1. G4C: Strategies & Methodology
Developed with E-Line Media
Aug 31, 2012

2. WHY GAMES?
Games are expanding:
- $60B Global business
- 97% of teenagers in America*
- Average Facebook player is a 39 year
old female*
Pew Report, Nielsen, PopCap

3. Arguably the most
dominant media form of
the 21st Century

4. GAMES AND LEARNING
Federation of American Scientists &
National Science Foundation:
“Games offer critical
attributes for 21st century
learning.”*
* National Summit on Educational Games

5. 21st CENTURY SKILL BUILDING
Playing and making games foster critical skills necessary
for success in a rapidly changing 21st Century world.
+ Systems thinking
+ Digital media literacy
+ Iterative process
+ Creativity
+ Problem solving
+ Team building
+ Planning & execution
+ Collaboration

6. Computer and video games are being embraced by leading
foundations, non-profits, universities, and government agencies
to further their public interest and educational goals

7. www.gamesforchange.org

8. Latest Trends

9. MAINSTREAM ADOPTION
Supreme Court Justice Former US Chief Technology Officer Vice President
Sandra Day O’Connor Aneesh Chopra Al Gore

10. DIRECT ACTION GAMES
wetopia by Sojo Studios

11. DEVELOPING WORLD AUDIENCES

12. YOUTH CREATING GAMES
C++
College/
Professional
Commercial
High Modding
School Tools
Middle
School
Elementary
School
Game Design Programming
Scaffolded / Constrained Un-scaffolded / Unconstrained

13. TRANSMEDIA ‘FOR GOOD’

14. Strengths

15. 10 reasons why games are a
powerful platform for highly
engaged learning and social impact

16. 1. PARTICIPATORY
Games are interactive, ‘lean-forward’: players make
decisions with consequences resulting in player agency
2. ROLE PLAYING
Games enable players to step into different roles
in different worlds, building awareness & empathy

17. 3. CHALLENGES & REWARDS
Games engage players deeply through a delicate
balance of challenges & rewards leading to
highly focused, sustained engagement
4. FUN TO FAIL
Games enable players to try & fail in a safe environment;
experimenting at their own pace until they succeed

18. 5. SOCIAL
Games are increasingly networked, fostering
peer-to-peer, collaborative learning
6. GAMES AS SERVICE
Games are increasingly becoming on-going services that
can be continually optimized for engagement and impact

19. 7. COMPLEXITY
Games require players to navigate and understand
complex systems, interfaces & rules
8. BITS AND ATOMS
Games are increasingly crossing over into the real-world
through new input devices, mobile & location-aware platforms

20. 9. MOTIVATION
Good games create a deep desire to learn.

21. 10. UBIQUITY
XBOX 360 Wii PCs Mobile devices Nintendo DS Sony PSP
27M 45M Billions Billions 96M 42M
Play power $10 Wii Ware XBLA Sony PSN Sony PS2 Sony PS3
TV computer Network 50M 19M

22. Challenges

23. MAKING IMPACT GAMES FUN
Organic alignment between what makes game fun &
financial / impact objectives
+ =
Many fail: “chocolate-covered broccoli”

24. COMPLEX ECO-SYSTEM
XBOX 360 Wii PCs Mobile devices Nintendo DS Sony PSP
27M 45M Billions Billions 96M 42M
Play power $10 Wii Ware XBLA Sony PSN Sony PS2 Sony PS3
TV computer Network 50M 19M
Many fail: misalignment of platform/genre and audience

25. ENGAGING QUALIFIED TEAMS
Game
Production
Design
Business & Art &
Project Team
Fundraising Design
Content
Technology
Writing
Many fail: team does not have necessary skills to execute

26. SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS
Game as Product Game as Service
Game released, Game continually
customer support for updated, enhanced,
time-bounded period supported 24/7
Boxed Software Virtual Worlds
Downloaded Software Social Networking
Many fail: under-resourced,
especially games as service that require on-going resources.

27. PUBLISHING STRATEGY
(1)
Audience
(8) (2)
Assessment Context
(7) (3)
Execution Impact
(6) (4)
Gameplay Platform
(5)
Sustaining
Many fail: Marketing / distribution / context
not baked into design.

28. G4C THE 8 STEPS
Our methodology to
create games that
have meaningful
social impact
Developed in partnership with

29. (1)
Audience
Who is it designed for?
Region, age, demographic, psychographic, media and
gaming accessibility and ability
(2)
Context
When & how is it played?
Moderated vs. un-moderated, home, school, after-school,
l i b r a r y, c o m m u n i t y c e n t e r

30. (3)
Impact
What is the goal?
J o b s k i l l s , 2 1 st c e n t u r y
skills, motivation, awareness, fundraising, behavior
change, real-world action
(4)
Platform
What is the right technology?
Console, console download, handheld, PC, Facebook, mobile

31. (5)
Sustainability
Understanding the financials
Cost to launch, cost to sustain, cost to
u s e r, i m p a c t - f r i e n d l y r e v e n u e m o d e l s
(6)
Gameplay
What is the design?
Organic alignment of what makes game fun and
what makes game impactful

32. (7)
Execution
From concept to launch & beyond
Te a m - b u i l d i n g , r a p i d p r o t o t y p i n g , t r o u b l e s h o o t i n g ,
marketing, distribution & support
(8)
Assessment
How to measure success?
Real-time & embedded assessment models,
portfolio management

33. Thinking Strategically

34. A GAME ‘ENGINE’
A tech platform to create multiple titles with clear
separation between back-end and content / GUI.

35. A PORTFOLIO APPROACH
Multiple titles, multiple platforms, lowering the risk.

36. STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Impact Domain
Partners Experts
Platform Project
Researchers
Experts Leadership
Assessment Game
Partners Development

37. Case #1:
Games in the
classroom

39. iCIVICS
REACH (since August 2009):
- 1.2 million players
- 12,000 classrooms
- 50 states and Washington DC
EVALUATION:
- 78% of students gained a better understanding of how their
government worked.
- 47% continued playing at home for fun!

40. Case #2:
Games in the
developing world

42. FREEDOM HIV / AIDS
REACH:
- 67 million devices
- 10.3 million play sessions
- India and 6 East African countries
EVALUATION:
- Significant increase in learning
- Changes in attitude and safer sex practices

43. Case #3:
Direct action
games

45. FREE RICE
HOW DOES IT WORK?
A multiple choice quiz, for every question you get
correct, 10 grains of rice are donated to the World Food
Programme.
ON A DAILY BASIS:
- 8 million page views
- 45 million grains of rice: enough to feed 2,500 people

46. Case #4:
The power of
the many

48. FOLD IT
TIME MAGAZINE:
U.S. gamers … have helped unlock the structure of an
AIDS-related enzyme that the scientific community had been
unable to unlock for a decade. The solution represents a
significant step forward in the quest to cure retroviral diseases
like AIDS.
September 9 2011

49. Case #5:
Youth
making games

50. C++
College/
Professional
Commercial
High Modding
School Tools
Middle
School
Elementary
School
Game Design Programming
Scaffolded / Constrained Un-scaffolded / Unconstrained

51. NATIONAL STEM CHALLENGE

52. SCHOLASTIC ART & WRITING AWARDS

53. Case #6:
Evaluation &
brain research

55. RE-MISSION
CONCLUSIONS:
The video-game intervention significantly improved treatment
adherence and indicators of cancer-related self-efficacy and
knowledge in adolescents and young adults who were
undergoing cancer therapy.
August 2008 edition of the medical journal Pediatric.

56. RE-MISSION
BRAIN RESEARCH:
Several key brain regions were activated when playing
Re-Mission, including neural structures involved in
emotion and motivation, and learning and memory..
10th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine (ICBM)

57. Your game here_

58. www.gamesforchange.org
michelle@gamesforchange.org // @mbyrd
asi@gamesforchange.org // @aburak