Ford Motor Company announced today during Gamescom a competition that challenges video game developers to create solutions for global mobility issues.
The Ford Smart Mobility Game Challenge, developed with Cologne Game Lab, encourages developers to turn the challenge of integrating different transport modes within a city into fun and engaging online games. Gamescom 2015 – the largest interactive games trade fair in Europe – is taking place this week in Cologne.
Gamification has proven to be an effective way to solve real-life problems in many areas. The learnings from the Ford Smart Mobility Game Challenge could lead to innovative solutions and new approaches to integrating urban transport, with joined-up door-to-door journeys. For instance, the games developed could reward participating commuters for successful journeys, based on criteria such as time-taken, cost, comfort and convenience. They also could utilise personal data and technology including smart phones and watches.
The winner will receive €10,000 and the opportunity to show their work at the 2016 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
“The Smart Mobility Game Challenge is designed to harness the creativity of the gaming community and empower gamers to take a fresh approach to tackling today’s global mobility issues,” said Ken Washington, vice president, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering. “Applying the fun, engaging and rewarding aspects of games to journey planning can allow people to improve their commutes, track their success and become aware of how their behaviour impacts the transport infrastructure as a whole.”
The Smart Mobility Game Challenge is part of Ford Smart Mobility – Ford’s effort to help change the way the world moves through innovation. The challenge follows a recent Ford-commissioned survey of 5,500 commuters in major European cities that showed a majority of people consider their journey to work more stressful than their actual jobs.
The finalists will be asked to incorporate the key insights from this survey into their game development plans.
Ford has developed the Smart Mobility Game Challenge with leading academic institute and think tank Cologne Game Lab, part of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at the University of Cologne. Developers can submit their entries at www.ford-smart-mobility-game-challenge.com until Oct. 1, 2015.
Original source: Ford
