Graduate
Strike Force is the fourth Serious Game in the USC Game Innovation Lab
and Pullias Center’s FutureBound games
suite, designed to introduce middle school and high school students to college
application process and access to higher education.
Graduate
Strike Force is a strategic action game for desktop and mobile
devices that helps high school students evaluate and choose the best college
fit in three different dimensions: Financial, Academic and Cultural. It provides
a compelling and cohesive context to help students master the dynamic
relationship between the evaluation and selection of a college and the
consequences of that decision.
In the game, the world is besieged by globally catastrophic monsters. The only way to defeat them is by fielding a strong team of four college students and graduates that have made robust college choices. Matching the students of your super team to a good college determines their strength in the coming monsters confrontations.
In the game, the world is besieged by globally catastrophic monsters. The only way to defeat them is by fielding a strong team of four college students and graduates that have made robust college choices. Matching the students of your super team to a good college determines their strength in the coming monsters confrontations.
In Graduate Strike Force, the player guides
four recruits from choosing a college to graduating into the workforce. To be
effective candidates, they must balance their financial, academic, and cultural
needs when selecting a school.
Each of these three areas contributes strongly to
the recruit’s long-term monster-fighting ability. Periodically, the player’s
choices are tested as monsters descend on cities around the world and the
recruits are brought in to drive the creatures off. The stronger the college
choices the player made, the better equipped the recruits will be.
The game focuses on the following core learning
objectives: increase awareness of differentiating factors between colleges;
illustrate how choice of college affects school experience and career opportunities;
inform students about financial aid options and build decision-making skills
related to financial aid; allow players to experiment with and experience
loans, interest, and repayment as they explore financial aid offers; and
increase awareness of hidden costs associated with college attendance.
Graduate Strike Force offers the player freedom to experiment with different potential college
options and experience the trade-offs between academic reputation, culture, and financial burden.