Games Without Borders

Getting Started Guide

Helpful steps for getting started:
1)

Choose the global issue you want to focus on. Remember, you can work with up to three teammates!
Consider the questions: What global issue interests you most? What global issue do you think needs more
awareness? Which global issue do you want to learn more about?
Look below under Choosing a Global Issue for general topic ideas. Talk to parents, friends, and teachers for
ideas. Also use online resources, books, and magazines.
2) Next, think of a game model that would best fit the issue.
A board game? Video game? Card game? Think about which of these models best conveys the important
concepts related to your global issue. It may help to think of some games you already enjoy and use those as
models. Check out the different game examples listed under Game Ideas below for ideas.
3) Brainstorm a rough outline about how the game will work. Then decide whether you want to begin with the
visual or written portion.
4) To start working on the visuals, scroll down to the Resources for Developing Game Visuals/Storyboard section
for resources specific to the game model you chose.
5) Make sure and follow the Submission Guidelines
*Note to Teachers: Using This Resource Guide
This resource list is meant as a guide for teachers, students, and parents. This guide is not a comprehensive list,
nor is it meant to limit students as they identify their global topics and their game models.
We suggest using this resource guide as part of a classroom or small group brainstorming session.
We suggest all students read our Judging Rubric before starting their game design, and again before making final
revisions to their design. The rubric provides clear, detailed, guidance on how designs will be graded by judges.
1)

Choosing a Global Issue:

Game topics may include geography, migration, travel, and international cultures; or global issues such as climate
change, global health, violent conflict, the global economy, or international development.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are a good place to start. The goals include: End Poverty and
Hunger, Universal Education, Gender Equality, Child Health, Maternal Health, Combat HIV/Aids, Environmental
Sustainability, and Global Partnership.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
Our online resource packets also contain many global issues: The Bottom Billion, YCA Packet, and GYLI Resource
Packet.

2) Game Ideas:
Explore and play the games below. For more examples, download: How Internet Games and Virtual Worlds Can
Help you Deliver More Global Education, a Teachers Resource Guide from our website.

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Getting Started Guide
You will notice that some games target younger children while others are appropriate for high school or adult
players. Your game can target any age group.
*Parents and Teachers: Please note that some games may not be appropriate for younger children. Please
preview games before introducing them to your students.

Global Health
Medmyst: Medical Mysteries on the Web
http://medmyst.rice.edu/index.html
Educational Issues: Health, Science
Description: MedMyst is an Internet-based adventure in which you are on a mission to discover the
causes of diseases. As you follow clues to solve the mystery, you are also given the opportunity to
explore chemistry, pharmacology, neuroscience, medicine, public policy, history, and more.
Developer: Rice University, Adobe Flash
Developer: Globaria Games, educational web games made by students
Pathogen Panic!
http://www.bioquestacademy.org/
*Scroll to the right side bottom of the page
Educational Issue: Health
Description: Cholera is on the attack! These bacteria are extracellular pathogens that produce nasty chemicals
that make people feel sick. Help the good cells get rid of the bad ones, and be careful to avoid the HIV virus!
Developer: Bioquest Academy

Environment
The Garbage Dreams Game
http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/the-garbage-dreams-game/
Educational Issue: Garbage, Recycling
Description: The Garbage Dreams Recycling game invites players to take on the role of the Zaballeen, who
impressively recycle 80% of the trash they collect. Start with one neighborhood, one factory, and one hungry
goat. You have 8 months to build your recycling empire and get Cairos total recycling as high as you can. Can you
be as eco-savvy as the Zaballeen?
Developer: Duane Dunfield, Mai Iskander, Jeremy Bernstein
Keep Cool Board Game
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14698/keep-cool
Educational Issue: Global Climate Politics
Description: Each player takes on a role in the world of global climate politics. Players represent their countrys
interests, whether they are the USA or a developing country, and must also consider actors like the oil industry
and environmental organizations who help determine if the players efforts are successful or not. In each round of
the game you have to decide between taking measures for climate protection that are good for all, or ones that
might benefit your role more than others. The risk: catastrophes like droughts, floods, or pandemics. The goal:
welfare and a stable global climate. Whoever reaches his or her targets first wins, yet if you are not cooperative
enough all players might lose due to a collapse of the world climate.

Games Without Borders

Getting Started Guide
Developer: Klaus Eisenack and Gerhard Petschel-Held of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research,
Spieltrieb (2004)
Synchronized Saviors
www.globaloria.org/index.php/games-front-page/item/synchronized-saviors
* Created by students
Educational Issue: Environment
Description: Players learn facts about pollution and alternative energy resources as they complete levels by
picking up trash.
Developer: Globaria

Poverty
AYITI: The Cost of Life
http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/rights/explore_3142.html
*Games 4 Change Award Winner
Educational Issues: Human Rights, Poverty
Description: This game challenges players to manage a rural family of five in Haiti. Over four years, players
struggle to keep their family healthy, educated, and alive.
Developer: Youth-Produced, Global Kids & GameLab
Inside the Haiti Earthquake:
http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/inside-the-haiti-earthquake/
*This game may not be suitable for younger students
Educational Issue: Relief work in disaster situations.
Description: Inside the Haiti Earthquake is an online simulation that allows users to play the role of an aid worker,
a journalist, or a survivor. You will be given the opportunity to commit to various strategies and experience their
consequences.
MDG Matters: Get the 8 straight
http://www.tigweb.org/themes/mdg/game/index.html
Educational Issue: Millennium Development Goals
Description: Test your knowledge on the Millennium Development Goals by matching the cards and answering
trivia questions. Accumulate points based on your speed and accuracy.
Developer: Taking It Global
Peace Corps Challenge Online Game
http://www.peacecorps.gov/kids/
Educational Issues: Water Contamination, Sanitation and Disease, Microfinance, Agriculture,
Agroforestry, Education, Womens Issues
Description: Students navigate through the tiny town of Wazunu to solve problems.
Developer: Peace Corps

Games Without Borders

Getting Started Guide
Refugees and Immigration
Against All Odds, Refugee Game U NHCR
http://www.playagainstallodds.com/
*This game may not be suitable for younger students
Age: 14+
Educational Issues: Global Conflict, Human Rights
Description: This game teaches the global refugee experience: from the time people are forced to leave their
countries of origin to the beginning of their new lives abroad.
Developer: UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency
I can end deportation (ICED)
http://www.icedgame.com/
*This game may not be suitable for younger students
Educational Issues: Human Rights
Description: This online game puts players in the shoes of an immigrant to illustrate how unfair immigration laws
deny due process and violate human rights. These laws affect all immigrants: legal residents, those fleeing
persecution, students, and undocumented people.
Developer: Breakthrough

International Diplomacy
Crisis of Nations
http://www.icivics.org/games/crisis-nations
Education Issue: International Politics
Description: Take the helm of your own country and work together with others to solve international problems! In
this game of diplomacy, four nations must work together to solve crises, but each has a hidden agenda: to collect
15 resources of a certain type and win the game. Whether you cooperate in the interest of global harmony or
deceive your way to victory, only the shrewdest of leaders will come out on top.
Developer: Justice Sandra Day OConner, iCivics
Connect with Haji Kamal
http://www.kinection.com/projects/project-connect-with-haji-kamal/
*This game may not be suitable for younger students
Education Issue: Cross-Cultural Communication
Description: Guide your Lieutenant on how to behave in a meeting with an important community leader in
Afghanistan.
Developer: Kinection

Other
Phone Story
https://market.android.com/details?id=air.org.molleindustria.phonestory2
*This game may not be suitable for younger students
Educational Issue: Technology and the Environment

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Getting Started Guide
Description: Phone Story is an educational game about the hidden social costs of smartphone manufacturing.
Follow your phone's journey from the Coltan mines of the Congo to the electronic waste dumps in Pakistan
through four colorful mini-games. Compete with market forces in an endless spiral of technological obsolescence.
Developer: Phone Story

3) Resources for developing game visuals/storyboard:

These resources may help students develop the Visual and Artwork section of the Submission Guidelines.
Students may choose to submit a storyboard or a different type of visual.
The resources below represent a range of approaches toward creating visual materials. Some are very brief, and
others very technical. We suggest students first explore these examples for inspiration. Then, develop a clear,
straightforward approach toward completing a polished and concise submission.
-

Designing video games:

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/designing-video-games.html
A video game is more than the sum of its pieces; a game has a synergy that, after the game is complete,
makes it something unique. Creating this synergy takes a lot of technical know-how, as well as a sense of
design and art. (Includes storyboard information)

How to Design a Game Storyboard:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5184299_design-game-storyboard.html
Game storyboarding is vital to the development stage of any modern-day gaming project. Even if you've got
the game's plot perfectly mapped out in your head, it must be produced as a hardcopy storyboard to better
communicate your ideas.

Storyboard template ideas:

http://www.imaginecup.us/documents/FY12_GD_Storyboard_template.pdf
http://www.norman.k12.ok.us/092/techscope/storyboard2.gif
http://images.nextnewnetworks.com/7503.jpg
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/105/9/1/storyboard_template_hirez_tiff_by_westwolf270-d3e1b00.jpg
(See the following page for an example of a Game Storyboard)

How to make your own board game:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Own-Board-Game

How to make a trading card game

http://www.ehow.com/how_2100170_make-trading-card-game.html

Read about the design process of the company behind Connect with Haji Kamal (see above)
http://www.kinection.com/design-process/

Games Without Borders

Getting Started Guide
Visual Example of a Game Storyboard:

Storyboard Design, http://pingmag.jp/2006/10/27/storyboard-design/

Find the finished game here! The website and instructions are in Japanese, but the game is a version of Uno that is
very playable even if you do not know Japanese.
http://www.disneygames.jp/table/4007/

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Getting Started Guide
4) How to create and upload a video:
These links are for students who plan on submitting an optional video. Look at the Submission Guidelines for rules
regarding finished videos.
-

Websites that help create a video:

http://www.youtube.com/create

How to upload a video on YouTube:

http://www.webvideozone.com/public/308.cfm

5) Online game design programs and eLearning resources:

Tech-savvy students can use these programs to create an online game:

Kodu
http://www.kodugamelab.com/
http://fuse.microsoft.com/page/kodu
Kodu is a new visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be
accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone. The visual nature of the language allows for rapid design
iteration using only an Xbox game controller for input (mouse/keyboard input is also supported).

Sample Branching Scenario:

http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2011/07/sample-branching-scenario-cool-tool/
Branching scenarios can be a pain to design. Happily, you can use a simple tool called Twine to easily draft
the scenario and produce it. This post looks at a scenario that demonstrates Twines basic features and makes
a point about teaching through stories.

Game Star Mechanic:

http://gamestarmechanic.com
Gamestar Mechanic is a game and community designed to teach kids the principles of game design and
systems thinking in a highly engaging environment. It is designed for 7- to 14-year-olds but is open to
everyone.

The following resources may be too complex for the Youth Challenge but are for students who are further
interested in eLearning:

Elearning samples:
http://blog.cathy-moore.com/elearning-samples/
This page links to samples of interactive graphics, simulations, and other materials from many different
sources. Maybe theyll give you ideas for your own projects.

Learning Games Network:

http://www.learninggamesnetwork.org/index.php?/about/general

Games Without Borders

Getting Started Guide
The Learning Games Network is a non-profit spin-off of the MIT Education Arcade that works with partners in
our growing "network" of publishers, schools, researchers, and others to produce new educational products
and services. We apply the most current research in the learning sciences, creative design, and technology to
the development of game-based learning resources.

6) Other game contests:

Explore and gain ideas from other game competitions:
-

Games for Change: Catalyzing Social Impact through Digital Games.

http://www.gamesforchange.org/
Games for Change facilitates the creation and distribution of social impact games that serve as critical tools in
humanitarian and educational efforts. Games for Change aims to leverage entertainment and engagement
for social good.

Kodu Cup
http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoftupblog/archive/2011/06/13/kodu-cup-winners-announced.aspx
A competition that challenged kids across the United States (from the age of 9 to 17) to use Kodu a free
game development tool from Microsoft to create their own video game for the chance to win great prizes
and the chance to attend the Imagine Cup World finals in New York City in July.

Stem Challenge Game Design Competition

http://stemchallenge.org/winners/Default.aspx
Inspired by the Educate to Innovate Campaign, President Obamas initiative to promote a renewed focus on
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, the National STEM Video Game Challenge is
a multi-year competition whose goal is to motivate interest in STEM learning among Americas youth by
tapping into students natural passion for playing and making video games.

Students Design a Facebook Game for Generation Cures:

http://www.learninggamesnetwork.org/index.php?/community/community/nervous_quest/general/
Neuro's Quest, a single-player Facebook game for high school students and above that loosely models the
behavior and potential treatment of neurodegenerative illnesses such as Parkinsons or Lou Gehrigs disease,
was conceived by a team of teachers and students from Nashoba Regional High School as part of the first
Game for Good Design Camp organized with Generation Cures at Children's Hospital Boston and sponsored
by MassBioEd and Microsoft in summer 2010.

US Imagine Cup 2012:

http://www.imaginecup.us/Index.aspx#fbid=IC63Mj_eVc0
Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems. First of all, it's thrilling to make a
difference, and with the power of gaming, people can have fun while fighting global issues. Build a full game
from scratch and make it something truly unique. Think of this competition as an important step in your
budding career as a game developer or an entrepreneur in the game business.

For further questions and information, please contact us at: Games@world-affairs.org