Stottler Henke Gives Serious Game Contestants Access To Tools

Stottler Henke announced that it is giving contestants in the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference's (I/ITSEC) First Annual Serious Games Showcase and Challenge free access to its SimBionic and SimVentive game simulation and character behavior development tools. I/ITSEC contestants can download the software directly from the Stottler Henke website. The I/ITSEC competition is intended to identify innovative game-based solutions to problems encountered by the military today and in the future. Winners will be announced at I/ITSEC in Orlando, Florida, December 4-7, 2006. "Stottler Henke has been a proponent and developer of serious games since before the term was coined," said Richard Stottler, president of Stottler Henke Associates. "In fact the tools we're making available to contestants in this competition were born largely of our own work creating simulation-based 'intelligent tutoring systems' for the U.S. military, which recognizes the value of a game-like approach to complex training requirements." He added: "We're proud to be contributing to the progress of the 'serious games' field by providing technology that lets designers create more challenging and realistic games, faster and easier than ever before." Both SimBionic and SimVentive are software designed to provide game development tools that are usable by non-programmers. SimVentive is a visual authoring tool designed to simplify and streamline the development of high-quality game simulations. SimBionic is a visual authoring tool for specifying behaviors of simulated characters. In addition, SimBionic received a Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Award in 2004 for its ease-of-use and ability to create training simulations that provide students with complex, realistic, and engaging learning experiences.