Just Play: A Game Jam for Justice has officially unveiled its finalists after a month-long game jam, with the winners to be announced during an SXSW 2024 ceremony hosted by IGN's own Akeem Lawanson.
The game jam, which is based around using games to focus in on system injustice, revealed six finalists on Wednesday. They include Drawing Up Dust by Team Replenishers, a game about the interconnected causes of groundwater depletion, and Are You Listening? by Other Path, which casts the player as an overwhelmed healthcare worker.
Here's the list of finalists, many of which can be played for yourself over on itch.io.
● Are you Listening? by Eloise Best (Health, Technology)
● Crossing Lines by Other Path (Health, Community)
● Drawing Up Dust by Team Replenishers (Community, Ecology)
● In the Shadow of the Sun by AngelFish (Economy, Community)
● Pip Pepper Park Planner by Pip Squad (Ecology, Community)
● Um Al-Zaytoun by Qadar (Post-colonial, Ecology)
Just Play: A Game Jam for Justice kicked off in December, with jurors selected from Xbox and Netflix Games among other well-known publishers. The finalists will be given the opportunity to further develop their prototypes, with the winner receiving a $10,000 cash prize.
"We know that games are a powerful medium with potential to go beyond entertainment and also inspire change. It was an honor to be a juror and I'm excited to see how these creators use their voices going forward," said James Lewis, an ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program lead who served as one of the jurors.
The game jam is pitched as "the beginning of a movement," with more events planned that are intended to "foster an ecoystem of game developers and players passionate about leveraging video games for positive cultural and social change." It is run by Cinereach, a non-profit founded in 2006, and Anime Interactive, an independent game studio.
The awards ceremony will be held on March 9 at 7:30pm CT during SXSW 2024. If you're not able to attend, you'll be watch the awards live on Twitch.
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
