Initial game ideas

250 facts and figures

Continuing from my research into games to promote change I came across a book I had picked up a year ago called 250 facts and figures. Each page contains a different fact or figure about the world in 2017 from facts about climate change to inequality and healthcare. This is a great resource for flicking through to discover something that interests me, and I feel passionate about.

The following are the 5 facts that caught my attention.

1. 80% of epileptics live in low and middle income countries, with 75% of those people not receiving treatment.
2. 47,000,000 people live with dementia
3. Corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion costs $1.26 trillion for developing countries.
4. Over 60,000,000 people were displaced from their homes worldwide due to conflict in 2016.
5. 6 times as many people die from pollution a year than from malaria and 4 times as many than HIV/AIDs.

Each one of these could be a great starting point for a game, however I am not currently sure which one I should pick. In order to quickly come up with ideas I will spend 5 minutes creating mind maps of game ideas for each one and I will then evaluate the ideas to work out which ones will create the best concepts.

Epilepsy in low-mid income countries

47,000,000 people living with dementia

Corruption, bribery and tax evasion in developing countries

60,000,000 people displaced due to conflict in 2016

Deaths by pollution

Review of ideas

These mindmaps, what I call “no judgment mindmaps” are created rapidly and without critiquing or judgement of the ideas. Now come the part where I re-read and critique the ideas and see which ones I think I can turn into concepts.

Immediately when I start reading through these ideas there are a few that jump out as being both interesting and feasible. I narrowed the ideas down further to these top 5 game ideas:

1. Corruption – Divert money and resources where it needs to go in order to stop corruption and benefit your community.
2. Corruption – Run for government: help your community through legislation that stops corruption.
3. Pollution – Grow your tree/park/forest to reduce pollution and clean the city.
4. Pollution – Show pollution in your environment through AR/VR
5. Epilepsy – deliver medication to those in need in rural developing countries.

These ideas are all really interesting to me and whilst I have no idea where they might go, what platform or form they will be I feel having a strong concept will enable the right path to reveal itself in the coming days. My initial favorite idea is the pollution game where you grow trees/parks/forests etc. to clean your city as I feel this game could be an interesting relaxation style game that is in contrast to the busy nature of our everyday lives.

…more to come on this!