Life is Strange, That Dragon, Cancer, Lumino City, and More Named Games for Change Awards Finalists

Games for Change announced the finalists for their yearly awards, which honor games that catalyze social impact in some way. The finalists, their nominations and the Games for Change descriptions of them are as follows:

Life is Strange nominated for Best Gameplay, Most Significant Impact and Most Innovative

Life is Strange is a five-part episodic experience that sets out to revolutionize story-based choice and consequence games by allowing the player to rewind time and affect the past, present, and future. The game handles identity, bullying, suicide, teen pregnancy, love, friendship and everyday dilemmas alongside moments of adventure.

That Dragon, Cancer nominated for Best Gameplay and Most Innovative

That Dragon, Cancer is an immersive, narrative video game that retells Joel Green’s four year fight against cancer through about two hours of poetic, imaginative gameplay that explores themes of faith, hope and love.

Lumino City (iOS) nominated for Most Innovative

Lumino City is a game crafted entirely by hand out of paper, card, miniature lights, and motors – resulting in the construction of a 10-foot high model city. In this setting weaves an enthralling adventure. Lumi’s grandfather has been kidnapped, and to find him you must embrace sustainable living practices and navigate the mechanisms that power this world.

Block’hood nominated for Best Gameplay

Block’hood is a neighborhood-building sandbox game that presents an ecological take on city planning. Celebrating the diversity of cities, the game invites players into a narrative that builds an understanding of resource dependencies and empathy for the neighborhoods we live in.

DragonBox Numbers nominated for Best Learning Game

DragonBox Numbers gives children who are at the outset of their math education the foundation they need in order to succeed: a strong sense of numbers and fluency with addition and counting.

Mission US: City of Immigrants nominated for Best Learning Game

Mission US: City of Immigrants is the fourth in a series of free digital role-playing games made to immerse students in U.S. history. Players assume the role of a Russian Jewish teen who immigrates to NYC in 1907 and joins the growing labor movement.

NOVA’s Evolution Labs nominated for Best Learning Game

NOVA’s Evolution Labs is a puzzle game and interactive tree of life that challenges players to build phylogenetic trees, complete missions based off of the evidence for evolution, and explore the connections between over 70,000 species.

Legião dos Super Poderes nominated for Most Significant Impact

Legião dos Super Poderes is a game designed to change kids’ habits by mixing the real and virtual worlds. Children have to eat healthier and practice physical activities to gain superpowers in-game, evolving their heroes and defeating all enemies.

Syrian Journey nominated for Most Significant Impact

Syrian Journey is a digital project that explores the plight of the Syrian refugees. By choosing their own escape route in a newsgame, the audience takes their own personal dramatic and heart-wrenching journey to face dilemmas based on real-life stories.

The finalists include bigger name games such as Life is Strange alongside games outside the standard video game sphere, such as Syrian Journey. All these games seem to be doing interesting things and tackling important, modern day issues, from the Syrian crisis to bullying. The winners will be announced on the first day of the 13th Annual Games for Change Festival, June 23-24 in New York City.