Austin Hill to Speak at Serious Games Summit

San Francisco, March 23, 2009 - Akoha Inc. chief executive and co-founder Austin Hill will be giving a presentation today at the Serious Games Summit about how Akoha is developing online and off-line games that encourage people around the world to perform small acts of kindness.

Hill’s presentation is about how Akoha is embracing elements of social entrepreneurship, massively multiplayer and reality-based games to create real-world missions that benefit other people - everything from giving someone your favorite books or inviting a friend out for drinks to buying someone chocolate.

During his presentation, Hill will talk about the personal story that inspired Akoha’s creation, while getting into the details about how the company’s systems was developed, and the critical design problems that Akoha had to overcome to create its gameplay combination of real-world game-cards and back-end systems and social networking work.

“What I’m hoping to provide is insight into what inspired myself and co-founder Alex Eberts to create Akoha, which has become a labor of love for both of us,” Hill said. “As well, I want to provide perspective, information and, hopefully, valuable knowledge about some of the key considerations that go into developing a game that you hope resonates with people.”

The acts of kinds done by Akoha players are described on “mission cards”, and as players perform more missions, they advance in the game, recruit new players, and spread good deeds across the world.

Since the launch of Akoha’s private beta at the TechCrunch50 conference last September, there have been more than 3,000 mission plays in 37 countries. Akoha has established an initial target of 25,000 mission plays as part of a partnership with the charity group Room to Read that will see the construction of a library in Nepal.

At the recent TED conference, Akoha launched its new Inspired Minds mission cards that were inspired by various TED speakers and talks.

TED provided some of the initial inspiration for Akoha after Hill and Eberts attended the conference in which the theme was “Ideas Big Enough to Change the World”. As well, Hill and Eberts received encouragement during the Sundance Film Festival where some of their friends were discussing movies that could make a difference.

“Akoha emerged from discussions that Alex and I had about the power of communities and the changing nature of play,” Hill said. “They sparked ideas into a business that we’re confident will have a positive impact on people around the world.”

About Akoha
Akoha combines online games, social networking and real-world activity to help make the world a better place. Akoha players carry out acts of kindness - known as “missions” - to collect points recruit new players and, as important, spread acts of kindness. The Montreal-based company was founded in 2007 by long-time friends and entrepreneurs Austin Hill and Alex Eberts, who believe games and online communities could make make a positive impact on people around the world.

Akoha is currently in beta but it has already attracted accolades from organizations such as the Canadian Innovation Exchange, Banff Venture Forum and the Crunchie Awards.

To start playing Akoha, mission decks can be purchased at the Akoha Store - http://store.akoha.com/