The Game Awards: Future Class Newsletter
January — May 2022
The Game Awards: Future Class is a collective of inspiring individuals who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future of video games. Check out some of the ways that we are changing the game!
Articles
The Future Class always has something to say!
Check out some articles & commentary written by the class members below:
Global South Gaming Spotlight
The future of gaming will include more personal and hand-crafted projects inspired by creators sharing their unique heritage, culture and perspectives. To that end, we wanted to highlight some of those voices from the Global South, showcasing a few exciting projects from unexpected places.
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Designing Games to Challenge the Stigma Around Mental Health
Take This, a mental health non-profit that works to destigmatize mental health challenges, has published their second white paper. This time focusing on designing games to challenge the stigma around mental health. Lets learn how game development companies can mitigate negative mental health impacts and cultivate healthy, productive employees who can make great games.
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How a Video Game is Treating ADHD
If you are a child with ADHD, there are a handful of treatment options available to you, generally including some combination between behavioral and pharmacological therapy.
However, now there is one more type of treatment available: a mobile video game called EndeavorRx. But what makes this game more than just Temple Run with a new skin?
[Read More]
Interviews
The Future Class is making some big moves!
See what they’re up to below:
How Twitch Streamer Tanya DePass is Fighting for Representation in the Gaming Industry
Tanya DePass has been gaming since what she calls the “ye olden” days of standalone arcades.
In those decades of experience, DePass, who now streams on Twitch under the name Cypheroftyr, has seen monumental changes during that time.
Still, she’s continued to witness the same troubling trend, over and over again: A severe lack of representation.
Game Changers: Black & Indigenous Voices in Gaming
While the pandemic severely hurt most industries, the gaming sector was one of the few to actually experience a boom, with people stuck at home hungry for entertainment, connection, and community online. To say this multi-billion dollar industry with tons of reach and influence still feels relatively untapped and is behind on diversity would be an understatement. Even though Black and Latinx gamers make up the majority of video game players, stats show that people of color are both underrepresented in senior management roles and underpaid, contributing to a lack of diverse representation in video games themselves. What can we learn about this moment to make substantial steps in diversifying the industry in a way that’s intersectional and impactful?
Participants: Tanya DePass, Erik Loyer, Latoya Peterson, Paisley Smith
Sarah Makdad: Corporate Community Developer
Sarah is a Corporate Community Developer at Focus Entertainment and in this episode, we talk about her experience as a part of the Game Awards’ Future Class, the French game dev scene, and how she donates her time to the non-profit organization Friendship Garden which helps aspiring game devs get to GDC.
Reality Escape Pod: Interactive Narrative with Kathryn Yu of No Proscenium
Kathryn Yu, Executive Editor of No Proscenium and a co-founder of the Immersive Experience Institute, a non-profit that aims to create a sustainable future for immersive and experiential arts and artists worldwide.
Announcements
The Future Class is putting in the work!
See a few exciting announcements from the class below:
Virtual Virtual Reality 2 is Available Now!
When a metaverse shuts down, what happens to the avatars left behind?
In this darkly funny action-adventure game, pilot your mech body through the chaos of a dying metaverse, rescuing abandoned avatars along the way.
Each new avatar roommate brings unique tools to aid your escape back to meatspace!Do you have what it takes to overcome the digital destruction and interpersonal drama before you’re logged off for good?
Available on Meta Quest 2 and Rift
Introducing Nomad eSports!
Being a veteran of eSports for 15 years, I noticed something other eSports brands don’t emphasize on — diversity and inclusion.
When Harry Singh, Chase McDermott, and I were conceptualizing what Nomad eSports would be about, we knew the following moral values had to be included:
No K/D or win ratio requirements. Almost all eSports teams require a high K/D or Win Ratio to even apply. We don’t believe in that. I have seen first-hand how strategy, teamwork, and a good attitude, are the most important elements to victory.
Diversity and inclusion. We encourage our members to create teams and brands that celebrate diversity.
Anyone can be a champion. Many disabled gamers have reached out to me wishing for an eSports brand that has specialized tournaments to celebrate gamers with disabilities. Gaming is a huge part of feeling and being equal. These specialized Tournaments will be geared to raise awareness and raise money for various charities around the world.
Mental health. We want to provide a safe space for aspiring gamers and content creators. No matter the team you’re on, we encourage teamwork amongst each other by setting up practice times with other teams, keeping our message boards friendly and inviting, hosting special events, and much more.
Sense of self-worth that goes beyond digital space. Not only can our members feel accomplishment through our advanced achievement system, but we also give out physical trophies and awards for events as well. The pride one feels holding something they earned and worked hard for, there’s nothing quite like it.
We are currently in beta, but we have implemented so much already: full integration with Google and Facebook, profile pages, an achievement system, message boards, team creation, a store, and we even signed an exclusive artist to help with all your content creation dreams.
Please visit us at www.NomadEsports.gg
by Randy Fitzgerald
Introducing: GAME CHANGERS!
As gamers, we love to hear from the people making and reporting about games, but we also love to see those games in action. Why do we have to choose between listening to our favorite videogame podcast or watching a let’s play of our favorite game?
Why can’t we have both?
That was the idea behind the new YouTube gameplay + interview show, GAME CHANGERS — the interview show where we play a game with the people changing the game.
GAME CHANGERS is the latest show to come to Digital Doc Games, the channel all about how games are used for good. The show features guests (several from the Future Class!) who are truly making an impact in the industry and tasks them with the challenge of answering well-researched interview questions while they play, and often-times chaotic, cooperative or competitive multiplayer game. Imagine playing a game with a good friend on the couch or over the internet while you simultaneously catch each other up on your lives. That is the feel of GAME CHANGERS.
So come laugh, learn, and play with us and check out GAME CHANGERS. You never have to be forced to choose between your favorite videogame podcast and your favorite game again.
Check out the first episode, starring the Future Class’s very own Victoria Tran, below!
Wicked Saints–a Black/Women-Led Gaming Studio raises $1.1 mil for Adventure Activism Game
Wicked Saints to pioneer “a truly unique” narrative AR experience for a generation that cares about their mental health and the state of the world.
March 4, 2022 — First to emerge from Niantic’s (makers of Pokémon GO) BDI incubator, Wicked Saints Studios closed an oversubscribed pre-seed round, raising $1.1 million to begin testing the world’s first adventure activism game. With an all-female, majority-Black C-suite, Wicked Saints joins an exclusive group of startups helmed by one of under 100 Black women founders who have ever raised $1 million or more.
Xbox Mentoring Program
In the last months, I have been working on a mentoring program for the German-speaking region. While I was working with our EMEA Teams, I was empowered by our global team, to scale this program to more regions.
Of course, I was super excited that we introduced that program on the 8th of March (International Women´s Day) and I can´t wait to share more later this month.Our mentoring program is for everyone and aims at partnering women in gaming careers across Xbox’s diverse range of studios and products with aspiring talent, giving them the chance to access valuable 1:1 coaching sessions with key leaders in select markets such as the US, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and Korea with additional markets to follow.
It is our hope that this program generates meaningful engagements with tangible and purposeful actions to help foster career development in the games industry.
It is exciting when you see that ideas and programs can come out of every region and scale globally. With this said I also would like to highlight my lovely colleague Charleyy Hodson from Xbox UK, who brings this program to life with me.by Maxi Graeff, Marketing Communications Lead, Xbox DACH
Thanks for reading!
We hope that we’ve managed to excite and inspire you.
Be sure to follow for Future(tm) updates.
