Free one-day workshop for non-profits interested in games for change. New Radical Suzanne Seggerman hosts.

Games for Change to offer a free one-day workshop for non-profits interested in social issue video games on June 2nd in NYC

Games for Change, the international nexus and primary community of practice for the emerging field of digital games for social change will be hosting a free day-long workshop for non-profits new to the field of video games and “real world issues”.  Let The Games Begin: A 101 Workshop for Making Social Issue Games was awarded one of 17 grants out of more than 1000 applicants to the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Competition.  Non-profits are using games to raise awareness and engage youth audiences in the most pressing issues of the day from the environment to poverty, from global conflicts to civil rights.  And this soup-to-nuts tutorial gets them started.

Set at the front of the 5th Annual Games for Change Festival, this workshop will feature top leaders of the field covering a broad range of topics key to this new genre of games, from game design to distribution, fundraising to press strategies.  Now in its fifth year, the Games for Change Festival has been called “the Sundance of Videogames” for “socially-responsible game designers”.  Hundreds of non-profit leaders, academics, innovative game designers and activists of all stripes convene to share ideas, explore funding avenues, and show the latest games.  From the UN’s Food Force about global poverty to the Global Kids’ AYITI about life in Haiti, these new games are a great new way for non-profits to both inform – and engage – our citizens about the issues of the day.  During the festival which follows the workshop, the closing keynote features the Honorable Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who will speak about her interactive civics education project developed in partnership with noted game scholar Dr. James Paul Gee.

For the workshop, seating is primarily for non-profit and public institutions and requires a short application: http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2008/101.php