Hidden Agenda Reveals Winners, Announces Contest

The Liemandt Foundation, a nonprofit family organization with a primary focus on improving education through technology, has announced that the past years' winning entries in the "Hidden Agenda" educational game development contest are now available online. The games, whose beta versions are available now on the HAGames website, were designed to be entertaining while at the same time teaching middle school players subjects such as science and math. In making the winning titles available, players around the world can play these titles and can compete against each other for free. The winning games, created by students from schools such as University of Southern California, Pomona University, and University of Central Florida, were all selected by a panel that included middle school students and teachers, game development personalities such as NCSoft's Richard "Lord British" Garriott, educational game gurus such as Marc Prensky, and instructional design experts from the University of Texas at Austin. The judging criteria weighed entertainment value of the games first and secondarily evaluated how well each game would teach middle school subjects. Each year, $25,000 is awarded to the winning team. Along with the launch of the new website, the Liemandt Foundation also announced that it is holding the contest again this year. College students have until December 15, 2006 to express interest by completing a short entry form available online, and entrants have until May 2007 to build their games. The next $25,000 prize will be awarded in the summer, and games will continue to be added to the HAGames website.