Games for Change (G4C) -- home

Current G4C Projects

Games for Change Annual Festival
Called “the Sundance of Video Games”, the Games for Change Annual Festival brings together leaders from government, philanthropy, civil society, academia, and the game industry to explore the increasing real-world impact of digital games as an agent for social change. The Festival is also a showcase for some of the most innovative new games in development. The 7th Annual Festival was held in May 2010 in New York City and was headlined by The Honorable Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra. It attracted over 600 participants.

101 Game Workshops
Games for Change offers a unique soup-to-nuts workshop on making social impact games. Offered in recent years in conjunction with the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Games for Change Festivals, the 101 workshop is targeted towards organizations and individuals who want to utilize digital games as a part of their social agenda and educational and outreach efforts. Games for Change is also offering a variety of customized workshops to provide specific organizations with orientation to the social impact games space.

Strategic Guidance and Consulting
Games for Change offers a new suite of services to guide organizations and individuals that are actively pursuing computer and video games to further their public, philanthropic or academic mission. The services seek to lift up the field of social impact games and can range from the modest to the comprehensive via the following packages:
1- Concept workshop to plan and scope a game project
2- Taking a project from concept through vendor selection
3- The full-range of services, from concept to launch and beyond.

Half the Sky
HALF THE SKY is a transmedia project based upon the best-selling book by Pulitzer Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The project aims to highlight the moral challenge of oppression of women around the world, and equally to highlight the opportunities women offer to promote economic development and combat fundamentalism – to “hold up half the sky,” in the words of a Chinese saying. Games for Change is working with several partners to develop the initiative’s interactive gaming component.

The Power of Design: Youth Making Social Issue Games
In 2010, the AMD Foundation sponsored the debut of this program, a day-long workshop to help middle and high school teachers, nonprofit leaders, and others develop social impact game design programs for their school curricula or after-school programs. The workshop featured creators of exemplary game design programs, a close look at some of the leading game making tools now available, and indispensable advice for setting up new youth game design programs. The project is part of AMD's signature education initiative "Changing the Game".

International Chapters
Games for Change aims to support chapters around the world which host discussions and events around the latest issues arising from the field. For example, Chapter leaders in the first international chapter in Seoul, Korea, held their second annual game building camp for children with focus on relevant social themes such as healthy lifestyle choices. The Korean chapter is also involved in the creation of a DMZ-themed game in partnership with Gyeonggi Digital Contents Agency. New chapters in Europe and South America are currently in development.

News Games
With the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Games for Change has developed a series of panels, a game channel, a game contest, and other activities to explore the use of digital games to better inform and engage the public in understanding the most important public issues of the day.

Social Issues Games Discussion List
G4C manages an online discussion group focused on the Games for Change movements with over 2,500 active participants.

Past G4C Projects

Let the Games Begin: A Toolkit 4 Making Social Issue Games
Games for Change has created a toolkit specifically targeted towards organizations that want to use digital games to further their social-issue driven missions and outreach. The kit is a resource to help organizations develop a game strategy for outreach and to show them the steps and resources that are necessary to make a successful game. Distributed on DVD and via the web, the kit includes an overview on getting into gaming and a series of units focusing on design and outreach considerations. The Social Issue Game Maker's Toolkit is supported by the AMD Foundation.

PETLab
PETLab is a joint project of Games for Change and the Communication Design and Technology Department at Parsons The New School and is supported through a generous grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. PETLab is a public interest game design and research lab for interactive media Prototyping, Evaluation, Teaching, and Learning. Our current projects include the design of a series of social issue game prototypes for various game platforms and social networks that address social and civic issues. We are also developing social issue game design curricula and tools for teens for use in after-school programs, such as the Boys and Girls Clubs, and through online social networking sites such as MTV’s Think.

Games and Assessment
One of the key factors influencing the future development and deployment of games for education and civic engagement is assessment. Games for Change is working on a series of activities that brings together educational game researchers, assessment experts, civic engagement leaders and others to explore how digital games can incorporate a goal of civic participation and how to assess impact.

Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge
Games for Change has worked with Microsoft to explore new ways to bring the worlds of digital gaming and social change together. Our first collaboration was a socially minded global gaming competition, the Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge. This worldwide competition challenged college students to come up with the best game based on the theme of environmental sustainability. Students developed games based on global warming using Microsoft® XNA™ Game Studio Express software.

Games for Change is a New York-based, 501(c)3, nonprofit corporation.

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