Changing the Game

I just returned from New York where I had the great opportunity to get an insight on the current activities of the Games For Change International non-profit organisation and their latest project Half the Sky – The Game, which will launch on March 4.

The game is announced as `a Facebook adventure that raises awareness and funds to empower women and girls across the globe´. The project is supported by the Ford Foundation, Zynga.org, the Rockefeller Foundation, Intel, United Nations Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Being involved in the Games for Change initiative in Europe myself, I was particularly curious about the backgrounds of the organisation currently transforming from a network and incubator to an actual producer and developer of a social impact game.

Meeting with co-presidents Michelle Byrd and Asi Burak at the G4C headquarter in Manhattan, it struck me that only an organisation with such an experience and reputation like Games for Change itself was able to pull off a project of such a scale and with such an amazing partner network. Considering that, for the first time in video game history a social impact game with a decent budget and network to reach A LOT of people will be out of the closed beta in less than a month, I am extremely excited to witness the launch of Half the Sky – The Game.

It is going to be a proof of concept and future argument for everyone who is working in our field.