Is it possible to educate about teen dating violence through a violence-free video game?
That's the idea behind the annual Life. Love Game Design Challenge, now in it's second year.
Jennifer Ann's Group today announced the winners of their second annual flash game design contest, handing out $1,500 to Jared Sain for first place. Runners Up Brian Crick and Toronja Concepts each received $100. A door prize of another $100 was awarded to Bence Joful.
All four of their games are playable over on the Jennifer Ann's Group webpage. As a judge I've already played through all of the entries and was surprised to find how the developers tried to tackle the serious issue this time around.
The games include versions of tower defense games, a music game and even a few click adventure titles.
Other judges for the challenge were group founder (and my brother) Drew Crecente, advisory board member Dr. Elizabeth Richeson, Independent Games Festival chairman Simon Carless, Kotaku's Stephen Totilo, GameDaily editor-in-chief Live Goad, Persuasive Games co-founder Dr. Ian Bogost, and professor Brenda Brathwaite.
2009 Game Contest Winners [Jennifer Ann's Group]