The seventh annual Games for Health conference is gearing up for its launch on May 18 and registration is opened for those planning to attend. From May 18 – 19 (registration on March 17), join hundreds of game developers, health professionals, and leading researchers will attend the event to brainstorm and debate how video games and video game technologies that can work to improve health and healthcare.

Here's an interesting story about real world technology that has a minor connection to gaming. Developed for Richland, Washington-based CH2M Hill, the technology is called the Sand Mantis, and it is described by its creator as a new tool that takes rock salt-based waste, and turns it into a fine, powdery waste.

The technology, which is used inside giants tanks, is controlled using a PlayStation 2 controller. After the Rock Salt waste is smashed into a fine powder, it can easily be sucked out of the tank and disposed of. The technology helps CH2M Hill reach their goal of less than 2,700 gallons of waste per tank. It will also reduces cleanup costs; the $2.7 million dollar tool replaces the original $12 million per tank cost estimate. CH2M Hill is best known for creating engineering solutions for waste management and water treatment.

According to Stardock CEO (the company that used to own Impulse before it sold off its digital distribution platform to GameStop) Brad Wardell, Steam is holding up Valve's ability to develop its various game properties in a timely fashion. Wardell made his comments in a recent interview with IndustryGamers. In Wardell's opinion, the resources needed to continually operate and manage a digital distribution platform as massive as Steam has led to a slowdown in Valve's game development capabilities over the years.

"Even though Valve is in Seattle, where you can get developers everywhere, [Steam's] had an effect on their own development schedule," Wardell told IndustryGamers. "There's not been a new Half-Life in a long time; a lot of people have complained about that."

Valve has thanked the Team Fortress 2 community for its hard work and generosity in raising a whopping $430,543.65 for the Japanese disaster relief fund. That massive number represents the sale of three limited-edition hats and two noisemakers that were added to the Mann Co. Team Fortress 2 game store at the end of March. While those hats and noisemakers disappeared the indelible imprint of the community's generosity remains.

Below is the message that Valve left the community via its official Team Fortress 2 blog on April 8:

"Nice work, everyone! We're excited to share that, thanks to the generosity of the TF community, in two short weeks we managed to collect $430,543.65 for the Japanese disaster relief fund. It's been inspiring to watch gamers around the world come together for such a worthy cause.

GameStop is up to something big. The company announced that it has acquired a streaming technology company and a popular digital distribution platform. The company announced that it has acquired Spawn Labs, a streaming technology company and has entered into an agreement with Stardock systems to purchase Impulse. The Impulse acquisition is subject to closing conditions and is expected to be complete in May 2011.

Spawn Labs becomes part of the GameStop network, and will bring its game streaming technology to GameStop's suite of digital game products and services. Once the Spawn Labs integration and testing on a new consumer interface is complete, users will gain access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand.

Impulse is a digital distribution platform that allows users to download and manage games. The Impulse suite is comprised of a client, Reactor technology for DRM, and publishing tools.

The winners of the Youth Prize for original game designs have been selected by the National STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Video Game Challenge. The 12 U.S. students (grades 5-8) were announced by United States chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra.

The science-themed "You Make Me Sick!" was awarded the Grand Prize in the Developer Prize category, and a collection of math games called "NumberPower: Numbaland!" received the Collegiate and Impact prizes. Filament Games' Dan Norton and Dan White won the grand prize, and will receive $50,000 for their game about bacteria and viruses.

According to the official Team Fortress 2 blog, over $300,000 in virtual hats have been sold - all to benefit relief efforts in Japan. The hats were introduced last week and proved a big hit among players. The three hats are the "Humanitarian's Hachimaki" ($7.99), the "Benefactor's Kanmuri" ($19.99) and the "Magnanimous Monarch" ($99.99). Valve did not reveal exactly how many hats were sold but $300,000 is a very big number by anyone's accounting. Here's the thank-you note from the TF2 blog:

"Wow. Seriously, people, WOW. We knew you had it in you, but we're still amazed you've raised over $300,000 so far.

Inventing the Future of Games, a day-long symposium taking place April 15 in Silicon Valley, aims to explore the possibilities of the next decade of gaming with luminaries from the industry. Sponsored by the UC Santa Cruz Center for Games and Playable Media, the symposium will gather academia and industry leaders to discuss the advancement of game design and technology.

We have to write a story about Jack Thompson today. The anti-video game firebrand and former Florida attorney fired off a letter to Valve Software threatening to do something (we're not sure what he is threatening to do because he hasn't indicated the consequences in his letter to Valve's CEO) if the company doesn't do something about the Half-Life 2 mod, "School Shooter: North American Tour 2012."

Before we get into what Valve can actually do about a mod it has nothing to do with, here is Thompson's letter:

Microsoft today announced the release of Microsoft Kodu Game Lab for the PC and the launch of the nationwide Microsoft Kodu Cup 2011 competition. The Kodu Cup encourages students ages 9 to 17 to design, build and submit their video games using the Kodu Game Lab software. Microsoft Kodu Game Lab is available for free at fuse.microsoft.com/kodu. The game design tool lets kids build their own video games using a simple drag and drop system to implement various game functions, add art and icons.

Zynga has launched a fundraising initiative across more than seven of its games in partnership with Save the Children to support relief efforts in Japan. Zynga will donate 100 percent of the purchase price of newly created virtual items to the Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children Emergency Fund, created by Save the Children to support the children of Japan’s ongoing needs.

In addition, Facebook is donating all of its Facebook Credits generated through the in-game purchases to support the fundraising efforts.

A rundown of how players can donate - from Zynga - can be found below:

Following Friday's devastating earthquake, several major Japanese game publishers have announced campaigns to help with relief efforts. This is much needed as the latest statistics estimate that nearly 10,000 people have died and 15,000 are missing.

The Gamers Outreach Foundation and Able Gamers Foundation are invading PAX East in Boston on Friday. The groups are teaming up to host a special panel called "Gamers Doing Good." Penny Arcade Expo takes place in Boston, MA, March 11-13.

The point of the panel is to have an intelligent discussion on how video gamers can be used to help others, and how gamers can combine their passion for gaming with charitable contributions. The panel is scheduled to take place on Friday at 5:00 PM in the Cat Theatre. Panelists include Stefanie Shea and Zach Wigal of Gamers Outreach, along with Mark Barlet, Steve Spohn and Ben Herz of The AbleGamers Foundation. Avery Alix of PopCap Games (moderator) will also be on hand, as well as Christopher "Frost" Sheffield of Radioactive Nerd.

UK-based games industry charity GamesAid has announced its newest fundraising initiative around the forthcoming horse-racing event, The Cheltenham Festival. The Festival features four days of jump racing and hundreds of equine stars on hand for National Hunt racing. To celebrate the event and to raise some cash for a worthy cause, GamesAid has launched a tipping competition where fans will have the chance to put their skills on the line and win a Nintendo 3DS.

Donated by Konami, the 3DS comes with a copy of PES 2011 3DS. Nintendo also donated three further launch titles: Super Street Fighter IV, Pilotwings Resort, and Nintendogs. Participants need to pick twelve horses from a pre-selected list of entrants scheduled to run at the Festival from March 15 - 1. Depending on how the horse runs, they will either score or lose points for players. The highest total score takes the first prize.

Game designers, producers, programmers and technical directors will serve as panelists at the "Establishing a Career in Video Games" event April 15 at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Panelists will include representatives EA, Schell Games, THQ, and Firaxis Games.

Panelists will share insights on what it takes to bring a product to market, how to land a career in the video game industry, and provide tips on how to make it in the interactive entertainment industry. Charles Palmer, executive director of the University’s Center for Advanced Entertainment and Learning Technologies, will moderate the panel discussion.

Harrisburg University is the only higher education institution in Central Pennsylvania currently offering an academic program in video game design, development, programming and art during the 2010-11 academic year, according to research from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption was a big winner at last night's Game Developers Choice Awards, along with Minecraft, Cut the Rope, Mass Effect 2, and Limbo. Red Dead Redemption picked up the Game of the Year award, Best Game Design, and Best Technology. Minecraft was named Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game, and won an award for Innovation. Limbo won for Best Visual Art, while Mass Effect 2 earned an award for Best Writing, and Cut The Rope won Best Handheld Game.

Legendary Sega developer Yu Suzuki won a Pioneer Award for his work on such classic titles as Outrun, Space Harrier and the Shenmue series. EA co-founder and current Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Populous and Fable designer Peter Molyneux.

The full list of award winners are below:

Microsoft today opened registration for the 2011 Dream.Build.Play Challenge, its game development contest that encourages independent developers to create games using its XNA Game Studio software. The Dream.Build.Play competition charges developers to submit original playable games built with the 4.0 version of it development toolset for Xbox 360, Windows PC, and Windows Phone games.

Judges will pick winners based on how fun the submissions are to play, creativity, uniqueness, and how well they are produced and polished. Four winners will be selected to receive a part of $75,000 ($40,000, $20,000, $10,000, and $5,000 depending on their ranking). Winning entries will also have an opportunity to get an XBLA publishing contract.

Sony Online Entertainment is now accepting applications for the fourth annual Gamers In Real Life (G.I.R.L.) scholarship at www.scholarshipamerica.org. The student awarded this year's scholarship will receive up to $10,000 toward tuition and other educational-related expenses and a paid internship of up to 10 weeks at one of SOE's development studios (not including room, board, transportation and living expenses).

Former members of Activision's Vicarious Visions have banded together to form a new development studio in Philadelphia called Play Eternal. Company management includes Vazquez and Brandon Van Slyke, who have both worked on the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series, and Louis Tranchitella and Michael Worth.

The company will focus on digitally distributed content for consoles and other platforms, and plan to use Trinigy's Vision engine for its first game.

"The market for premium digital services on consoles continues to grow, and we're excited about the possibilities the space offers", said Van Slyke, chief creative officer of Play Eternal. "The talent we've been able to attract is perfectly aligned to develop highly polished and engaging games for digital distribution to the core audience."

Source: GI.biz

The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (The MADE, for short), kicked off a Kickstarter fundraising campaign. The organizers hope to fund the creation of a small "starter museum" in the San Francisco Bay Area to house The MADE's existing collection of works. The fundraising campaign will run until April 18, and already the project is 7 percent funded. With 53 days remaining the project already has 128 backers and has raised $11,722 of its $20,000 Goal.

In order to encourage Kickstarter donations, The MADE will be giving away copies of PC games, donated by Kalypso Media, including 3 signed copies of the newly released Dungeons. Additionally, a signed, sealed copy of Pathways Into Darkness for Power Macintosh is on offer to the top donor. Pathways into Darkness was one of Bungie Studio’s earliest game releases.

Nexon America announced today that it has $1 million in funding for promising game concepts. Dubbed the Nexon iNitiative, the program is designed with the intent of attracting promising independent video game projects and providing funding to support continued development. The online gaming company is accepting submissions through April 30, 2011 at the official Nexon iNitiative website. Games with strong online and multi platform elements will get serious consideration, as will game concepts that align with Nexon’s goals.

Navid Khonsari, a former writer and director for Rockstar Games, is working on an interesting game that retells the real story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran, Iran. Khonsari is responsible for the "cinematic feel" introduced in Rockstar's breakout hit, Grand Theft Auto 3, and for his work on Remedy's Max Payne series and Alan Wake. After leaving Rockstar, Khonsari formed Ink Stories with his wife in New York City.

Speaking to Russia Today (interview on the left), Khonsari said that he wants to tell the story of the Iranian Revolution with a focus on the U.S. Embassy takeover that ultimately led to the Iran Hostage Crisis. Khonsari wants to tell a deep story based on different perspectives from a multitude of playable characters:

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop announced that public voting for the National STEM Video Game Challenge for collegiate and professional developers is open to the public, and runs until February 25. The public can vote on over 35 submitted projects that  highlight the importance of the STEM fundamentals in education.

Besides a substantial cash prize, the team earning the most votes will be awarded an exhibitor full access package for Game Connection and the 2012 Game Developers Conference. All of this year's entries try to teach students about math, science, technology and all of the key elements of the President's STEM learning initiatives.

Find out more at the Cooney Center's web site.

Source: Serious Games Source

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been named the keynote speaker for Texas Game On! 2011. Her keynote will address the importance of game-based education. Specifically she will talk about iCivics, a game-based learning platform designed to teach students about the importance of playing an active role in our democracy.

Warren Spector of Junction Point (and the man behind the original Deus Ex and the recent Disney game Epic Mickey) will also speak at the event.

Other sessions scheduled for Game On! Texas 2011 include the panel "Texas Higher Education Game Development Education," and a video game design workshop for amateur developers.

Game On! Texas 2011 takes place April 12 (8:00 AM - 7:00 PM) at the AMD Lone Star Campus in Austin, Texas. Tickets cost $40 per person. For more information check out the event's web site.

The "Video Game Bar Association," an organization that aims to connect lawyers working in or representing the interactive entertainment industry, has formally launched. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the group's ultimate goal is to be a worldwide organization supporting individuals that represent the industry on all types of legal matters. According to a GameIndustry.biz report, the group has sent over one hundred invitations to legal professionals in the United States and Europe.

Board members include George Rose, executive vice president and chief public policy officer at Activision Blizzard; David Anderson, vice president of business and legal affairs for THQ; and Patrick Sweeney, head of Reed Smith's Video Game Practice.

UK-based gamer lobby group Gamers' Voice announced this morning that it is looking for volunteers to help the organization grow in 2011. The group makes the following pitch to gamers in the region:

"If you have ever wanted the chance to defend video games and the people who play them from uninformed bias and undeserved ridicule, then now is your chance. The UK video games industry has two trade bodies who represent their interests. Those being; TIGA and UKIE. But consumers of video games in the UK also need a high profile advocate, which is where we come in."

Those interested need to have an understanding of the video game industry in the UK, must love gaming, must reside in the UK, and must put aside a few hours a week.

They are particularly interested in individuals with unique skills: web designers, graphic designers and writers.

It looks like the German government is not happy with the violent content in Dead Space 2 and wants changes to the game before it is released in the region. The main cause of disagreement from the government: Friendly Fire in multiplayer. Naturally, these changes will make it so that gamers in Germany will not have to wait for the game on various platforms until sometime in February. EA announced the delay in a press release this week, saying that the game would be released on February 3.

The single player campaign from Dead Space 2 remains uncut and identical to the international version of the game, but multiplayer has been altered to appease the government. Germany is very touchy about games that let players kills "humans." Many shooters require alterations before they can be released in the region - like turning human enemies into zombies or robots, ot changing red blood to another color.

UK-based game player lobby group Gamers' Voice held its first "Parliamentary Games Day" with Ministers of Parliament and video game industry representatives at the House of Commons. The group describes the event as "a real success" with politicians of all three main political parties attending to play video games with Gamers' Voice on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

A total of 16 MPs attended the event. John Whittingdale, Ed Vaizey, Luciana Berger, Clive Betts, Pete Davison, Don Foster, Dr Julian Huppert, Karen Lumley, Jason McCartney, Nigel Mills, Stephen Mosley, Andy Nuttal, David Cairns, Simon Kirby, David Hanson and Keith Vaz all made appearances at the event.

A highlight of the event was when MPs John Whittingdale and Don Foster traded punches through the Kinect Sports boxing game.

Finalists for the 11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards have been named today, with indie developed Xbox Live Arcade game Limbo leading the pack. Other nominations include Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Costume Quest, God of War III¸ Heavy Rain, Monday Night Combat, Minecraft, and Super Meat Boy.

The complete list of nominees for the 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards are as follows:

Tickets for the 2011 Gamification Summit have sold out according to the event's organizers. Organizers say that, for those who were not able to purchase tickets, live streaming coverage via Fora.tv will be available. Those who register to watch the live streaming coverage before January 14 will receive special $149 early bird pricing. After January 14, the rate will go up to $199. In case you've never heard of it, gamification is the use of game mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences in a non-gaming environment.

At the event, Liz Gannes of AllThingsDigital will interview Jane McGonigal, author of "Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Happy and How They Can Help Us Change the World." Liz Gannes has been covering Silicon Valley business technology since 2004 and is the founder of NewTeeVee. Additional speakers include the CMO of RecycleBank Samantha Skey, Ian Bogost of Georgia Institute of Technology and Evan Tanna of Shopkick.