The Civic Games Lab is a games for social change lab that seeks to promote civic values by building games that tell South Asia’s story through play, but using its spoken, written and visual language. Through play we seek to challenge the problem of unequal access to information, around issues such as human rights, climate change, natural resource management, democracy, privacy, cities and urbanisation, news, history and other civic issues.
The lab, has previously worked on the extensive and popular board game, 'The Poll' that released in January 2019. The game puts regular people at the helm of the affairs of a political party, creating a-one-of-a-kind experience of the Indian elections.
The lab provides game consultancy, and in 2019/20 helped Breakthrough Trust build a game that would promote the idea of student councils in government schools in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In 2021, the CGL will launch its Online Naagrik suite of games - which seek to provide a vocabulary of rights, privacy and security online through interactive stories, and two card games.
CGL builds games that intend to strengthen the civic of muscle in those communities that do not have access to such methodologies. It is our mandate to take these games to both urban and rural settings with the clear intention of helping young and old people more aware of their rights and role in society, and improve the bargaining power of the citizen.
"No one listens to young people, no listens to us. We aren't factored in to decision making, we aren't included in conversation on our cities, our politics or anything else. We need build tools, that aren't one way like our classrooms, like video content online that speaks only one way. We need to go back to sitting around a table, or go back to the adda, or to gaming arcades and learn to speak to each other again. Our games do just that get people around a table and get them to play through the things that matter"
We are part of SMART (Seeking Modern Applications for Real Transformation) NGO, who work with vulnerable communities, with a focus on women, and is committed to creating awareness and empowering communities to speak up and stand up for their rights and entitlements.
We are very solid online and Yes we have worked long enough to have alumni 🙂