Just in case you're not entirely familiar with the genre, Wikipedia defines serious games (or persuasive games) to be videogames that can be used as educational technology, but are often intended for an audience outside of primary or secondary education. If you've still got most of the radio tracks from Liberty City Stories, you're probably going to remember that crazy radio commercial for that fictional edutainment-game Pastmaster. There you go. Pastmaster equals serious game.

Anyhow, here's the news: To help usher in the Serious Games Summit of this years Game Developers Conference (GDC), Square Enix's established serious games unit discussed why the company decided to delve into the serious games genre. They also previewed its serious DS game which they claim intends to teach the joy of game development.

Gamasutra reports that Ichiro Otobe, Square Enix's chief serious games strategist, believes that despite sentiment that serious games are almost seen as charities, Square Enix knows that it can also be a profitable business. Otobe  emphasized his belief by citing Japanese serious game hits like Brain Training, English Training, and Cooking Navi for the DS.

Otobe admits thought that with serious games, the challenges for developers are numerous. For example they have to contend with a target audience which consists of people who are primarily not gamers.

Square Enix also revealed that their new serious game project for the DS, tentatively titled Project GB, is set to teach players the necessary skills required for game development. The game's ten man development team is led by Tadashi Tsushima of Vagrant Story fame, and it's set to teach folks programming, graphic design, music composition, and writing for games through hands on play.

Tsushima notes that he believes that when developing for serious games, the learning process should never be sugarcoated, as if learning was something bitter that should be eased. He says that the game should instead communicate the joy of learning Otobe concludes: "Without understanding the fun of learning, you can't create a game, you can only sugarcoat. You have to access yourself what is the core-fun of what you're trying to educate, and communicate that through gaming."

Wow. What could be more natural than learning to make games through playing a game? This is an amazing concept that Square has to get right. We're hoping though that Square finds ways to bring serious games to other platforms. A lot of folks looking to get into game development as a hobby would definitely appreciate being able to download something like Project GB over XBL, PlayStation Network, or Virtual Console.