-A 3-day game development camp on the theme of “Safety Consciousness for Kids”
-Students improve their analytic and problem solving abilities, teamwork, 
  and creativity through the game building process
-Selected games will be developed as Android-based applications

[July 26th, 2012] Daesung Group (Younghoon David Kim, CEO) hosts a 3-day 2012 Serious Game Development Camp on the theme of “Safety Consciousness for Kids” for elementary school students. The camp will be held from July 26 to 28 at its Geochang education and training institute near Daegu.

Forty 5th and 6th graders, divided into five different teams, were invited to attend the camp. This year’s programs are designed to help these students understand the seriousness of natural disasters, calamities and accidents and create games by exploring effective ways to prepare for or prevent these safety issues.

Through lectures on the theme of ‘Safety Consciousness for Kids,’ a visit to Daegu Safety Theme Park and discussions, participants will gain a deeper understanding of safety. With the assistance of students from Sogang University’s Game Education Center, participants will take part in various activities necessary for game production such as composition of themes and stories, development of characters, and computer programming. On the last day of camp, there will be a ‘Game Show’ and an awards ceremony, during which students introduce their team’s games in the auditorium at Daesung Energy’s headquarters.

Games created by students will be screened by serious game specialists, including Suzanna Samstag Oh, President of Games for Change’s Korea chapter, Professor Lee Jae-hong of Digital Story Telling at Sogang University’s Game Education Center, Professor Im Chung-jae of Dept. of Game & Mobile Contents at Keimyung University, Daegu Digital Content Promotion Agency, and game specialists at KOG. Five games will be created using Android-based applications.

Daesung Group’s serious game development camp aims at helping young students better understand various social issues and enhance their problem solving skills by providing them with opportunities to directly ‘engage’ in developing serious games rather than simply playing games. Having added the serious game development program in 2009 to its Youth Science Camp that was launched in 2004, this is Daesung Group’s fourth serious game development camp. Past themes include renewable energy, youth health, and the North-South Korean division. Expenses for participating in the camp are fully covered by Daesung Haegang Science & Culture Foundation.

The 2012 Serious Game Development Camp is jointly hosted by Daesung Group and Daesung Haegang Science & Culture Foundation, organized by Daesung Holdings’ Contents Division and Sogang University’s Game Education Center, and sponsored by Daesung Energy, KFTA Gifted Education Center, G4C Korea branch, Neowiz Games, JCE, and Unity Korea. This year, participants will visit an industry-first 200kW tower-type, solar green-power generation plant developed by Daesung Group and the landfill gas recovery plant in Bangcheon-ri.

Meanwhile, as part of its strategy to expand business into the smart education field, which includes hosting its Serious Game Development Camp annually and combining serious games with education, Daesung Group has entered into an agreement with Sogang University’s Game Education Center. As part of the agreement, the two organizations will strengthen collaboration and joint development to provide high quality educational programs, including the serious game development youth camp.