting images / sketches.

Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Serious game design and development
- Serious game playtesting, evaluation, assessment & analytics
- Interactive storyworlds, storytelling, narrative, fiction and game mechanics
- Engagement, reflection, emotion, and positive, thought provoking and serious experience
- Experimental serious games design – new interactions, play, and experiences
- Interactive / responsive media, artifacts and art with purpose, & serious art games
- Social issues, awareness, raising consciousness, and games for social innovation & change
- Interactive news and documentary, and cinematic games
- Game-based learning, edutainment and training
- Tourism, cultural, museum, heritage and architecture
- Game AI and artificial life
- Virtual characters, agents, learning partners and assistants
- Persuasive and behavior change
- VR and augmented reality-based
- Mobile and location-based, pervasive, transmedia and blended approaches
- Gamification and alternate reality games
- Games for health, well-being and exercise
- Simulation, engineering and manufacturing
- Advertising, marketing and business

IMPORTANT DATES
May 16 - Full Paper / Short Paper
May 16 - Poster Paper
May 16 - Showcase & Exhibit Abstract
June 13 - Notification of Acceptance
July 4 – Camera ready papers & extended abstracts due

Authors have an opportunity to be awarded the Best Paper award and Best Poster award, and Showcase and Exhibitors have an opportunity to be awarded the Best Serious Game and Best Exhibit award for JCSG 2016. There are also student / research candidate awards for each of the submission categories. Awards will be selected by the Program and Showcase & Exhibition Committee.

Further instructions on how to prepare and submit to JCSG 2016 can be found at: http://jcsg2016.org/call-for-submissions

Local Organizing Committee
Tim Marsh, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Brigid Costello, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Rafael Calvo, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Erik Champion, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Mark Billinghurst, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

Organizing Committee
Manuel Fradinho Oliveira, SINTEF, Norway
Minhua Ma, University of Huddersfield, UK
Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, BIBA, University of Bremen, Germany
Stefan Göbel, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
Tim Marsh, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

Contact us at: seriousgames2016@gmail.com