Awesome Games for Change Meet Up

On Tuesday, Games for Change hosted a meetup at the New York Times building, and Hudson HSLT was well represented!

The New York Times is one of the sponsors of the Games for Social Change competition, and one of the themes within which students may choose to design a game is Civic Journalism. This theme focuses on the untold stories happening in our neighborhoods every day that aren't making the national news.

New York Times staff reporters, Rick and Annie, were present to tell us some of their stories, such as how they got into journalism and the work they've done. Rick, who grew up in Philadelphia, has explored life in the projects, while Annie has focused on diverse immigrant communities in New York City. Both had invaluable advice for our students - not just for developing concepts for games based on the Civic Journalism theme, but also for telling stories.

Paraphrased from Rick: "Important topics people care about are money, health, family, and where they live." Also, "core elements of news are timeliness, significance, proximity, oddness, and important people involved." When seeking news, reporters look for stories that tie in these topics and elements.

Video Game Design students Melanie Hernandez, 9th grade, and Christian Hernandez, 10th grade, attended this event (Christian even brought his dad!). Ms. Tortora and Mr. Gopal, instructors of the course, were also there. A good time (and good pizza) was had by all.