Games can carry important messages

As video games continue to become more popular, they have become unconventional ways to attract, engage and maintain different types of target audiences.

Some have used games to market products, political agendas, and even self-care. Remember that quirky song many years back? You know, that one where cute, animal-like cartoon characters get into disturbing accidents? That was a game too, downloadable to a phone!

Dumb Ways to Die is a perfect example of how gaming and media could be used as an entertaining way to send a very important message. It was (and still is) a very fun and quick game, similar to how a WarioWare game would play. Short enough to be engaging but fun enough to be very memorable and exciting, it was an excellent way to tell people their message—be careful near trains!

That said, games are one of the best ways to learn and educate.

Five game insights we think will pique your interest!

Many games have tried to tackle different kinds of topics. From confronting war and its horrors to teaching players how to cook, video games have now become a very good platform to give ideas and messages a way to reach a larger audience. You would be surprised to know that there’s even a horror puzzle game intended to depict depression

Aside from trying to shed light on the troubling issues of society, games also continue to become integrated into learning curricula. Research indicates that educative game tools have a positive impact on students and users. If educational institutions continue to develop different ways of teaching through video games and other interactive media, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that children and teens would look forward to going to school.

However, making and designing games is extremely difficult. Many would say that a lot of single-man development studios can do it, but we must not forget that most of them are passion projects. When passion meets the drive to learn how to create a game, it results in a great product. Personally, our team prefers puzzle games, and if you’re planning to design your own puzzle game, then there are a lot of things to consider.

Ever wonder what kinds of thoughts and ideas are present in developing a high-quality puzzle game? Then you should check out these developer commentaries from the team that made Portal—one of the most memorable AAA puzzle games of its time. When people work together to create a product with a unified vision, it results in classics like these games.

If you want to explore more of the developer commentaries for Portal, there are more of them here. Learning how accomplished studios and developers create and how their processes work is crucial if you’re planning to enter the video game creation industry. Passion is important, yes, but having the technical and creative skills to work with it is just as integral.

Portal was made by one of the most well-known developer teams in the world—Valve. While they are mostly known today for their publishing and digital distribution platform called Steam, we should remember that they also created a lot of very well-known games, such as DOTA 2, Counter-Strike and Half-Life. Gabe Newell, the CEO of Valve Corporation, regularly plays DOTA 2 in particular, and had this to say about video game developers:

“The programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future. You’re going to look like you have magic powers compared to everybody else.”

If you want to learn more about what we’re up to at Hey, Good Game, you can find out more about us here.

A video game created by passionate and skilled developers will make the experience feel otherworldly, and once it grabs your full attention, you’ll shout:

Hey, Good Game!

That’s all for this week. See you next Friday!

-The Hey, Good Game Team