FutureBound: the USC Game Suite on the College Application Process
FutureBound is a suite of four college-access games from the University of Southern California, formerly called Collegeology Games, for middle and high school students. Mission: Admission, the online game in the suite, is still offered as a Windows download.
Updated
Where FutureBound came from
FutureBound is a research-based suite of games that introduces middle school and high school students to the college application process and to access to higher education. It began at the University of Southern California as a partnership between the Pullias Center for Higher Education and the Game Innovation Lab.
The idea came out of a face-to-face mentoring program. The researchers saw that many qualified high school students, especially in underserved areas, lacked the counseling they needed to finish the preparation and application steps. A prototype was play-tested with more than 300 high school students in Los Angeles, and the plan for a single game grew into a suite.
The Game Innovation Lab states the mission as raising the number of low-income youth who prepare for, apply to and succeed in four-year college programs. Its framing is that the application process works like a game with rules, but one most people get to play only once, so the suite offers a safe place to practice higher education choices and strategies first.
In Application Crunch, a card game for three to four players, each player takes the role of a high school applicant who must balance academics, extracurricular activities, work and service. To win, the applicant has to get into college, save enough money for tuition and other expenses, and build the character to succeed at the chosen school.
Mission: Admission is a persistent time-management game that plays out over a week of real time. Players level up a character's skills and activities to meet application requirements and deadlines, consult a calendar for coming applications, request letters of recommendation well ahead, and earn badges that expand their school. The middle school game, FutureBound, sets a digital character on a journey from middle school to college. Players battle doubts with ambitions that appear as super powers and collect passion around the world to fuel them, helping non-player characters along the way. The fourth title, Graduate Strike Force, covers financial strategy.
The four games
| Game | Format | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Application Crunch | Card game for three to four players | Players act as high school applicants who juggle academics, extracurriculars, work and service while competing for admissions and scholarships |
| Mission: Admission | Online time-management game | Play runs over a week of real time, with planning, prioritizing and applying to colleges and scholarships |
| FutureBound | Action adventure for middle school | A digital character travels from middle school toward college and collects passion to fuel ambitions |
| Graduate Strike Force | Game on financial strategy | Helps students understand financial strategy in the quest for higher education |
What is true today
The Game Innovation Lab's FutureBound page says that FutureBound and Graduate Strike Force no longer run on modern 64-bit systems. Mission: Admission is listed on the lab's itch.io page as a downloadable game for Windows with a name-your-own-price option, and the game is described as suited to high school students through adults.
The suite's former web address, futureboundgames.com, now shows an unrelated website, so it no longer leads to the games.
At the 2014 launch the four games could be reached through the suite's own website or through Facebook.
Questions about FutureBound
What were Collegeology Games?
Collegeology Games was the earlier name of the FutureBound suite, created at USC to teach students about applying to college.
Which FutureBound games still run?
Mission: Admission is offered as a Windows download. The lab says FutureBound and Graduate Strike Force no longer run on modern 64-bit systems.
Who is the suite for?
It targets middle school and high school students, with a special focus on qualified students in underserved areas who lack college counseling.