Free Toolkit Released for Charitable Game-makers

AMD Foundation has released a new, free, online toolkit to help nonprofit organizations create social issue games on such topics as the environment, energy consumption, poverty and health. The toolkit is called Let the Games Begin: A Toolkit 4 Making Social Issue Games and was produced by the group Games for Change with support from the AMD Foundation’s AMD Changing the Game initiative. The online resource includes examples of successful games with social content, as well as in-depth presentations by key game design experts. The mission of AMD Changing the Game is to take video games beyond entertainment and inspire youth to learn critical education and life skills by equipping them to create digital games with social content. In a press release, AMD Foundation president Allyson Peerman said, “The Let The Games Begin toolkit is an important resource to inform and educate organizations that are interested in using games as a medium for communicating about important social issues.” The AMD Foundation launched AMD Changing the Game in June 2008. The initiative is designed to apply AMD's microprocessor and graphics processing power to digital game development, helping to educate young people and effect positive social change in an increasingly technology-driven society. The program was launched as part of AMD's sponsorship and participation at the Fifth Annual Games for Change Festival in New York City. Also as part of that festival, the AMD Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation co-funded "Let the Games Begin," a day-long workshop for nonprofit organizations that featured presentations and brainstorming sessions by some of the nation's leading authorities on social issue game development and covered fundamentals such as game design, fundraising, evaluation, youth participation, distribution and press strategies. The toolkit is free of charge and available at gamesforchange.org/toolkit.