Gioscia participated in the “Youth Empowerment for Peace” panel, which included a young woman from Senegal, another from the Philippines, and one from Lebanon. These are young people who are working on a social impact initiative, explained the graduate in Animation and Video Games. The idea was to share their experience of collaborating with UNESCO. “They consider us partners because in 2016 we won the regional ‘Estamos Comprometidos’ competition, an event where we first came into contact with them and got to know the organization. Since then, they’ve always supported us. Last year we also went to Paris for another event called the UNESCO Youth Forum, where young people from around the world advocate for initiatives that align with their goals.”
It was also an opportunity to showcase the video game we’re developing in a massive auditorium filled with people from different states, organizations, international banks, and so on. The forum also serves as a platform to connect with UNESCO’s strategic partners to secure funding.
Participants in this forum included state representatives, multilateral organizations, United Nations agencies, and members of the private sector.
The experience, Gioscia said, “was extremely productive.” They met a lot of people interested in the Public Space project. “The most important thing is that we’ve kept pushing forward since we started, even without a budget. The idea was to seek funding to move the video game forward; without claiming victory just yet, it seems we’re getting closer to that goal.”
However, he admitted that at the time he didn’t realize how significant the event was: “Honestly, I didn’t grasp its importance until, after my presentation was over, a lot of people came up to congratulate me, ask how they could contribute to the project, and see how they could help us; that was truly incredible, because we realized that there really are people who are interested.”
Public Space: A Game in Development
First of all, Gioscia clarified that it’s impossible to talk about Public Space ’s true scope because the game hasn’t been released yet; it’s still in development due to funding issues. “The team members don’t have enough capital to move the project forward. We all work in the video game industry in various capacities, but we each work at different companies. We work on Public Space in our free time on the weekends.”
If we’re talking about reach, the developer notes, we can look at the awards they’ve won: they took first place in the educational category at the National Video Game Competition in 2015 and received support from organizations fighting against street harassment (in Argentina, Chile, the United States, France, and Uruguay). “It’s great to have this support, but I want to talk about real reach once the game is released and we can count how many people have played it, how many kids have tried it,” he said.
While they continue to work on development, they’re currently visiting schools and high schools to test the game they have today: “We’re doing this because we believe there are things that need to be improved and modified,” he continued.
In a self-critical tone, he said they plan to make “the game’s storyline a little more entertaining: there are some parts that can get a bit boring.”
He said he was happy to see the reactions of the children and teenagers playing Public Space. “Our target audience is kids between the ages of 12 and 15, although we’ve also tested it with older teenagers. They really get into the theme; they love it,” he said. “More than anything, girls are already familiar with the topic, because studies show that the problem starts around age 12. It’s a great tool for classroom discussion with the teacher: what to do in a situation of harassment, and how to take action.”