The Power of Design: Youth Making Social Issue Games

Games for Change is excited to premiere a a new day-long workshop: The Power of Design: Youth Making Social Issue Games on May 24th. Young people are intensely curious about how games are made, and now with the availability of several game creation tools, they are becoming not just consumers, but game-makers. Game making incorporates a wide range of technical and artistic skills, and is an exceptional way to engage learners in complex systems thinking. We created this workshop especially for teachers, after school program leaders, and mentors who want to leverage the enthusiasm for games to create an innovative learning experience that incorporates many of the skills youth need to thrive in today's world.

Also debuting at the 2010 festival is a bonus day What Makes Games (Really) Good For Learning on May 27th sponsored by the Games for Learning Institute at NYU which will focus on various aspects of games for learning, including:

- The design process and team composition for educational games

- Research methods for studying games in learning contexts

- Design patterns for effective educational games

- Assessment, in-game and out-of-game

- Integration of games into traditional and non-traditional curricula

And don't forget the pre-festival workshop for newbies on May 24th.
Let the Games Begin: 101 Workshop on Making Social Issue Games - This workshop is a soup-to-nuts tutorial on the fundamentals of social issue games. Appealing to both those who are new to designing learning games but passionate about social issues, and those already underway in game production, the workshop will feature leading experts on game design, fundraising, evaluation, youth participation, distribution, and press strategies.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Suzanne

Suzanne Seggerman
President, Co-founder
Games for Change
http://www.gamesforchange.org
cell: 917.478.4772
Twitter: @Seggerwoman
We are thankful for the generous support of our Festival sponsors, the Knight Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as Parsons The New School for Design.