José Pedro Gioscia graduated in May 2015 and is part of the second graduating class of the Bachelor’s Degree in Animation and Video Games.
During the contest awards ceremony, Gioscia said that the idea for the game arose from the reality of harassment that is seen every day in society. For that reason, he noted, he used “the greatest communication tool”—video games—to address the issue.
In an interview with In situ, he elaborated on the message he aims to convey through Public Space.
Tell us what the game is about.
Public Space is a social impact game for PC and mobile devices that addresses the street harassment women face every day. Players take on the role of a woman who simply wants to go about her daily life but is constantly harassed by men shouting at her on the street. Public Space aims to raise awareness about this issue in our society.
How was the team formed?
I came up with the idea for the game in mid-2014, and it became the subject of my final thesis project for my Bachelor's degree in Animation and Video Games.
Then Manuel Atienza, who is the programmer, joined the team, and I took charge of the visuals and game design.
The music for the current game was composed by Jesse Stiles, and the sound effects were downloaded from freesound.org.
Is it finished, or is it still in development?
It is still in development. We plan to launch it in April 2016.
We need to fix a few bugs, and we're thinking about changing the background music and some sound effects.
In addition, we want to hear the jury's feedback and conduct more testing.
Is the plan to market it or release it?
We want it to go viral.
It will be available for free on Facebook and on our website, which we are currently developing.
We also want it to be available as an app on the App Store and Google Play.
Why did you decide to enter the Education and Social Inclusion category?
We believe that Public Space is a perfect fit for the Games for Change (G4C) concept, because that is exactly what we aim to do: bring about social change through this game.
In that regard, what message are you trying to convey?
Put yourself in a woman's shoes and dare to experience her reality.
We want to show that this is a problem that happens every day, but as a society we aren't taking it seriously enough.
Since one of you has won, you’ll be going to New York to participate in Games for Change. What does that mean to you?
The prize is a gateway to continued learning. It offers the chance to attend the mecca of social impact gaming.
The response we’re getting from people about the game is amazing, and that’s the best reward for us. It’s great that OCAC Latin America and Acción Respeto from Argentina are already supporting us.
What projects are you working on right now?
I'm currently working at Unicorn Games. In a few days, I'll be starting at Mungo TV. On top of that, I'm still working on this project, so I'm swamped.