Outcasted is the winner of best student’s game Games
for Change Europe (G4CE) Festival, being held on June 15-17 at the CNAM
Museum, in Paris.
In a joint
project of Games for Change Europe, Autodesk and Unity Technologies, students
from all over the world were challenged to create Serious Games that help promote
social change for the better by engaging players in important social,
ecological and humanitarian efforts.
Within the
course of one year, 96 student teams from 13 countries submitted concepts and
prototypes, with nine shortlisted games competing for the award. Selected by a renowned
jury, composed by Noah Falstein, Brenda Romero and Eric Zimmerman, among
others, the winning team was announced yesterday, June 15, at the first Games
for Change Europe Award Ceremony.
Developed
by the Köln International School of Design (KISD)
and the Cologne Game Lab, institutions
of the Cologne University
of Applied Sciences (CUAS), Outcasted
is a stand-alone first-person-simulation for Mac and PC that tries to
establish consciousness towards the social exclusion that homeless people
experience every day.
In the game, players slip into the role of a person that is living and panhandling on the streets of an average western city. The main task is to beg from the passing pedestrians in order to receive monetary or material attention. As players find themselves being ignored by most of the passers-by, the goal is to find someone who is willing to start a conversation in order to learn about the reasons and circumstances that have led to this unfavorable situation.
In the game, players slip into the role of a person that is living and panhandling on the streets of an average western city. The main task is to beg from the passing pedestrians in order to receive monetary or material attention. As players find themselves being ignored by most of the passers-by, the goal is to find someone who is willing to start a conversation in order to learn about the reasons and circumstances that have led to this unfavorable situation.
A team of 6
design students from Köln International School of Design (KISD) developed the
Serious Game and produced a trailer and a playable prototype with Oculus Rift
support for the Games 4 Change Europe Student Challenge.
The trailer
is in German, with English subtitles at https://vimeo.com/98223185.