🎮 Revisit 2024 with G4C: Dive into Milestones, Submit Talks & Games for #G4C2025 & More! 🚀

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Games for Change
December 20, 2024

As the holiday season approaches and brings joy and reflection, let's take a moment to reflect on the incredible achievements and milestones that the G4C community achieved this year—thanks to YOUR support! The G4C community is growing in many ways, and we’re thrilled to celebrate the past year, share our 2025 Festival theme, and more. So, grab a warm drink, get cozy, and join us in celebrating a year of impact through play! ☕❄️

— Team G4C

As technology continues to evolve, immersive technology and games are breaking down barriers, bridging the gap between different generations, perspectives, and sectors, building community, and connecting like never before. We invite you to join us at the 2025 Games for Change Festival next summer in New York City. The festival will have interactive arcades, insightful talks, panels, hands-on design workshops, expert-led sessions, and collaborative game jams. Together, we will discover how diverse voices and inclusive design can create a better tomorrow. 🎮🌍

Ready to shape the future of our industry? We’re now accepting speaker proposals and game submissions for #G4C2025! Whether you’re developing games that tackle global challenges, creating impact-driven experiences, or pioneering new approaches to play and design, we want to hear from you! Share your work with our global community of industry leaders, developers, educators, and innovators pushing the boundaries of games and immersive media.  🎤🕹️


🏆️ Award Categories Include:

  • Innovation & Gameplay: Best in Innovation, Best Gameplay, Best Narrative

  • Civics & Social Impact: Best in Impact, Best in Environmental Impact, Best in Civics, Best in Health & Wellness

  • Learning & Platforms: Best in Learning, Best Platform-Based Project, Best in XR

  • Analog & Student Made: Best Board or Tabletop Game for Impact, Best Student Project

Eager to join us at the G4C Festival in 2025? Stay connected with us and follow the hashtag #G4C2025 to stay up to date with updates, speakers, games, early bird tickets, discounts, and more coming soon!

Looking back on 2024, we are incredibly proud of how the Games for Change community has grown and evolved. Through new partnerships and collaborations, we’ve strengthened our global community across 6 continents, uniting a diverse network of educators, students, developers, and other changemakers committed to using games and XR as a force for good. From classrooms to the United Nations, here’s a glimpse of what we achieved together:


🎮 Pioneering Education Through Play
The first season of the Verizon Innovative Sports League transformed how students learn through competitive gaming, building STEM skills, and leadership abilities. We also launched a comprehensive collection of free learning resources with Verizon, empowering educators and youth to explore game design, esports, and digital skills in their classrooms.

🌏 Taking Games for Change Global
Our 21st annual Festival in NYC explored "The 2030 Marker: A Catalyst for Global Change," bringing together over 150 speakers from 12 countries. The event united 2,300 in-person and virtual attendees for 65 groundbreaking talks and workshops. Beyond New York, our chapter festivals in Africa, Asia, India, Türkiye, and Latin America expanded our global impact, connecting changemakers across continents.

🕊️ Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals
2024 marked a deepening of our commitment to global sustainability through gaming. We hosted the 2nd Annual Games & SDG Summit at the UN, bringing together 180 leaders to forge new partnerships and drive actionable solutions. Games for Change is chairing the Games and Immersive Media Working Group for the Global Mental Health Task Force. We also joined the Playing for the Planet Alliance and launched our first-ever Sustainability Award at the G4C Awards, recognizing games that inspire environmental action.

📈 Expanding Our Board
We welcomed three leaders to our board, each bringing unique expertise to advance our mission:

Benjamin Golant: Senior Director for Global Game Policy at Tencent Americas, has nearly a decade of experience in video game industry policy.

Samir El Agili: Chairman at Tilting Point, with over 20 years of experience in mobile game development and publishing.

Mark Stanley: Founder of Strategic Gaming Collective, advisor for Playing for the Planet, and advocate for using games to address global challenges.


Are you ready to help us make an even greater impact in 2025? Your support will enable us to reach more students, educators, and changemakers worldwide - turning the power of play into real-world change.

This year’s Diverse Voices, New Stories Challenge, created in partnership with Google Play, showcased the incredible creativity of underrepresented stories and developers. With submissions from 15 different countries, we are proud to announce the winners, each receiving $15,000:

🏆 A Monsters Expedition - Draknek & Friends (United Kingdom)
🏆 Greak: Memories of Azur  - Navegante (Mexico)
🏆 Mutazione  - Die Gute Fabrik (Denmark)

Congratulations to all the winners and participants! Stay tuned—we’ll showcase these winning games at #G4C2025! 🎉✨

  • Roblox is providing parents with greater oversight of their children's gaming time, making the platform safer through a player dashboard.

  • Sign up for our Spring cohort of Game Plan for museum educators, offering free professional development that blends the excitement of games with museum programming.

  • EA recently released 23 new patents to its library of free accessibility tools, continuing its commitment to inclusive gaming. 

  • Discover how video games are good for your brain, physical, and mental health.

  • Dive into Well Played: For the Love of Games, a curated collection of submissions that explores the profound impact games have on individuals.

  • Learn how Xsolla and Games for Change are breaking barriers in game development and driving global impact through education, mentorship, and innovative programs.

Flooded Folds: A cozy 2.5D isometric puzzle game about folding paper to reach the evacuation zone during a flood. The game educates players about the hazards they should avoid during this kind of disaster. This information is particularly relevant against the backdrop of climate change, which is making floods more frequent and expanding their possible range.

Building Resilient Communities: Step into the role of a policymaker and learn how to allocate resources effectively to mitigate the impacts of climate change and flooding, balancing short-term needs with long-term sustainability.

👋 See you next year, we can’t wait to continue the power of play for a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable world!