Games For Change - The Games For Change Lab

The Games For Change Lab

Games for Change provides a suite of services to guide organizations and individuals that are actively pursuing 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: concept workshops, help in a public “request for proposal” process, or support in the production and launch of a project. G4C guides the alignment of goals, audience, game platform, and distribution channels.

Through its high-profile initiative with partner foundations, government agencies, and nonprofits, Games for Change is establishing industry-wide standards including methodologies and assessment practices; publicizing outcomes and best practices; and creating and implementing replicable models of multi-stakeholder partnerships that can advance the entire field. Past and current projects include strategic advising for USAID for a global initiative that uses games to empower youth in the Middle East, the World Bank Learning Institute on a series of game projects aimed at policy makers in developing countries, and the American Museum of Natural History to develop game-related projects to address youth engagement with the sciences.

Additionally, Games for Change is in production on the Half the Sky project, a multi-million dollar transmedia project based on 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, teach young women how to unlock their economic power, and equally to present the opportunities women offer to promote economic and international development. Games for Change is working as the Executive Producer of the game component, cooperating with several partners to develop a global Facebook game and mobile games for audiences in India and Africa. Funders of the transmedia project include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, USAID, the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and ITVS.

For organizations developing more ambitious projects, Games for Change assists in the development of a “game technology engine,” a concept taken from the commercial industry. The “game engine” enables the developer to alter the content and interface while keeping most of the core technology and code. A game commissioner can think in terms of a portfolio of games, and rather than build every game from scratch – for different regions or constituencies – can efficiently create iterations of a game similar to how the commercial industry generates game sequels.

Games for Change is guiding the investment of over $8 million into social change games that have the potential to reach over 50 million people. In addition, adoption of Games for Change’s methodology and assessment protocols by major organizations is laying the groundwork for further investment and the establishment of field-wide standards that will continue this trend. Games for Change’s work defining these standards and approaches is having a broad impact on the development of social change games, how games are incorporated into educational initiatives, and how games are evaluated.

More information about Games for Change and social impact games at large can be found on the organization’s blog, in their newsletter, in addition to Twitter and Facebook pages. The Games for Change community also hosts Meetups and connects via the Games for Change Google Group.