Student Game Projects

The Game

Cholera Control puts you in the situation of a cholera outbreak, and you must take action to prevent illness and the spread of infection. The game is built on the premise that cholera is a preventable disease with education on proper sanitary measures.

— Lauren Merriman, Team Cholera Control

Play the Game

Play Cholera Control online.

Technical note: You may be prompted to download the Unity Web Player, and this does not work with all browsers. For PC: we recommend Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera. For Mac: we recommend Safari.

Student Insights

In this video, Lauren Merriman describes various aspects of her experience as part of Team Cholera Control.

View video page

Final Presentation

The Cholera Control team’s final presentation can be seen in the following video.

View video page

The Game

When disasters strike, Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers are often among the first to provide relief to the victims. But in most cases, acting before a disaster to mitigate its effects can save more lives. For heat waves, linking early warning with early action involves taking precautions like having older citizens drink more water.

Heat Wave, the game, provides the player with a scenario that mimics a heat wave forecast, and pairs it with actions your character can take to mitigate its effects.

— Miriam Proznitz, Team Heat Wave

Play the Game

Play Heat Wave online.

Technical note: You may be prompted to download the Unity Web Player, and this does not work with all browsers. For PC: we recommend Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera. For Mac: we recommend Safari.

Student Insights

In this video, Miriam Proznitz describes various aspects of her experience as part of Team Heat Wave.

View video page

Final Presentation

The Heat Wave team’s final presentation can be seen in the following video.

View video page

The Game

Hello Waves is a game that deals with a topic known as forecast-based financing, which aims to create new funding mechanisms for disaster preparedness.

Disaster risk reduction efforts traditionally focus on long-term preventative measures or post-disaster response. There are also many short-term actions, such as evacuation, that can be implemented to reduce the risk of impacts in the period of time between a warning and a potential disaster. However, this precious window of opportunity is regularly overlooked in the case of climate and weather forecasts, which can indicate heightened risk of disaster but are rarely used to initiate preventative action.

Forecast-based financing matches threshold forecast probabilities with appropriate actions, disburses required funding when threshold forecasts are issued, and develops standard operating procedures for when these threshold forecasts are issued.

In this game, you will play the role of someone trying to prevent ocean waves from destroying sandcastles, by using the tools of forecast-based financing.

— Matt Susskind, Team Hello Waves

Play the Game

Play Hello Waves online.

Technical note: You may be prompted to download the Unity Web Player, and this does not work with all browsers. For PC: we recommend Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera. For Mac: we recommend Safari.

From Pitch to Product

The following video provides a closer look at the development of the Hello Waves game. Capturing each step in the team’s iterative process, the video provides an in-depth view into how the team took their idea from pitch to product.

View video page

Introduction to Game Project Topics

Game Mechanics Brainstorming

Tabletop Playtesting

Concept Presentation

Digital Prototype

Final Presentation Rehearsal

Final Presentation

Student Insights

In this video, Matt Susskind describes various aspects of his experience as part of Team Hello Waves.

View video page

The Game

Saving Gora Gora is a game that tries to inform players about the causes, symptoms, and prevention of Cholera. The game accomplishes this goal by building its gameplay around a children’s story, in which you, the player, must discover what is making the town of Gora Gora sick, and prove the innocence of another character.

— Lenny Martinez, Team Saving Gora Gora

Student Insights

In this video, Lenny Martinez describes various aspects of his experience as part of Team Saving Gora Gora.

View video page

Final Presentation

The Saving Gora Gora team’s final presentation can be seen in the following video.

View video page

The Game

Snap! is a game that focuses on word association, and aims to be a useful tool for brainstorming.

The premise is simple. Everybody participates on his or her computer. The leader enters a word, and everyone else enters topics related to that word. Whenever you get the same word as somebody else, you get a point.

Snap! is a quick game with three aims:

Energize participants and activate people’s brainpower
Create a sense of shared identity among participants of the same sector
Learn from participants about what concepts they associate with the topic

For the rules of Snap! on paper, please see the lecture notes introducing the game.

— Tej Chajed, Team Snap!

Student Insights

In this video, Tej Chajed describes various aspects of his experience as part of Team Snap!.

View video page

Final Presentation

The Snap! team’s final presentation can be seen in the following video.

View video page

Browse Course Material

Course Info

Instructors

Departments

As Taught In

Level

Topics

Learning Resource Types

Creating Video Games