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Newsbrief: In a new effort to teach teens about science and technology, the UK-based Science Museum has commissioned a series of free, retro-themed web games for its official website. The games suite, dubbed Futurecade, includes four games that aim to teach players about current and future technology in a number of scientific fields, with topics ranging from bacteria engineering, protecting space satellites, to fighting global warming. The games were developed by the London-based Preloaded, a ...

In the latest postings over the last seven days, Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles in every major discipline, including opportunities at Rockstar, LucasArts, Blizzard Entertainment, and others. Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly. It will also be cross-posted for free across Gamasutra's network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on independent ...

Veteran game designer Jordan Weisman is now interim director of the University of Washington Bothell's Center for Serious Play, which has just launched its first student game on Facebook. The game, UWB Wetlands Restoration, is a social game with a real correlative to the subject at hand, developed in collaboration with the university's ecology department. The Center itself is a new initiative, just under a year old. Weisman, who established FASA, created series like Shadowrun ...

[Spry Fox chief creative officer Dan Cook considers the definition of plagiarism as it applies to game design, and warns game developers of the consequences of borrowing ideas from other games. Reprinted with permission.] "Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the 'wrongful appropriation,' 'close imitation,' or 'purloining and publication' of another author's 'language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions,' and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous boundaries. ...

With the 2012 Game Developers Conference just over a month away, its organizers have announced an exciting opportunity to win an All-Access pass to the San Francisco show, revealing a continued onsite partnership with the game artist, marketing, and production group iam8bit for live-drawing of wacky game concepts. This year, GDC will once again partner with the independent artist group iam8bit (creators of last year's 'Painting With Pixels' art exhibit) to bring a similarly inspirational ...

Public media provider Thirteen today published a new educational web game that teaches students about U.S. history by putting them into the shoes of a runaway slave in the years leading up to the Civil War. The game, dubbed Flight to Freedom, is the second in Thirteen's "Mission US" series, which will eventually offer four unique web games intended to complement a traditional history curriculum. The previous title, For Crown or Colony?, covers the events ...

Newsbrief: The organizers behind the 9th annual Games for Change Festival have issued their call for presentations, encouraging game developers to submit talks on the creation of games that facilitate social change. The upcoming event will take place this June in New York City, and will offer sessions spanning game design, business models, individual case-studies, and more, all demonstrating how video games can serve as tools for educational or humanitarian purposes. Those interested in submitting ...