We collectively explored what EDI means to us through expert talks and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, identifying six important themes: Power, Exclusion, the Bystander Effect, Assimilation, Safety, and Discrimination. Students formed six multidisciplinary teams around these themes, encompassing a range of creative and coding skills, and developed computer games over 48 hours. These are the results.

The views and opinions expressed through these games are designed to challenge the player and society. They do not necessarily represent the views of the students or staff at Newcastle University.

Fitting In (Theme: Assimilation)

Team: Gabriel Pazmino (Combined Honours in English Literature and Media Communication), Lucy Garden (Computer Science), Chen Sun (Public Relations in Media), Joe Azar (Chemical Engineering).

Screenshot of the game called Fitting In — Fitting In explores authenticity and the trade off between assimilation and personal comfort.

We aspire for players to realize by the end of the game is the value of authenticity. The ability to realize that you can also be true to who you want to be, respecting your own personal beliefs and values and at the same time being comfortable with showing people who you are and being part of the group and fitting in. Ultimately we want the players to realize that they don’t have to change who they are just to fit in, but rather they can adapt to the space by realizing who they are and see how they can fit in.

Play the game here: https://lucydango.itch.io/fitting-in (password: jam2023)
View the presentation here: Game-Jam-Fitting-in-2.pdf

The Interview (Theme: Exclusion)

Team: Tal Scheffer (School of Computer Science), Nikki Whitford (School of Computing), and Adam Pratchett-McCrea (School of Computing).

Play the game here: TheInterview-1.zip

Bystander Influencer (Theme: Bystander Effect)

Team: Haochuan Zhong (School of Computing), Xinyan Gao (Business School), Tianle Lu (Business School), Jasmine Tan (School of Computing), Jialin Zeng (School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics).

Play the game here: https://haochuanzhong.github.io/GameJam/
View the presentation here: ByStander-showcase.pdf

Yourney (Theme: Discrimination)

Team: Lin Su (School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences), Shuliang Xu (School of Arts and Cultures), Khunthida Tirapanampai (School of Computing), May Myat Noe Kyaw (School of Engineering), and Philipp Andreewitch (School of Engineering).

Yourney (your journey) is about the journey of a LGBT girl through life.

Play the game here: https://arcade.makecode.com/S14026-11154-40886-85023
View the presentation here: Theme-Power.pdf

Let Me Go (Theme: Power)

Team: Antariksh Uprade (Business School), Sachin Chandran (Business School), Ahmed Mostafa (School of Computing), Kyriakos Nicolaou (School of Computing), Haoran Wang (School of Computing).

Let Me Go explores the power dynamics of being in control of entry a post-apocalyptic bunker.

Download the game here: Inclusivity Game Jam.zip
View the presentation here: <coming soon>

Safe City (Theme: Safety)

Team: Holden Huang (Business School), Matthew Law (School of Computing), Jack Xu (Business School), and Rayna Zhao (School of Computing).

Safe City lets the player deal with various events that affect the wellbeing of a city’s population.

View the presentation here: Game-jam-safety.pdf