Head Tale

Beyond the irony of that I’m writing about a game called
“Homelessness: It’s No Game”, there are other problems with this Flash
project. But before I get to that, here’s some background from the
designer:

“I created this game
for a graduate-level course on game design I took at the School of
Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University*. The intent
of the game is to raise awareness of the situation faced by the
homeless, as well as to aid in my research into the effectiveness of
serious videogames.”

Although the concept has lots of
potential, the execution (at least in the current version) is lacking.
This Flash-based game asks you to simulate life on the streets by
taking on the role of a homeless person. You wander a small area of a
city picking up bottles and other items to sell, panhandling, dealing
with hunger pangs and a heavy bladder, visiting parks, diners and
churches while avoiding trouble and trying to earn “esteem” points by
your actions.

You have a 24-hour window (accelerated obviously) to earn
24 esteem points. If you do, you “win” the game. If not…well, I don’t
know what happens if not since I’ve played the game four times and
never “lost” once (I think my record was raising my esteem enough was
before 10 hours were up out of the 24.)

The author promises
future revisions to improve the game in various ways – a larger area to
explore, more visual elements, localization options and unique
characters. Hopefully this comes to pass as the game has potential to
at least give a taste of what it is like to be on the streets – even if
only virtually and from behind the safety of a computer screen. And
it’s definitely a bit more meaningful than games dedicated to stealing cars, killing enemies or eating magic mushrooms that give you amazing jumping powers.