For the 3rd time, the Serious Games Award is awarded to the best educational games at the CeBIT 2011 fair in Hannover, Germany. The postwar adventure game Generation Zero is among the five best serious games and reaches out for the trophy. Even more so, the title will be discussed at the highest places in Germany: Members of parliament will playtest the game this Wednesday in the “German Bundestag”.
On March 4th 2011, the „Serious Games Conference” will be held the 3rd time in Hannover. The conference awards software applications that take usage of entertainment technology but follow an educational premise at the same time. The adventure “Generation Zero” is among the five nominees for this “Serious Games Award” and reach for the prize money of in all 22.500 Euros. The games have been carefully selected by a jury of experts including Dr.-Ing. Stefan Göbel from the University of Technology in Darmstadt, Moses Grohé, Editor in Chief of the GEE magazine and Prof. Eku Wand from the University of Art in Braunschweig. Generation Zero, which has been subsidized by the FilmFernsehFonds of Bavaria and the the Bavarian State Chancellery, was able to succeed against over 50 other competitors in the contest.
Generation Zero tells the story of Emil, who returns to the destroyed city of Berlin in 1945, in order to find his father. The perspective of a whole generation of children is ruined – just like the buildings of the once elevated capital. With nothing, they’re fighting for their bare survival in the streets of a postwar area. During his journey, Emil himself will be forced to form his own youth gang, just to assure his own and his sisters’ survival. And still: Despite all the destruction, the rivalries and the despair, this is the generation “zero” building up the Germany we know today. Together with Emil, his sister and his friends the player will learn to understand, why Germany became, what it is today. The game focuses heavily on believable and deep characters with a lot of backstory as well as a thorough research on the topic and its cultural impact.
This cultural impact has now even become a topic at the highest places in Germany, too: The game will be presented in the German parliament on February 23rd. On this evening, all members of parliament are invited to a special “LAN party”. The event is organized by the German Trade Association of Interactive Entertainment Software (BIU) and several politicians and is supposed to lower prejudices against computer games that still can be found in politics, today. Besides the big budget titles, Generation Zero will be playable for the MPs, representing a more substantial title that is holding up a unique setting and story rarely done in games. The event will be heavily covered by press and television stations and the whole team of Generation Zero is keen about its response.
Find more details about the game and Reality Twist in the PDF document attached to this email. And don’t hesitate to contact us for further informations.