GAMES FOR CHANGE Reveals 2019 GAMES FOR CHANGE AWARDS Finalists, Names UBISOFT First-Ever Recipient of Industry Leadership Award

Detroit: Become Human, The Stillness of the Wind, Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt and Nintendo Labo Among the Games Named Finalists in Eight Categories

Winners To Be Announced During 16th Annual Games For Change Festival June 18; Games for Change Introduces New Best Student Game and Best XR For Change Experience Awards

University of Miami Professor Lindsay Grace to be Presented with Annual Vanguard Award

NEW YORK – Games For Change (G4C), the leading non-profit organization advocating for video games games as drivers of social impact, today revealed the finalists for the 2019 Games For Change Awards to be presented on June 18 at the 16th G4C Festival. Games for Change also announced that it will present Ubisoft with the inaugural Games for Change Industry Leadership Award for the French studio’s long track record of developing games and initiatives for education and social good.

The Games for Change Awards ceremony will be hosted Brent Bushnell, CEO of Two Bit Circus, and crown winners in eight categories, including two new awards for Best Student Game and Best XR For Change Experience. A blue-ribbon jury of leaders in the gaming, philanthropic, media, and tech communities also selected finalists in the following categories: Best Gameplay, Most Innovative, Most Significant Impact and Best Learning Game.

“Each year our award finalists exemplify our organization’s values at the highest level,” said Susanna Pollack, President of G4C. “But this year is especially gratifying with not only the addition of the two new categories but our first opportunity to put the spotlight on an industry-wide contributor in Ubisoft.”

Ubisoft has a rich recent history of gearing elements of their games to education and social good, from the guitar tutorial Rocksmith 2014 to the ancient history-laden Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed (a 2019 Games for Change Award nominee) to research-driven efforts in  the areas of amblyopia and accessibility. Recently, Ubisoft turned its attention to its home country, donating 500,000 Euro to the restoration and reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris following the tragic fire in April. Ubisoft also gave away Assassin’s Creed Unity, in which the historic cathedral is featured prominently, free for a week on PC.

“We believe that being a good corporate citizen is as important as being a creator of high-quality game experiences,” said Yannis Mallat, CEO of Ubisoft Montreal. “We’re grateful to be recognized by Games for Change and will continue to not only support the important research in which we’re involved but also look for opportunities to gear aspects of our games to broader social constructs.”

In addition to the Industry Leadership Award, last year’s Vanguard Award Winner, Katie Salen (University of California, Irvine; Chief Designer and co-founder of Connected Camps and founding Executive Director of the Institute of Play) will present Lindsay Grace (University of Miami Professor and Vice President of High Education Video Game Alliance) with this year’s honor.

All of the game nominees will be considered for the top honor of Game of the Year, which is awarded to the game that best exemplifies all categories. The Games for Change People’s Choice Award, which invites the public to vote for their choice Game of the Year, will be featured on Facebook for the first time. Voting will take place at here and will be live from May 29, 2019 to June 10, 2019. Wrapping up day two of the festival, all award winners will be announced on the evening of Tuesday June 18.

The 2019 Games for Change Awards finalists follow. Finalists in the Best XR for Change Experience category will be named in early June:

BEST STUDENT GAME (Recognizes games created by college-level students that target specific social issues with proven outcomes/actions)

• Prism (Developed by Yidi Zhu, Dan Wolpow, Ridima Ramesh, Yutian Zheng, and Xueyang Wang)
  • Prism helps neurotypical children aged 8 to 10 empathize with their peers who have autism. It is a digital game for the children to play, paired with a discussion framework for instructors that takes the children through the game and how it relates to their everyday lives.
• Healing Spaces (Developed by Gabriela Purri R. Gomes)
  • Healing Spaces combines both digital and physical components to transform spaces and create a sense of place through sight, touch, smell and sound, transporting older adults with advanced dementia and their caregivers to restorative environments where they can reconnect, find respite and heal.
• Rayha’s Poem (Developed by The Rayha’s Poem Team)
  • A young girl leaps across boundaries both social and supernatural to find herself, her mother, and the fabled land of freedom her mother spoke of.
• In Loving Memory (Developed by Issac Lim)
  • In Loving Memory is a poetic experience that follows a young girl through her journey through loss and acceptance, while trapped in her own fantasy world to cope with grief.

BEST GAMEPLAY (Honoring the games with highly compelling and engaging gameplay whose game mechanics align with and reinforce impact goals)

• The Stillness of the Wind (Developed by Coyan Cardenas, Memory of God)
  • One by one, everyone left the village for the city. Everyone, except Talma. Approaching her final years, she maintains a simple way of life tending to her homestead, surviving, subsisting, whilst increasingly disturbing letters arrive from her family in the city.
• Detroit: Become Human (Developed by Quantic Dream)
  • Detroit, 2038. Technology has evolved to a point where human like androids are everywhere. They have become a tireless force at the service of humanity. Some of them “awake”, and start questioning their place in society. You will embody three of them, in their quest for freedom…and humanity.
• GRIS (Developed by Nomada Studio)
  • Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality. Gris will grow emotionally and see her world in a different way.
• Florence (Developed by Mountains)
  • Florence is an interactive storybook from the award-winning lead designer of Monument Valley about the heart-racing highs and heartbreaking lows of a young woman’s first love.

MOST INNOVATIVE (Honoring the games that demonstrate creativity, embrace experimentation and aspire to bring new ideas through unique game design, technology and/or audiences)

• Tendar (Developed by Tendar Claws)
  • A humorous and provocative AR game that combines interactive storytelling, AR, sentiment and object recognition technology to promote discussion about current topics in mobile vision and artificial intelligence. Your guide: a fish-like creature who learns about the human experience by eating your emotions. Long-form AR content as Guppy evolves!
• One Hand Clapping (Developed by Bad Dream Games)
  • One Hand Clapping is a 2D platformer that invites you to sing into your microphone to solve musical puzzles and change the world around you.
• Nintendo Labo (Developed by Nintendo)
  • Nintendo Labo combines physical and digital play patterns to teach and support principles of engineering, physics and basic programming. The platform uses kits that include cardboard cut-outs and other materials. The kits provide a fun way for kids to explore topics while building fundamental understanding of the technology behind them.
• Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt (Developed by Ubisoft)
  • In Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt, players can free roam the entire interactive 3D recreation, free of combat, storyline or time constraints. Explore Ancient Egypt with 75 guided tours curated by historians and Egyptologists, each with a focus on different aspects of life in Ptolemaic Egypt.

MOST SIGNIFICANT IMPACT (Honoring the games that target a specific social issue with proven actions/outcomes like awareness, civic learning, community building, or behavior change)

• Can’t Wait to Learn Uganda (Developed by War Child Holland)
  • War Child Holland and partners develop solutions with and for children affected by conflict. The result is a self-guided serious gaming format accessed on tablets that takes children through Ministry approved math and reading curricula, providing opportunity for children to work toward primary level.
• UNICEF Kid Power (Developed by Teravision Technology, Teravision Games and 42 Mate)
  • UNICEF Kid Power turns everyday activity into lifesaving food for over 16 million severely malnourished children around the world. By connecting a Kid Power Band or other activity tracker to our game, families, friends and classrooms can save lives with every step they take.
• Rispek Danis (Developed by Jennifer Ann’s Group)
  • A culturally appropriate and enjoyable game about consent created for youth in Vanuatu, a country with one of the World’s highest rates of sexual victimization of children. The game is narrated in Bislama, a primary language of Vanuatu, and all dialogue, locations, and music are representative of ni-Vanuatu youth life.
• My Memory of Us (Developed by Juggler Games)
  • My Memory of Us is a moving fairy tale about friendship and hope in the darkest moments of our times. Enter hand-crafted, gorgeously animated 2D world full of adventure, exploration, stealth and puzzles. Meet the kids brought up in peculiar environments and help them survive during times of occupation.

BEST LEARNING GAME (Honoring the games that offer meaningful engagement around intended learning objectives with measurable outcomes. Examples of types of learning include cognitive skills (academic subjects, memory), social/emotional skills (empathy, bullying), physical health (movement, nutrition), and creative well-being)

• Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt (Developed by Ubisoft)
  • In Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt, players can free roam the entire interactive 3D recreation, free of combat, storyline or time constraints. Explore Ancient Egypt with 75 guided tours curated by historians and Egyptologists, each with a focus on different aspects of life in Ptolemaic Egypt.
• Cards Against Calamity (Developed by 1st Playable Productions & the Environmental Law Institute)
  • In Cards Against Calamity, you take on the role of mayor of a small coastal town. You must balance the needs of various stakeholder groups, from fishermen to tourists and small business owners, while protecting the town from job loss, pollution, hurricanes, and hipsters. Do you have what it takes?
• The Cat in the Hat Builds That (Developed by PBS Kids)
  • The Cat in the Hat Builds That app introduces pre-k kids to science inquiry and engineering concepts through games tailored to their learning progress. Kids can build bridges, explore friction through slides & more as they earn rewards & explore in their own way.
• HoloLAB Champions (Developed by Schell Games)
  • HoloLAB Champions is a VR chemistry game show, where contestants complete experiments to become champions of lab practice. With guidance and witty commentary provided by holographic hosts Earl and Meyer, players perform a series of tasks quickly and accurately, allowing them to learn basic lab skills in a safe environment.

BEST LEARNING GAME (Honoring the games that offer meaningful engagement around intended learning objectives with measurable outcomes. Examples of types of learning include cognitive skills (academic subjects, memory), social/emotional skills (empathy, bullying), physical health (movement, nutrition), and creative well-being)

• Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt (Developed by Ubisoft)

  • In Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt, players can free roam the entire interactive 3D recreation, free of combat, storyline or time constraints. Explore Ancient Egypt with 75 guided tours curated by historians and Egyptologists, each with a focus on different aspects of life in Ptolemaic Egypt.

• Cards Against Calamity (Developed by 1st Playable Productions & the Environmental Law Institute)

  • In Cards Against Calamity, you take on the role of mayor of a small coastal town. You must balance the needs of various stakeholder groups, from fishermen to tourists and small business owners, while protecting the town from job loss, pollution, hurricanes, and hipsters. Do you have what it takes?

• The Cat in the Hat Builds That (Developed by PBS Kids)

  • The Cat in the Hat Builds That app introduces pre-k kids to science inquiry and engineering concepts through games tailored to their learning progress. Kids can build bridges, explore friction through slides & more as they earn rewards & explore in their own way.

• HoloLAB Champions (Developed by Schell Games)

  • HoloLAB Champions is a VR chemistry game show, where contestants complete experiments to become champions of lab practice. With guidance and witty commentary provided by holographic hosts Earl and Meyer, players perform a series of tasks quickly and accurately, allowing them to learn basic lab skills in a safe environment.

BEST XR FOR CHANGE EXPERIENCE (Honoring the best XR projects that immerse users and engage them in impactful experiences)

• Another Dream (Developed by alpha_rats)

  • Another Dream is a hybrid animated documentary and VR game, brings the gripping, true love story of an Egyptian lesbian couple to life. Faced with a post-revolution backlash against the LGBTQ community, they escape Cairo to seek asylum and acceptance in the Netherlands. An accompanying installation allows audiences to reflect on what they have seen, heard, and felt in VR.

• Homestay (Developed by National Film Board of Canada)

  • Homestay is one family’s story of life with international students—a look at how complete immersion in another culture can create a clash of expectations and change our understanding of family, hospitality, nationality and love.

• Tendar  (Developed by Tender Claws)

  • Tendar is a project that focuses on virtual pet, Guppy, that feeds on laughter, surprise and tears. Guppy learns and evolves based on players’ facial expressions and social interactions – the more faces it can scan, the better. Guppy can also recognize and respond to over 200 objects, building up knowledge as it interacts more and more with the physical world.

• Queerskins: a love story (Developed by Cloudred)

  • In Queerskins: a love story, users are seated in the back seat of a photorealistic vintage 1986 Cadillac, behind two grieving parents, Ed and Mary-Helen, as they take a magic realist journey down a country road in rural Missouri. Visitors get to know Sebastian through the drama unfolding in intimate proximity in the front seat as well as by interacting with artifacts from his life, a collection of personal belongings including his diary they find in a box on the seat next to them.

From June 17 to June 19, the 16th Annual G4C Festival will offer expertly curated panels, talks, workshops, demos and on-site mentorship sessions through that will follow three focused tracks, as it has done in previous years: Civic & Social issues, Games for Learning, and Health & Wellness, to recognize how games have impact in these sectors and beyond. The festival will kick off with the 3rd annual XR For Change Summit (XR4C) on June 17. Through interactive sessions and tech demos, the XR4C Summit will highlight the most exciting new XR experiences and showcase how VR/AR/MR can be a powerful force for social impact. All G4C Awards finalists can be experienced in the Showcase next to the G4C Marketplace during the Festival. 

The festival’s full schedule can be found at g4c19.sched.com and full list of speakers and sessions can be found HERE. Anyone interested in attending the 16th annual G4C Festival can purchase tickets HERE.

Nathan Stevens

Website | + posts

I have always enjoyed playing video games and am a programming team lead for a video game company. I co-founded Gaming Cypher because I enjoy the gaming community and would like to provide the best news service around. Feel free to ask me any questions and I will make sure to get back to you quickly.

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