The Half the Sky Movement, maker of the popular Facebook game, is announcing the release of three mobile phone games in Kenya and India. These new games are designed to educate women and girls about essential health issues, increase awareness about gender equality, and empower them to bring about social change in these areas. Family Values promotes the value of the girl child; 9Minutes focuses on healthy birthing practices, and WormAttack! is designed to bring de-worming awareness.
On the USAID development blog, developer Games for Change (G4C) shares the lessons it learnt while while creating these games. Here are G4C’s tips for other “game changers”:
1. Involve audience and content partners in planning the design
Early on, G4C and publishing partner E-Line Media reached out to a handful of NGOs, seeking partners who would mutually benefit from the use of these games. We worked to integrate the NGOs into the development process. Each group assisted with the game conceptualization and helped define the goals of the game. NGOs were also enlisted for their content expertise – to align the game content with their existing programs.
Our NGO partners also connected us with local communities to solicit feedback on art, gameplay, language and instructional content. We strengthened relationships with each NGO and used their valuable feedback to enhance the games. One local partner was so enthusiastic about helping that we decided to name a game character after her.
2. Design with the technology platform in mind
Next we explored how to get the games into the hands of our hard-to-reach audiences. Just how does someone living in a rural village access digital technology?
Recognizing this problem from the outset, we looked to mobile technology as a gaming platform. Feature phones (J2ME) offered an opportunity to reach a much broader audience and offered media consumption to communities who might not otherwise see any other form of interactive media.
3. Penetrate the market with multiple distribution channels and consider how each will impact game use
Upon release, G4C and E-Line Media will launch the games for free on local mobile operators’ and handset providers’ app stores in India and East Africa. However, no access to mobile Internet would mean that the games would never be seen by the hardest-to-reach audiences.
To address this problem, we worked with our NGO partners to leverage existing infrastructure and distribute the games through their programs on the ground. E-Line Media developed a multi-pronged strategy, with several NGOs in both India and Kenya, to create a variety of additional channels for distribution.
The three mobile games will be available for free download on the Nokia, Safaricom, GetJar and Appia app stores in both Kiswahili and Hindi.
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