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Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City
Game URL: tempestincrescentcity.ning.com/game
Developer: Digital Creations
Non-Profit: Global Kids; we worked with a group of high school students to develop the game design, art style, and factual content
Release Date: 7/08
Project Lead: Jay Bachhuber
Funding Sources: Microsoft, AMD
Sponsors/In-kind donations:
Budget:
Overall: 130,000
Secured: 130,000
Brief Description
Our game is about the everyday people who became heroes during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The player is a resident looking for her mother. Along the way she must rescue people, and help neighbors help each other by distributing local resources and aiding comunication.
Full Description
In Katrina Hero, the player assumes the role of a high school girl from New Orleans who has moved out of the city. The game is set in a dream she's having about being in the Hurricane Katrina disaster trying to rescue her mother. The player moves through five different neighborhoods over the course of the first five days of the disaster. The player must learn about the disaster from residents, help distribute resources from the community, and rescue people trapped in their attics.
Target Audience: Our game is aimed at high school students, but will also appeal to a wide audience because of its engaging game play, emotionally rich story, and serious subject matter.
Social Issues Addressed: poverty,
Purpose:
The purpose of the game is to try and affect public misconceptions about Hurricane Katrina and the stereotypes that the residents were only victims or criminals. We are also trying to renew attention to the disaster, because though the public has moved on to other stories, the struggle to rebuild continues for many New Orleans residents. Additionally, our game highlights two of the most important actions in any disaster: effective communication and utilization of local resources.
Metrics:
How? TBD
What outcomes have been measured?
Press Coverage:
Press Release URL:
Public Contact Information
Name: Jay Bachhuber
Email: jay@globalkids.org
Press Contact Name: Jonah Kokodyniak
Press Contact Email: jonah@globalkids.org
Game Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Global Kids, Playing 4 Keeps, platformer, New Orleans
Where you can play this game: It will be a browser-based flash game. The website is not yet up.
Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City
Game URL: tempestincrescentcity.org
Developer: Global Kids and Gamepill
Non-Profit: Global Kids. We produced the game with the youth in our program.
Release Date: August 29th, 2008 - on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
Project Lead: Barry Joseph
Funding Sources: Microsoft Partners in Learning and AED
Sponsors/In-kind donations:
Budget:
Overall: 25,000 - just for the game developers - not to run the after school program
Secured:
Brief Description
Global Kids Youth Leaders selected the topic of Hurricane Katrina and worked with game developers Gamepill to create Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City. The web-based game recognizes local heroes that emerged during the disaster while educating its players about the essentials of disaster readiness and of reporters.
Full Description
Global Kids Youth Leaders selected the topic of Hurricane Katrina and worked with game developers Gamepill to create Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City. The web-based game recognizes local heroes that emerged during the disaster while educating its players about the essentials of disaster readiness and of reporters. Tempest is a side-scrolling platform game set in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina Disaster of 2005. The game's main character is Vivica Water, a young woman from New Orleans who moved to New York after surviving the storm. The game takes place in a dream Vivica has where she searches for her mother and helps her neighbors as the hero she wishes she could have been. Vivica can not move to the next level unless she collects local new from residents and passing that information on to the reporter. Between levels the viewer reads headlines based on the collected news. Tempest is meant to be a fun adventure game that also addresses meaningful, accurate and difficult historical situations.
Target Audience:
Social Issues Addressed: economics, environment, human rights, news, poverty, public policy, disaster readiness,
Purpose:
Educational goals: * Teach players about how everyday residents of New Orleans acted heroically to help each other. This is a celebration of New Orleans residents and their culture. * Emphasize what are perhaps the two most important priorities in any disaster: communication and use of local resources, needs, and knowledge. The relief effort in Hurricane Katrina was severely hampered by the poor communication between government agencies and through most media outlets. Top down disaster management also led responders to ignore local resources and knowledge that could have saved many lives. * Draw attention to the continuing struggle in New Orleans as residents fight for housing in 2008.
Metrics:
How? Number of games plays. Number of educators as members of the social network.
What outcomes have been measured?
Press Coverage:
http://www.holymeatballs.org/2008/09/p4k_our_latest_game_wins_award.html http://www.holymeatballs.org/2008/09/p4k_blog_coverage_of_release_o.html
Press Release URL: http://www.holymeatballs.org/2008/08/global_kids_to_launch_online_c.html
Public Contact Information
Name: Barry Joseph
Email: bjinfo2@globalkids.org
Press Contact Name: Sofia
Press Contact Email: sofia@globalkids.org
Game Tags: hurricanekatrina disaster poverty racism
Where you can play this game: tempestincrescentcity.org
