Award winner: Rob Willems - Principal Blue, Groningen and Sven Schultz, TNO Groningen (Netherlands)

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Home • Best Collaboration Award • Award winner: Rob Willems - Principal Blue, Groningen and Sven Schultz, TNO Groningen (Netherlands)

Award winner: Rob Willems - Principal Blue, Groningen and Sven Schultz, TNO Groningen (Netherlands)

Project: The Discoverer

“The Principal Blue-TNO Groningen collaboration project is a remarkable example for scientific-driven innovation. In producing a Wii-based computer-game for children with and without visual impairments, the project successfully contributed to the inclusion of society.

Remarkable positive aspects of this project are:

Bringing together children with and without visual impairments, playing on an equal basis
Drawing on the curiousness of children, thus active interaction is being fostered
Uses the widely distributed Wii-technology, thus low access-barriers
Possibility to monitor improvements via Wii-balance board, which might create interesting data for further (clinical) analysis
Selling point: Serious game combined with entertainment
Closely developing/ co-creating the game with end-users, incorporating the special interests and needs of the target group minimizing the risk of innovation failure
Interesting mix of collaboration partners: Science, gaming industry, and health care
Publicised conference paper
International media coverage”

Jury Member: Christian Horneber, Researcher in Entrepreneurial Creativity, Oldenburg, Germany

“This 'triple helix' collaborative between science, technology and design was a vey interesting one and addressed a challenging subject. The development of a 'virtual game' for visually impaired young people is a highly laudable one. This kind of game forms a key part of youth culture and one which many visually impaired people are excluded from. This project sought to address this and did so without the commercial focus which drives most of this industry.The game appears still to be at development stage and has not reached a commercial or production stage but an excellent initiative none the less - creative as well as practical and ambitious in meeting a need for a group of end users.”
Jury Member: Sandra Gunn, Sandra Gunn, Curriculum Director of the City of Glasgow College, Great Britain

Describe your collaborative partnership

This project is a fine example of a triple helix project in a creative city with scientific culture for innovation. It originated bottom-up, at the side of the end-user, SME, consumer, or the market so to say. In other words: co-creation with the end-users. The project demonstrates how developments in science and technology can stimulate innovation in the creative sector, and how the creative sector itself can stimulate the emergence of new forms of creativity and innovation in science and technology.
The partnership consisted of Visio, MAD Multimedia, TNO and Principal Blue with the support of government partner Province Groningen. Using Wii technology the consortium managed to develop, produce and market a serious game, The Discoverer. It can be played at the same time by children with or without visual impairments, which is unique in the world. Therefore the product is an example of innovative contribution for inclusion in society, a useful tool for healthy and active ageing.

Provide evidence of your success

Even before the game was finished, children from the end-user group wanted to buy the game. We were Invited to speak at international conferences, like the Games for Health Conference in Boston, USA (slides: http://tinyurl.com/GFH2011). The launch of the game was broadcasted on regional and national television and radio. Articles appeared in regional and national newspapers. The project received the Oogfonds Innovationaward Dutch organization for visually impaired).
As a result of this collaborative project there are chances for the gaming industry in Groningen. Besides the initial partners other companies and institutions participated like the Hanze University and Soundbase (Groningen) and Litte Chicken (game developer in Amsterdam). Partners will continue the collaboration for future projects where science, creative industry and healthcare will meet.
International media attention helped raising the profile of the gaming industry of research institutions in the northern Netherlands.

Why is your collaboration special and not a typical client-customer relationship?

This project is a unique partnership of science, gaming industry and health care. Initially the project was not solely driven by commercial goals. The projectpartners had the desire to produce a unique, high quality, product for a relatively small targetgroup. Input of every individual partner contributed to the high quality of the end product. The result of the relationship of the projectpartners with other companies and institutions (inside and outside the region, commercial and not commercial) is a good knowledge ecology for co-creating (serious) games.

Websites

Studio / Agency: www.principalblue.nl
Client: www.tno.nl
Presentation: The Discoverer (372.06 MB)

Contact for further information regarding the BEST COLLABORATION AWARD 2012

Andrea Kuhfuss (Dept. Innovation Design / Creative Industries), WFB Economic Development Bremen

Am Wall 209, 28203 Bremen, Germany
T +49/421/33 88 114, F +49/421/33 88 110