We are offering three scholarships equivalent to one full registration fee + dinner. Simply fill out this short online form. Applications will be received until September 15,  the winners will be announced the week of September 21, 2010.

Play On 2010 will be held October 12 – 13 at Lerner Hall at Columbia University and is sponsored by Playworks, a national nonprofit, transforming recess from potential playground bulling to positive, healthy activities by sending their fully trained coaches to low-income schools to help promote organized play during recess.

Hope to see you there!

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wild West Shoot-em-up level)  for Nintendo Wii
About the game: Psychotic bunnies armed with toilet plungers and feather dusters – need I say more? The Rabbids , humanoid, mentally unstable rabbits, run amok on your screen speaking gibberish while (sometimes) wearing French-maid outfits or ninja suits. In one first-person shooter level of the  game, your mission is to get rid of the Rabbids by launching your own plungers; it’s most fun when you hit them in the face!

What caught our eye: The game is actually comprised of about 70 different mini-games. (For my fellow newbies, a mini-game is an often-simple game that is played within a larger-scale video game; they can be anything from simple puzzles to shooters and beyond.)

“The simplicity of play and the collection of mini-games are our main points of interest in Rayman Raving Rabbids,” Austin explained. “Done well, mini-games can be a really great way to add variety to a game!”

Super Mario Galaxy  for Nintendo Wii
About the game: This 3D game is not for those inclined to motion sickness. Super Mario Galaxy allows the player to fully circumnavigate small planets. While defying gravity, Mario’s mission is to save Princess Peach from evil Lord Bowser.

What caught our eye: The concept of “contextual learning” in this game is why the Re-Mission 2 team is logging lots of hours on Super Mario Galaxy.

Says Austin: “What Mario does really well is teach you the game without you really knowing you’re being taught. It’s a different and more natural approach than having to read a set of instructions before each level. This allows for more streamlined game play and helps keep the player from sitting there confused, wondering what to do next.”

Bioshock for Xbox 360
About the game: Like Rayman Raving Rabbids, this too is a first-person shooter game. You play the role of a plane-crash survivor named Jack, and your first source of defense is a wrench. While you’re not battling bad guys, you are hacking safes, locks, and vending machines that provide you advantages throughout the game (i.e. longer life, armor, more ammunition). Hacking  is done through successfully completing a mini-game.

What caught our eye: Austin and the team are again focused on the use of mini-games.

“These mini-games,” Austin says, “give the player a break from the regular, often-intense first-person-shooter action. They are also used to unlock some sort of reward that helps you in the main mission of the game.”

Biology Battle for Xbox Live Arcade (located in the Indie Games Section)
About the game: A twin-stick top-down shooter game  (yes, I had to ask the definition) that takes place inside a bacteria-filled microscopic cell.  One of your joysticks controls your ship; the other allows you to shoot and kill the chaotic microbes.  As you accumulate points by killing off the germs, the cell becomes more and more hectic and the number of bacteria and viruses grow.

What caught our eye: Says Austin, “This game has a particularly good cellular, biological aspect to its look and feel.  It is a great inspiration for RM2.”

Biology Battle: Worms Mini-game for Xbox Live Arcade  (located in the Indie Games Section)
About the game: There is no shooting, no jumping, and no grabbing hearts from chests. The object of this game is to accumulate as many points as possible by flying your little ship as close as possible to the worms without touching them. The closer you get, the more points you earn. But be cautious – if you touch a worm, it is time to start over.

What caught our eye: “Although this game is simple, there is a large risk and reward factor that invites numerous different styles of play,” explains Austin. “Your goal in the game is to get as many points as possible. One person may like to hang out at a safe distance near a worm which accumulates points slowly but also lessens their risk of dying and gives them more time to earn points in the end. Me, on the other hand, I like to get as close as possible. I accumulate a ton of points quickly, but I also die a lot more, so I risk letting the person who played it safe end up with more time than me to earn points! Accommodating different styles of game play is key to making a fun game that can appeal of many people.”

My time with Austin was fabulous. I’d have to say my favorite game was Rayman Raving Rabbids. The characters had such great personalities and costumes, and the game play difficultly was pretty minimal (for a newbie like me, ease of play is critical!).

If you have suggestions for games we should check out as we think about Re-Mission 2, feel free to leave us a comment, and we’ll be sure to check them out!

We’re super-excited to give you a closer look at the new Zamzee activity meter! For several months, we’ve been working with the truly innovative folks at NONOBJECT to build a device that’s durable, customizable, and good-looking too – all based on feedback from our kid customers. The Zamzee activity meter records a user’s physical activity, and activity data is uploaded to the Zamzee website via a built-in USB connector.

In a recent conversation, Branko Lukic of NONOBJECT talked about the role of the activity meter in the overall Zamzee experience, saying, “This is a highly unique project because it lives in the cross-section of the physical world and the digital world.” That kind of big-picture thinking combined with the endless creative energy of the NONOBJECT team were huge assets in developing the new device.

For more on the development of the Zamzee activity meter, check out Fred Dillon‘s conversation with Branko Lukic and Steve Takayama. If you don’t have 3 minutes and 45 seconds to watch the interview, scroll down to check out Liz‘s graphic of gDitty’s journey to Zamzee.

Having most of my elementary school education in the late 80s and early 90s, there was one thing that many of us really looked forward to during the day: recess (and later known as PE). It was a perfect break in the monotony of learning numbers, words and all the other important stuff for an educational foundation. Not only did it give us kids a break, it gave us an outlet for the energy that we had sitting in those chairs. It’s no secret that physical activity helps keep kids’ minds and bodies in shape…so why has it left the priority list of so many schools over the years?

According to the 2010 Shape of Physical Education Report (PDF) developed by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, only 5 states require some of physical education in grades K-12. Even further cause for alarm, only one state follows the nationally recommended 150 min/week of PE in elementary school and 225 min/week in middle and high school. Now we are all familiar with the childhood obesity issue that has been plaguing the country for many years, but when we start speaking about solutions, do we mention the need to bring back regular PE classes and physical activity to the school systems as much as we look at cracking down on the snack food empires? I just wonder which might have a better chance at being implemented.

One thing I’m glad to see are organizations such as the American Heart Association, a leading authority on a large aspect of our public’s health, chiming in to advocate for change. Just last month, the CEO of the AHA put out a press release highlighting the lack of quality physical education in many states. Some great initiatives are also taking place including Be Active NC’s entry into the Pepsi Refresh challenge with their Just Push Play project. Partnering up with the nPlay Foundation gave the project a boost from the mainstream sports angle, giving it another visibility boost.

As we move forward with this seemingly snails-pace battle, we have to keep in mind that changing the minds of youth to empower themselves and making winning policy changes will be the actions we need to pursue to see a real difference. Amy Jussel of Shaping Youth wrote about this a few years back and it still rings true today regarding getting rid of lipservice and being real about childhood obesity. It’s an uphill battle but with smart thinking, creativity and passionate people working hard the victories along the way are well worth it!

Andre Blackman is an agent of change and innovation within the public health community – passionate about the role of new media, mobile technology and other useful innovations as it relates to health communications and public health in general – resulting in Public Health 2.0.