A Cross-Cultural Game Design Process Abroad

[Sabeha Ahmed]

 

Your Name:

Sabeha Ahmed

 

Grade Level:

High School- Juniors and Seniors

School or Organization Name:

Global Kids

Co-Presenter Name(s):

Patience Boateng, Victor Salinas, Christian Melendez

 

Area of the World from Which You Will Present:

New York, New York, USA

 

Language in Which You Will Present:

English

 

Target Audience(s):

Both Teachers and Students

 

Short Session Description (one line):

A Cross-Cultural Game Design Process Abroad

 

Full Session Description (as long as you would like):  

This is about our trip abroad in collaboration with Japanese youth to design a geolocative game. 

We took an international trip abroad with our youth organization, Global Kids, and we collaborated with Japanese youth to learn about the impact of the 2011 Tsunami and Earthquake. We were tasked with designing a game for local youth to learn disaster response strategies. In particular, we were creating a geolocative game- a game that is based in a specific location and uses GPS to help players navigate the real world while playing on a tablet or mobile device.

 

Based on our discussions, local tours, workshops, and feedback sessions with local Japanese youth and tsunami survivors, we got ideas about what to include in our game design project. We figured out that we wanted to teach the Japanese youth about locations that were high enough to be safe from the tsunami while incorporating stories of the survivors. 

We had to consider:

-Location: where the player would begin and end, the distance between locations, and choosing sites that actually meant something to the community and had significant impacts in the story of the tsunami and recovery

-Presentation: make information presentable to young audiences, making it fun and interesting (some in middle school and some in high school)

-Culture: how to make the game tie into the local culture, respectfully, while not fully understanding it

-Language Barriers: We didn’t speak Japanese so we had to rely on translators, body language, acting, pictures, and visual aids, not to mention, our energy!

 

How We Did It

We used a human centered design process.

Trial, error, and prototypes- We made samples of our game and presented it to the target audience to get feedback about what they thought. We presented to different communities and age groups, ranging  from an afterschool program for high schoolers in Tokyo, to middle school classes, to local youth activists in the tsunami-affected regions.

Feedback and interviews- We asked a lot of questions to our Japanese peers to get feedback, including personal and open ended questions like, “what would you do”.  We attempted to bond with our Japanese peers by going to lunch together, doing icebreaker games, and sharing stories.

 

Lessons Learned

Empathize- We began to empathize with our Japanese peers and not just feel sympathy-- feeling the emotions with them instead of feeling sorry for them. Learning about what had happened in the community in Japan made us reflect on the protocols and systems we have back home, and appreciate them more. In the end we gained many life lessons from our Japanese peers.  

Collaborate- The inspiration for the game really came from seeing the resilience of the youth who had survived the tsunami and were working to help the community. We created a game to help add to the efforts already being made and that’s what made the project strong.

Expand your palate- Eating food is a part of being immersed in a culture. Having the desire to learn the culture and be a part of it is what you need in order to be a human centered designer, because at the end of the day, your design is not for you. To be a good designer, you must have an attitude of openness, a desire to learn about and include the local customs, and an appreciation that the project is about something bigger than you.

Check out our game at Taleblazer.org ( http://taleblazer.org/game/gamePage/6750) or download the Taleblazer App to play!

Our Game is Called "Onagawa Neighborhood Quest" with Game Code: gmmkxkc

[Eunice Daudu]

Hello 

I'm writing on behalf of the co-coordinators of the 2017 Student STEM + Entrepreneurship Conference.

Your proposal for the 2017 Student STEM + Entrepreneurship Conference has been accepted. Please make sure to claim your timeslot and become familiar with the platform Blackboard Collaborate where the conference will be hosted before you present. A previously sent email contains further information about the necessary steps to take. It can be found in your email inbox under the name STEM & Entrepreneurship.  

 

Thank you for your cooperation.

Best,

Eunice Daudu and Gaby Palines

Co-coordinators of the 2017 Student STEM + Entrepreneurship Conference

[Sebastian Panakal]

May we plant a tree in your honor, Sabeha?