UK Serious Games developers form trade body
Developers of Serious Games in the UK met earlier this week in the inaugural board meeting of new trade body ANGILS, hammering out an action plan for the group which is aimed at promoting the growth of the serious games market.
ANGILS was originally founded as a non-profit-making networking group in 2003 but has now repositioned itself as a trade body for companies and individuals involved in the use of game technology and knowledge in non-games applications.
More specifically, ANGILS aims to address the business side of the market - and hopes to identify the key issues facing the burgeoning industry, so that working groups drawn from across the industry can find practical solutions.
"Representing many of the leading serious games clients and suppliers we are in a position to identify the 'big rocks' - the pressing needs of organizations and educational establishments that drive adoption - and then to assemble working parties lead by specialists in their fields to focus on mapping pragmatic solutions," explained ANGILS CEO Martine Parry.
"We need to drill down to present the value of serious games to the commercial and educational markets to widen our understanding of how to position them: from engagement through productivity to mission-critical outcomes," she continued. "This is the main aim of the working parties."
UK based serious game developer TPLD is a founding member of ANGILS, and CEO Jim Piggot welcomed the group's first board meeting.
"There are many organisations chartered with a wide range of aspects related to Games Based Learning (GBL)," he said. "However we believe that ANGILS will provide a catalyst to help identify and resolve the business issues impeding the growth of the industry. The maturity of the technology and organisations now operating in this market can help significantly improve on the fidelity of current business programs chartered with tackling strategic organisational issues such strategic change management and health and safety."
The other founding board members of ANGILS are PIXELearning, imaginary srl, KWP, PlayGen and Geomerics, with the board led by chairman Professor Bob Stone. ANGILS plans to announce details of its first working parties in the near future.