Egyptian Start-up Tackles Social Issues With Video Games
Admin 0 0 1340 Date: 09 Feb 2018
An Egyptian game developer has created interactive video games to approach social issues such as female genital mutilation and to raise awareness among youth.
One of the games developed by Castling Studios, is called 'Bara'a' or innocence and was created in collaboration with the United Nations to educate people on female genital mutilation.
It targets young girls in villages and in the game, the player helps a girl escape a hospital and break walls, representing misconceptions of society.
Company co-founder Ahmed Hesham said the games offer something new because they are designed locally, rather than being designed with a Western perspective.
Games released for free
"We are trying to offer something new because when the West develops games even on the Middle East or the Egyptian culture, they do so from their own perspective. But when we develop the games we make them better because we know more about the experiences we have lived through and continue to see the wrong practices happening and we know what the right things are," said Hesham.
Another game created by the company, Wazafny Shokran, helps manual workers learn communication skills for interviews.
Company founder Noha Elmeseery said user response had been positive.
"When people see it, they are amazed that we are creating games addressing these issues and they are really entertained by the game itself. They say it is fun and that they are waiting to see how the game ends and solves the issue," she said.
The developers have created more than seven games so far, most still in the prototype phase, with the first expected to hit mobile platforms within the next few months.
The games will be released for free and will mainly target mobile platforms.
The company has been founded by eight people, all of whom have studied game development at Cairo's Information Technology Institute.
Read the original article on Egyptian start-up tackles social issues with video games
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