Inaugural ADL 'being an ally' game jam saw 20 anti-bias games

The Anti-Defamation League and Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment have named the winner of the first week-long Being An Ally game jam.

Overall, the event saw over 20 games created between October 21 and October 27 to embody anti-bias and anti-bullying themes. While the jam kicked off over a weekend at physical sites in Austin TX, New York, NY, and Oakland, CA, devs had until October 27 to submit their final product online.

Following that, the ADL had a panel evaluate each title on how well it communicated the ADL's library of anti-bias resources into a game. This year, the game Ali Tale was named the winner of the jam, netting its development team a $2500 price, IGDA membership, and mentorship time with Playmatics CEO Margaret Wallace. 

According to Polygon, participants received a bout of anti-bias training at the head of the competition and then had to translate at least two of the core messages from the session into a game project. 

Those topics included telling aggressors to stop, being an ally online, supporting targets, not participating in bullying, informing a trusted authority figure, and getting to know people rather than judging them but every game had to adhere to the stipulations of including no physical confrontation, cliches, or stereotypes as well.

Winning game Ali Tale, runner-up A Day To Remember, and several 'honorable mention' titles can be found on the event's Game Jolt page.