Last week we went to PAX East and got to play a bunch of amazing games.

Game-based learning has been steadily growing for the past several years. Since 2002, Muzzy Lane has implemented games to teach while working on exploring game-based learning as a core student activity in competing based post-secondary education. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Muzzy Lane to explore proof of concept that digital game base learning can be a tool to help low-income college success and increase completion rates. Muzzy Lane believes people can learn by doing via their games.

Chris Parsons from Muzzy Lane is one of my favorite recurring guests on the podcast, so naturally I was thrilled to have a chance to talk to him again at PAX East. We covered a range of topics, including Muzzy Lane being awarded a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant “to explore game-based-learning as a core student activity in competency-based postsecondary education.”

From educational game developers Muzzy Lane comes a new game for all kinds of history buffs and strategizers. Get ready for Making History: The Great War. Though Muzzy Lane has very deep educational roots, The Great War was designed to be a commercial game. It is currently available on Mac, PC, and Linux.

After months in public development as part of Steam's Early Access program and a public beta at its own site, Making History: The Great War is now in official release. The game, a grand strategy title centered on the era surrounding WWI, puts players in the role of national leader during a time of unstable empires, rising nationalism, and the emergence of modern, industrialized war. Players can take actions to write their own page of history.

With the game about to officially release on Jan 29th, lead engineer Dave McCool, MH designer Ralph Gerth and I (Chris Parsons, product manager), were reflecting recently on our experience having a game available to the public on Steam’s Early Access. We’ve been hearing a lot about Early Access lately, including some criticism from players who bought in and then were unhappy when the title they purchased remained in Early Access too long, or, in some cases, never emerged. These are perfectly valid concerns. Like Kickstarter projects, buying into a creative process in the early stages of development isn’t a sure thing. So what’s the view from the developer side?

Developer Muzzy Lane Software today announced the official release of the next game in its Making History series. Making History: The Great War will launch on January 29th, 2015 and be featured at a premiere launch event at the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City on Saturday, January 31st. At the event, attendees will get to play the game and attend a presentation by Muzzy Lane developers.

Muzzy Lane Software today announced that Conall Ryan has joined the company as president and chief executive officer.

Great podcast out of Boston FIG with Chris Parsons talking about The Great War as well as some of our other games like Government in Action and Practice Spanish. Give it a listen!

At the forefront of this is Muzzy Lane Software’s Making History: The Great War, the latest installment in the educational videogame series designed with consumers and classrooms in mind. The game debuted on Steam Early access on April 4th of this year to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the war. It is due for a September 9th release. The game’s primary focus is Grand Strategy where players are tasked with taking on the Great Powers (or smaller nations such as Cuba) and steering them through the conflict using military, economic, diplomatic, and even domestic tactics.