This past weekend I participated in the Global Game Jam, an event to build a functioning game in 48 hours. This turned out to be as insane, enjoyable, intimidating and rewarding as it sounds. We ended up on a team of 4, and after spending a bit longer than expected finding our idea, we put our heads down and produced About Our Hopes and Dreams, which we built using Google App Engine.

From the introductory text:

We’re in a world increasingly characterized by Facebook and Twitter, where we participate in a lot of unidirectional shouting about what we’ve done, where we’ve gone, what we ate, what we thought. What if instead, we talked about other people? What if we found out not where they’ve been in life, but where they hope to go?

The screenshot above shows a typical session. You are asked for your first name, and then navigate through a series of prompts that ask you about your aspirations, such as what other job would you want to have, or where would you want to go in the world. You then start to chat with a stranger, and the game gives you some hint as to what questions you have both answered. From there, you attempt to discover the other person’s aspirations, with the wrinkle that they can’t use the word or words that describe their aspiration, similar to the game of Taboo).

The chat depicted in the screenshot above is in fact the first time I played the game with a stranger. After we had submitted the game and before catching up on sleep, I had this amazing chat with a perfect stranger, and the dialog unfolded almost exactly as we had hoped when we designed the game, which was a really surprising and wonderful moment. I wish Raul the best of luck in becoming a sociologist.

Thanks to my fellow collaborators on the game, Rob, Robin, and Sara, for making it such a great experience for me. I am really proud of what we were able to pull off. Winning the award for best potential for positive change was just icing on the cake.

You can view our Game Jam project page if you are interested in learning more or downloading the source code.