One company is taking a different approach to gamifying charity: by playing a game on your iPhone, you provide transportation to people in Africa.
The Global Gaming Initiative uses popular mobile game genres to create games that "make play purposeful." The company's first game, Sidekick Cycle, provides people in poor regions in Africa with bikes, through a partnership with charity World Bicycle Relief.
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Sidekick Cycle, which was released last week on iTunes, is a downhill racing game where players navigate a bicycle on progressively difficult terrain. Half the proceeds are going to World Bicycle Relief. For every 387 games sold, a bike goes to a disadvantaged child. The game even keeps players updated with how many bikes they have helped donate. This is a different approach to gamification for charity, as Sidekick Cycle exists as a game with good mechanics first and a teaching tool second.
"Our game does have a message, but it is through play and having fun that people learn ," said Global Gaming Initiative founder Elizabeth Sarquis. "In the U.S., bikes are a leisure activity for most, but in other parts of the world bikes are a form of transportation that provides access to education, health and employment."
Sarquis said the company is focused on charity but also making the process both fun and transparent at the same time. For Sidekick Cycle and future games, it vets the charity thoroughly to assure they are transparent, as well as offer a tangible good that affects the lives in the communities they serve.
"After serving many years on non-profit boards, I became aware of the collapse of the non-profit model after the 2008 financial crisis," Sarquis said. "As a result of that, people were willing to donate to charities, but they demanded accountability. They cared to know where their donations were going, especially with the transparency that the Internet can provide."
Sarquis said Global Gaming Initiative wants to tap in to the passion of gamers and channel that passion into real-world problems.
"Mobile games allow engagement in a way that has never been seen before. Not only are the numbers of players astounding, but so is our connectivity," she said. "We now realize that we are all connected and what happens in other parts of the world affects us all. The smartphone generation is not only aware of this but they actively want to 'do good' in a measurable way."
Sidekick Cycle is out now for iOS for $0.99. Half of the purchase price, as well as half of the money from in-app purchases, go to charity.
BONUS: The 10 Most Beautiful Mobile Games
You know that nightmare where you're running through the woods, being chased by some unseen terror? That's pretty much Dead Runner. The hauntingly beautiful landscape provides the perfect backdrop.
Price: $0.99 for iOS and Android.
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Price: $3.99 for iOS and Android.
Another console game-turned-mobile, Limbo has long been hailed as a gaming work of art, and pioneered the popular style of black silhouettes with light or colored backgrounds. The game is at the same time creepy and beautiful, with unexpected enemies lurking around every corner, waiting to bring about gruesome deaths.
Price: $4.99 for iOS.
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Price: $4.99 for iOS and $5 for Android
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Price: $0.99 for iOS and $4.99 for Android.
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Price: $0.99 for iOS and $2.99 for Android.
A pixelated world sounds like a gaming nightmare, but Sword and Sorcery masterfully sets this heroic fantasy in a beautifully antiquated world.
Price: $4.99 for iOS and Android.
Based on the graphic novels that inspired the record-breaking television series, The Walking Dead surrounds a new group of characters in the same zombie-infested world. While the game is already unique for its focus on story and characterization rather than puzzles and shooting, the comic-like illustrations pay homage to the series' roots in a gorgeous way.
Price: Free to download for iOS; each episode is $4.99.
This physics-based construction game is as addictive as it is beautifully simple. Create structures by connecting balls of goo to get you from point A to point B.
Price: $4.99 for iOS and $2.99 for Android.
This Swedish game, which is based on an old man's walk though the woods to search for omens for the coming year, is one of the most creatively original games we've played on mobile. Year Walk may be a little trippy, and it may freak us out just a tad, and we may not even fully understand it, but boy, is it friggin' pretty.
Price: $3 for iOS.
Image: Global Game Initiative