Games mental health charity Safe In Our World has announced the first Mental Health Game Dev Champions event, aimed at empowering gamers and developers to create intimate and personal video games based on lived experiences.
Game Dev Champions is a worldwide event, encouraging entries from a variety of ages, skills, and diverse backgrounds.
Safe In Our World highlights that games are an amazing vehicle to express difficult and often emotional mental health journeys that people face every day. Through this initiative, and by sharing these experiences, the charity is looking to amplify the voices of the gaming community and enable players to experience an often silent struggle.
The event will be judged by a diverse industry panel, with winners receiving a selection of prizes, including Unity Pro licenses. More importantly, the initiative will help gamers develop a career or deeper interest in video game development.
Sarah Sorrell, Safe In Our World Charity Director, explains the theme of this first event: “Safe In Our World was launched on the eve of the pandemic, arriving at a vital time to offer support for gamers. If there is one legacy that Covid-19 has left, it’s that perhaps people are now talking more about their mental health. That is the theme of this competition; to continue this vital conversation and encourage people to express what they went through and share their experience by making a game that means something to them.”
The registration window for the event is now open, closing on May 31st, 2024. To register, click here.
The event itself begins on the June 1st, with the development window open until October 31st, and judging of all entries complete by November 30th, 2024. Winners will be announced via a special live showcase in December.
You can watch the video announcement here.
Read Empower Up’s guide to mental health in the workplace here.
