Designing Video Games for Social Impact
In this course, students learn how to design video games for social impact. Video games that not only entertain but effect social good through their narrative, gameplay, and real-world calls to action. For their final projects, student’s game design process and social impact research are explored via structured Ideation Board and formalized in a Game Design Document (GDD).
Man’s Best Friend by Taylor Safchick
Open world action-adventure about a dog surviving in a post-apocalyptic world which brings awareness to climate change. A dog must survive as a climate refugee on a post-apocalyptic Earth. After the climate has changed in extreme ways, a dog is abandoned and finds itself having to explore the ruins of the world. The dog must not only try to find its true owner, but also help the environment before it is too late. A young boy finds the dog, and acts as a sidekick on the quest to find its original owner.
Every Day by Roxanne Palladino
Every Day is a first-person simulator game that simulates the struggles of day-to-day with an anxiety disorder. Users play as an unnamed high school student and follow them through their day. Each level goes through one big challenge with anxiety and struggle on a daily basis- like social interactions, focusing on work, or going to sleep. If the player fails to complete the tasks, the character has a panic attack and they lose the level. The game ends at the beginning of the next day, as the cycle starts all over again.
fork in the road by Jay Barrett
A choose-your-own-adventure point-and-click story about the effects a dieting parent has on their child. This game is a point-and-click style mashed with a text-based visual novel. The player will control the character’s actions, and interact with the scene in limited point-and-click mini-games. The story follows a child throughout their youth as they grow up, their relationship with food, and their parent’s role in it. Their parent actively encourages their child to eat less, and it’s up to the player to decide how much to listen. They can either be compliant, listening to their parent entirely; stealthy, defying their parent without being open about it; or defiant, actively rebelling against their parent. The player can switch between these three tracks at multiple points throughout the game making each player’s experience unique.
Proud by Emily Barkin
Interactive narrative about a teenage girl coming to terms with her sexuality and dealing with how queer representation may impact her family/peers’ judgment of her. This game is told like a visual novel, but you get to decide how the story goes. The story is about a girl in high school, somewhere between a freshman and a sophomore, who is coming to terms with her sexuality. Her family is uneducated when it comes to the LGBT community and she’s worried about what her childhood best friend will think if she tells her that she’s a lesbian. Along with this, she wants to show her parents that being queer isn’t as “weird” or “bad” as it seems as she attempts to educate them on the queer community. The player can go down several paths: they can be quiet and not do much; try to find self-acceptance on their own; or join the GSA club and find a “chosen” family.
Painkiller by Ryan Puorro
Fantasy RPG about people fighting monsters and learning how to cope with their mental health issues. One day while exploring the woods outside his town, Daniel, a young man with anxiety, discovers a cave that contains an ancient artifact and weapons. He takes the artifact, and by doing so, he releases an onslaught of monsters on his town. Daniel takes the weapons and tries to defeat them, but there are too many to handle alone. More and more monsters are released and they spread even farther. Daniel travels from town to town and discovers new types of monsters. Along the way, he meets some new friends to entrust with the rest of the weapons. Ally is a girl with depression; Sam is a boy with schizophrenia; and Phoebe is a girl with OCD. Together, they help each other deal with their problems and learn how to depend on others.=. They venture to the Dark Tower where they find and defeat the Monster King.
My Zen Garden by Justin Chimento
My Zen Garden is meant to help people who suffer from addiction to find a new form of comfort and escape. A creative sandbox, gardening game that depends on the player’s imagination with a mix of many genres including farming, gardening, sandbox and simulation. The game's story is really up to the player. I wanted to create a “never ending” type game similar to Minecraft or Animal Crossing. The tutorial level will be very simple and leave room for players' discovery because I believe that is one of the best feelings in gaming - a soothing, relaxed, freedom to explore. Fish care! As the player expands his/hers garden they will be able to add a pond and put different types of fish in it. The player will then have to care for their fish by feeding them, expanding the pond as they grow, and much more.