Tiago Cardoso

In the face of growing global game production competition, the ability to come out with new ideas to create computer games is widely recognized today as important. In this context, the chance to resort - in a practical way - to known creativity techniques or adaptations of these to help innovation in this field is a promising challenge, both in the field of entertainment games and the so called serious games. In this article we present the development of a research work in this area and the result proposal method for the introduction of creativity in Games Design. The main objective is the construction of innovative Games that have not been identified by the normal methods used in the analysis of games proposals. We present a case study of the method implemented for the identification of new games design opportunities in an MSc Games course.

The use of mobile devices and their use for Internet access, for georeferentiation and services consumption had a huge increase.

Today, these devices ability to establish cooperation networks and to interact intelligently and cooperatively with the surrounding environment has growing importance.

In this paper, we propose a system, based on a model which uses the social paradigms in mobile ubiquitous interactions, capable to effectively connect and integrate these devices in order to improve the accessibility in the cities. The model is inspired in concepts from the theory of organizations and sociology, as the notions of “social role”, “ownership” and “responsibility”, to be incorporated in each device.

We present an example for applying the model in the context of accessibility in smart cities for the pedestrian traffic light automatic management.

Computers and technology can play a key role in supporting learning, namely for students with special educational needs. Nevertheless, despite the emphasis the society puts on the use of technology and its fast proliferation in the area of education, few initiatives focus on the specific needs of children with disabilities. Motivated by this gap, this research work proposes a computer assisted education application that targets to teach talking and reading through games. The work described herein was carried out in close cooperation with - , a child-care institution that works with children with distinct growth disorders, namely the Down syndrome.