SpaceUp Houston is hosting its 2nd conference and the goal is to develop a concept, rules, and application for a mobile game called SpacePoints with the goal being to educate and excite the Houston community around space research, exploration, and innovation in aerospace. Cost is $10 and includes lunch. Registration is limited to 40 people.

Topic: [...]]]>

SpaceUp Houston is hosting its 2nd conference and the goal is to develop a concept, rules, and application for a mobile game called SpacePoints with the goal being to educate and excite the Houston community around space research, exploration, and innovation in aerospace. Cost is $10 and includes lunch. Registration is limited to 40 people.

Topic: SpacePoints Mobile App Game Un-Conference

When: Saturday June 25th, 9AM to 3PM

Where: 3600 Bay Area Blvd, Houston TX 77058, Lunar & Planetary Institute

More Info: http://bit.ly/hdHd5T

Local developer of games for health, Playnormous, recently announced a partnership with Humana in which the company has licensed several of their more popular games, Bubble Trouble and Lunch Crunch, to Humana for the recently developed Humana Games for Health (HG4H) game portal. The release about this partnership has been picked up by the mainstream [...]]]>

Local developer of games for health, Playnormous, recently announced a partnership with Humana in which the company has licensed several of their more popular games, Bubble Trouble and Lunch Crunch, to Humana for the recently developed Humana Games for Health (HG4H) game portal. The release about this partnership has been picked up by the mainstream media (you can link to all of the articles here) which is a major coup for the Playnormous team.

Serious games have been around for some time but the explosion in flash based casual gaming has provided a new model for Playnormous to take many of the games that they have developed for academic use and flip them back to the marketplace for our enjoyment. I’ve spent many hours with the team at Playnormous and expect that they will continue their leadership role in this space well into its heyday.

Congratulations to the team!!!

Several months back, I met George Giannukos and Thomas Marriott, local entrepreneurs from Texas A&M who started a new gaming venture called GameWager. GameWager is an online, matchmaking platform that enables members of all skill sets to win cash/fun prizes & recognition competing in the most popular PC games online. They host pay-to-play (poker style), [...]]]>

Several months back, I met George Giannukos and Thomas Marriott, local entrepreneurs from Texas A&M who started a new gaming venture called GameWager. GameWager is an online, matchmaking platform that enables members of all skill sets to win cash/fun prizes & recognition competing in the most popular PC games online. They host pay-to-play (poker style), cash prize tournaments where the entry fees are distributed to the winners in structured payouts and free, token-based (arcade style) tournaments where gamers collect more tokens as they win; all of which can be turned in to their “Reward Zone” which will be full of prizes.

I cannot go into too much detail as this site has not launched yet but from what I am aware of, they have assembled many well respected names in the gaming industry as partners to make it easier to play with friends and offer a secure & fair gaming environment online. The addition of friendly wagering on one’s own performance adds a unique element to the game play which should make their model interesting to watch.

I had a chance to talk with Thomas Marriott recently and here are some excerpts from that conversation:

Josh: Gaming is a huge market. Why haven’t we seen someone succeed with this business model so far?

Thomas: The market size and opportunity are undeniable. However, it’s a tough nut to crack. There have been some fantastic attempts and we can attribute varying factors to the failure of each; from their twist on the model itself to strategy and execution.

Josh: I saw you guys present at the Houston Angel Network. Excellent job! You’ve been very successful in getting funding to date…to what do you attribute that to?

Thomas: Thanks! Although we’re gamers, we further buried ourselves in the industry and paid close attention to competitors failed attempts. As a result, we have taken an extremely methodical approach entering this space – spending a considerable amount of time conducting due diligence, assembling a rock star list of advisors and securing interest in the gaming community. Our efforts created results and that was key to investors.

Josh: Has being in Houston been a plus or a minus so far?

Thomas: As with anything, there are pros & cons – so I can’t say overall its been either. Austin and Dallas are some of the most vibrant gaming communities in the world, the quick drive to them as been invaluable for conferences, networking and business development.

Josh: Do you think you’ll be able to stay in Houston as you grow? What issues do you see going forward?

Thomas: I’m afraid the need for capital and better valuations will pull us out West – we’ll see how things go. For what its worth, we prefer to stay in Texas and will be back if relocated!

Josh: Anything you’d like to add?

Thomas: You guys are doing a great job with Startup Houston…efforts like these will allow startups to stay in Houston longterm!

Also, if anyone in and around Houston (or just passing through) wants to get together to discuss business, entrepreneurship, gaming or anything else we have in common, feel free to each out. We can be reached on LinkedIn, Facebook or GAMEWAGER.net

Thanks guys!

Archimage’s president, Richard Buday, was interviewed along [...]]]>
CBS Channel 11 News KHOU – TV aired a story last night on the use of video games for serious purposes. Archimage was featured as an innovative Houston-based company that is creating video games designed to improve the health of children, specifically obesity and type 2 diabetes prevention.

Archimage’s president, Richard Buday, was interviewed along with two of their partners, Dr. Tom Baranowski of Baylor College of Medicine CNRC and Dr. Cliff Dacso of the Abramson Center for the Future of Health. Several clips were shown from Archimiage’s two NIH-funded role-playing video game adventures in healthy eating and exercise, Escape from Diab and Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space.

Archimage is the parent company of a Houston startup, Playnormous. You may recall Jerald Reichstein from Archimage presented Playnormous at the Rice Alliance 5th Annual IT and Web 2.0 Venture Forum (which we covered here and here). If you did not get a chance to attend the event, you can watch Reichstein’s presentation here courtesy of the BusinessMakers Radio Show.

What I love most about serious games for health is that it brings several Houston specialties, life science and IT, together to address a burgeoning and under served market. As a parent, I also like the opportunity to have my kids play something other than Barbie and Nickelodeon (I also eagerly await Konstruction Zone‘s launch).

DISCLOSURE: Playnormous is a client of Mosaic CFO, a financial advisory firm owned by Josh Tabin.