Games for Change Announces $35,000 Game Design Competition Winner

Safe Sex with Friends has been named the 2013 winner in the $35,000 Game Design Competition by Games for Change, a non-profit organization, which uses digital games to socially impact the world around us. The winners were announced, on stage, at the Games for Change Festival – the largest gaming event in New York City. The festival is the leading international event for game creators to unite with others interested in accessing and furthering the positive social impact of games.

In the first ever public competition by Games for Change, game creators competed to create a concept of a safe-sex awareness game. Three finalists were chosen to present their safe-sex games to a panel of jurors. The three games, Safe Sex with Friends, SexEd Super Task Force and Check/Mate, were played and analyzed until a winner was decided.

“It was an intense jury selection, which means that we have three games all with great merit.” – Asi Burak, Co-President of Games For Change.

Kaho Abe, Ramsey Nasser, and Sarah Schoemann, came out on top of the competition with their Words with Friends spin-off. “We really wanted a fun and compelling game because we wanted an experience that teenagers would engage with willingly, this is not your traditional educational game,” said jury member Matt Parker. Wait what do they mean by not traditional?

I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

The premise of the game is to line up a row of man and lady parts with some sort of protection in between. The longer the row, the more points you get. The game is to educate youths about practicing safe sex. In the game, you use condoms, dental dams or “wild cards” to keep yourself safe from the dangers of unprotected sex. You know, like real life.

Do we honestly need a game like this these days? Abso-freaking-lutely!

The facts.

Estimates by the CDC suggest that young people aged 15–24 years acquire nearly half of all new STDs. Although teen pregnancy rates are low, there are still 34.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15–19, reported by the CDC. This is not only due to a lack of knowledge but also lack of health insurance and support from the adults in their life. Games for Change is trying to increase the information available to teens and young adults to prevent these statistics from increasing.

So cover your stump before you hump. Don’t be silly, wrap your willy, because you can’t go wrong if you shield your dong. (Yes, I honestly went to look up different euphemisms for wearing a condom.)

To keep this from turning into an after school special, I suggest you check out the Games for Change website and see all the great things they are doing to better the world with video games.