Online Games for the Prevention of Teen Dating Violence

Life.Love. Game Design Challenge

2013 Life.Love. Game Design Challenge!

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These games are 100% free BUT your donations are greatly appreciated!

2013 Life.Love. Game Design Challenge

Jennifer Ann's Group is proud to announce the 2013 Life.Love. Game Design Challenge. The contest challenges video game developers to create a video game designed to educate players about teen dating violence without using violence in the game itself.

The winning games from 2008 - 2012 are below. Please play these games, learn from them, and share them with those who would benefit from understanding the warning signs of an abusive relationship and the importance of seeking help if they are in danger.

Play the award-winning video games from 2012

Play the award-winning video games from 2011

Play the award-winning video games from 2010

Play the award-winning video games from 2009

Play the award-winning video games from 2008

2012

The first place winner for 2012 is "DatingDangers1.0" from KoKo in Croatia. On the surface, the game is an interactive quiz about dating violence but it becomes quickly apparent that there is something more at play here. As the game evolves from rudimentary quiz to societal critique, the player will be challenged to demonstrate their knowledge of dating violence.

Experiencing all of the game will require several re-plays to explore the various tracks. Do you know enough about dating violence to win a cookie?

First place winning entry 2012
"DatingDangers1.0" by KoKo

Our Wonderful Judges - Past and Present


Leigh Alexander is news director of Gamasutra, author of the Sexy Videogameland weblog, and writes reviews, features and cultural commentary for a variety of outlets including Variety, Wired, Slate, The Escapist, Kotaku, and Paste Magazine. She has previously served as Kotaku's Associate News Editor and run Worlds in Motion, covering the business of online games, social networks and virtual worlds. She has chaired and consulted on Worlds in Motion's summit at the Game Developers' Conference.	Michele Perryman Beam, writing as "Mishka" is the founder of "Mishka's Musings." She is a fashion blogger and personal style consultant who writes about fashion, fitness, and furnishings from the perspective of a mother with young children. In her spare time she volunteers as an advocate working to prevent cancer and dating violence. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband, two children, and family dogs.	Dr. Ian Bogost is an award-winning videogame designer and media philosopher. He is Associate Professor at Georgia Tech and Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC. He is also the author or co-author of seven books, including Unit Operations, Persuasive Games, Racing the Beam, Newsgames, and the forthcoming How To Do Things with Videogames and Alien Phenomenology. His most recent game, A Slow Year, won the Vanguard and Virtuoso awards at the 2010 Indiecade Festival.

Simon Carless is the EVP of UBM Techweb's Game Network, overseeing the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Austin, Germany, and China. He also oversees the double Webby award-winning Gamasutra website, the Maggie award-winning Game Developer magazine, the GAO ad network, and the Indie Royal game bundle site. He has previously worked as a lead game designer at Kuju Entertainment, Eidos Interactive and Atari.	Brian Crecente is a journalist and columnist, a founding editor and the News Editor for Polygon, he also writes Good Game, a weekly column internationally syndicated by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. The former Editor-In-Chief of Kotaku, Crecente was educated at the University of Maryland, College Park. He began his career as a journalist with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He covered crime and public safety for daily newspapers in Texas, Florida, and Colorado for 12 years before starting his career as a video game journalist. Crecente was named one of the 20 most influential people in the video game industry over the past 20 years by GamePro in 2009 and one of gaming's Top 50 journalists by Edge in 2006. He was featured in a 5280 biography. He has spoken at the Smithsonian, GDC, PAX and UCLA. Crecente is married and has one child.	Drew Crecente (shown here with his daughter, Jennifer Ann Crecente) is the founder and executive director of Jennifer Ann's Group. He is also the founder of L.I.V.E, an organization focusing on the impact of IPV (Intimate Partner Violence) on the practice of Law, and occasionally writes about Technology and the Law. His speaking engagements include the National Youth at Risk Conference, the Global Humanitarian Summit, and the Games for Health conference. His efforts through Jennifer Ann's Group have been covered by NPR, HLN, Newsweek, APA Monitor, Gamasutra, and Wired.

Danielle DeZao is founder and president of h<3rt1, an organization working to eliminate dating violence. She has appeared on the ABC series "What Would You Do?" (shown here with John Quinones); participated in discussions about teen dating violence at the White House; and been featured in CosmoGirl for her efforts to prevent teen dating violence.	Dr. Elizabeth L. Richeson is a Psychologist in El Paso, Texas, the head of the Advisory Board for Jennifer Ann's Group, and former president of the Texas Psychological Foundation. She is an expert on teen dating violence, appears regularly on news and talk shows, and lectures nationwide on a variety of issues related to teenagers, young adults, and relationships.	Jo Sharpen is the manager of the Children and Young People's Project at AVA - Against Violence and Abuse - in the U.K. and wrote the national UK toolkit on children, young people and domestic violence for practitioners, Improving Safety, Reducing Harm, published by the Department of Health in 2009. She has also written numerous policy briefings, guidance and training packages on violence against women and girls; currently she is writing a book on domestic violence in teenage relationships.

Elin Stebbins Waldal is a speaker; the author of Tornado Warning, A Memoir of Teen Dating Violence And Its Effect On A Woman’s Life; and the founder of Girls kNOw More, an organization whose mission is to help build confidence in middle-school-age girls. She lives in Southern California with her husband, three children, and their family dog.

2011

The first place winner for 2011 was Jean HEHN of Another Kind. He lives in Belgium and his winning entry is "Finding Jane." We hope that you enjoy his entry and we would just caution you to remember that this is a game - if you are confronted with an abuser or any dangerous situation in real life make sure that you contact the police! It's always better to be safe than sorry.

For assistance and advice about teen dating violence in the U.S. you can call our friends at the National Dating Abuse Helpline at 1-866-331-9474. They can be reached 24/7 and have both English and Spanish speakers available.

First place winning entry 2011
"Finding Jane" by Jean HEHN of Another Kind

(if the game does not fit your screen press F11)