The 2009 Serious Games Showcase & Challenge: 12 finalists

The Serious Games Showcase & Challenge, usually shortened to SGS&C, showcases games built for training and education. In 2009 a panel of serious games leaders from the military, industry and academia chose 12 finalists. The conference they played at, I/ITSEC, ran from November 30 to December 3, 2009, in Orlando, Florida, and the awards were presented on December 3 in three categories: business, student and government.

Six finalists came from business, three from universities and schools, and three from government bodies. Three of the twelve won awards.

The contest itself dates to 2005, when leaders of Team Orlando formed a partnership with the National Training and Simulation Association, the organizer of I/ITSEC. The first contest took place at I/ITSEC in 2006.

The range was wide. Conspiracy Code, by 360Ed, was a 3D adventure that formed a full-credit high school American history course, and DimensionM 2009 covered more than 200 math and algebra concepts for grades 3 to 12. VESSEL Damage Control Trainer taught shipboard damage control inside a simulated destroyer for recruits at the U.S. Navy's boot camp at Great Lakes.

Two entries dealt with security. Agent Surefire put employees in a simulated office to practice clean desk and information security habits, and Checkpoint Recon asked players flying an Apache helicopter to practice tactical patience under rules of engagement. In the student group, Energy Wars was set on the Queen's University campus, where players upgraded buildings to cut energy waste, and NihongoUp trained Japanese kana typing and kanji review by having players type to shoot down balloons.

The government winner, the Computer Based Corpsman Training System, put the trainee in the first-person view of a corpsman with a Marine squad in Afghanistan, balancing triage, treatment and safety, and ended with an after action review.

The contest is still running. Its website shows a 2026 edition, with finalists invited to meet visitors at I/ITSEC from November 30 to December 3 in Orlando, at booth 2281. The 2009 contest address, sgschallenge.com, now forwards to the sgschallenge.org site.

The category structure differs from 2009. On the contest's game pages the Best Business-Developed Game and Best Government-Developed Game awards are marked as available from 2008 to 2021, while the People's Choice Award is marked as available from 2006 on and Best Student-Developed Game from 2008 on. Ship Simulator Professional's page lists it as a Windows desktop game; whether any of the 2009 titles can still be obtained is not stated on these pages.