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Upcoming Games For Change Festival


Via: Games For Change

Hosted in New York City by Parsons The New School for Design, the 6th annual Games for Change Festival will take place May 27 – 29, 2009.

From May 27th-29th, this unique event celebrates the power of video games to motivate social change in areas from the environment to public health

Called "the Sundance of video games" for "socially-responsible game-makers", this unique event, that celebrates the power of video games to motivate social change in areas from the environment to public health, will explore real-world impact, latest games, and funding strategies.

The Annual Games for Change Festival brings together the world’s leading foundations, NGOs, game-makers, academics, and journalists to explore how best to harness this incredibly powerful medium to help address the most critical issues of our day, from poverty, climate change, global conflicts, to human rights.


Festival highlights include opening keynote by Pulitzer-Prize winning author and world-changing New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof; fireside chat with preeminent games and learning scholars Jim Gee and Henry Jenkins; an interactive game design session by leading game designer Eric Zimmerman; and a closing keynote by Lucy Bradshaw, Executive Producer of Spore, and one of the 10 Most Influential Women In Games.

This year it will also be featuring the first-ever Newsgame Award at the Expo Night on May 28th, sponsored by the Knight Foundation, an evening games Expo and reception where attendees can play these new games first-hand and watch the awards ceremony, where the best news games from the past several years will be recognized.

Back by popular demand "Let the Games Begin: 101 Workshop on Making Social Issue Games", the pre-festival day-long workshop for newbies on May 27th! (2008 MacArthur Foundation's DML Competition award-winner). This workshop is a tutorial on the fundamentals of social issue games. Vital to those who are new to designing learning games but passionate about social issues, the workshop features leading experts on game design, fundraising, evaluation, youth participation, distribution, and press strategies.


About Games For Change (G4C)

Games for Change (G4C) provides support, visibility and shared resources to individuals and organizations using digital games for social change.They provide special assistance to foundations and non-profits entering the field. Today, G4C acts as a national hub to help organizations network and develop videogame projects beyond their traditional expertise. G4C members represent hundreds of organizations and include partners in the games industry, academia, nonprofits, local and state governments, foundations, the UN and artists.

Games for Change operates under the fiscal auspices of Digital Innovations Group, Inc., a New York-based 501(c)3 think tank that encourages and supports innovation on the Web, with a special emphasis on developing the potential of the medium to bring people together to explore both personal and public issues in powerful and transforming ways.