“We aren’t creating video games just for fun. We learn something from it, and we can send our goodness into the world—a message that helps people.”
That’s sixteen-year-old Monique’s vision, as she creates computer games in Global Kids, Inc.’s Playing 4 Keeps program at Canarsie High School in Brooklyn, New York.
This spring, The AMD Foundation awarded Global Kids, Inc. a grant to support programs that teach kids technology skills to build video games with a positive social message.
With this and other grants, The AMD Foundation launched its AMD Changing the Game initiative at the Fifth Annual Games for Change [Learn more about our education partnership] Festival in New York, the premier event showcasing the social issues game movement. The initiative will also support a new gaming education curriculum for schools and nonprofits to prepare kids with math, science and life skills to compete in tomorrow’s workforce.
“AMD’s advanced graphic processors already power video downloads and online gaming,” says Ward Tisdale, Director of AMD’s Global Community Affairs. “Now, they will drive the vision of a better way to learn.”
Our philosophy is simple: Not technology for technology’s sake, but people and technology for your sake.
“The Fire Safety Game” is an interactive game created by students at the Institute of Urban Game Design (IUGD) at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, DC. Students created the game originally for the American Red Cross to teach young children about fire safety and hazards.
The game is not available online, but AMD is featuring a glimpse of this game in its banner ad promoting the launch of the AMD Changing the Game initiative. The AMD Foundation will award one of the initiative’s first grants to IUGD this year.
See more about how AMD is working with McKinley Technology High School and IUGD Visit the IUGD Web page
Ayiti: The Cost of Life was designed by students in Global Kids, Inc.’s Playing 4 Keeps Program in Brooklyn, NY in association with GameLab, a game development company. Ayiti has been played by over a million and a half people and AMD is funding Global Kids’ 2008 project, titled Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City.
Play Ayiti!
Through its grant to Global Kids, Inc.'s Playing 4 Keeps program, AMD has joined The Microsoft Corporation in enabling 20 young people from underserved communities to work with Digital Creations, a game development company, to create and distribute a game about the heroic role of residents during Hurricane Katrina, titled Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City. The game will be available online in July 2008.
Learn more about Tempest!