Join us for the Critical Game Literacy Jam!! Participants will build and play in unpoliced worlds!!
We are inviting people to a game design space where we will imagine worlds that are free of oppression. We will bring together young adults, from those with no experience to long-time gamers, to learn to design games focused on Black liberation.

EVENTS
Critical worldbuilding and game design workshops:  July 19th-23rd, 4-6 PM Pacific Standard Time each day.  

Work on your game-worlds and get feedback online: July through winter 2021.  

Project showcase and strategy session:  Winter 2021 (date TBD).  share your creations and reflect on them together.  Imagine actions we can take to manifest our worlds as possible futures. 

Events will happen in Zoom, Gather.Town, and other online forums.

WHO THIS IS FOR

  • 18-25 year olds
  • Anyone who wants to challenge systemic oppression or is curious about how to do that.
  • Anyone who is willing to try things out without being perfect.
  • People who have been oppressed by the video game industry are especially welcome (e.g. Black, Indigenous, Latine, LGBTQ+ people). Many of the people involved already are Black and/or queer.
  • You do not need to be a professional game designer or have any coding experience. Anyone who can play can learn to make a game.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
We can provide a stipend for up to 10 participants:  $100 each for participating in the July workshops, and another $100 each for completing the entire process. 

You will also get a chance to network with game designers at the University of Southern California, and to get feedback on your projects.

WHO WE ARE
We are an emerging network of game designers, researchers, educators, and activists who are making interactive digital learning spaces to challenge systemic oppression. 

Some of us are working on the game Kai UnEarthed, about young people falling in love in the ruins of a youth jail. During the workshops, participants will get a chance to play a pre-release prototype of the game.

This program is funded and supported by the University of Southern California Center for Empowered Learning and Development with Technology and its director Dr. Brendesha Tynes. Some of the facilitators are students in the award-winning USC Games program.  For more information, please contact Matthew Hamilton at mwhamilt@usc.edu. 

THIS IS PART OF A RESEARCH PROJECT
These learning activities are part of a participatory design research study.  Our goal is to learn how people develop critical game literacy: the capacity to play, make, and modify games in ways that challenge systemic oppression and build peoples’ collective power to construct a better world. 

We will record and observe workshop sessions to analyze how we learn together, and will do interviews, focus groups, and other activities to reflect on the process. For more information, please review the study info sheet.

APPLICATION FORM
Apply here: https://forms.gle/mZMosX4DhyALBAfX6
We will prioritize participants who apply by July 6th.