With the program CIIIC: Creative Industries Immersive Impact Coalition, we aim to increase the capacity to realize immersive experiences, and empower the industry and its creators to capitalize on opportunities. But what are we really talking about? In this series, we dive into inspiring case studies.
Using a VR game to strengthen the moral compass of young people. How do you tackle that? ReAction is a game developed to stop youth stabbing violence. The goal of the game is to prevent violence, but also to strengthen the awareness around own choices and a moral compass of young people. ReAction was developed on the initiative of MEE & de Wering, ImproVive was in the lead for the development of this game. How was the process?
The game was developed in cooperation with youth work Den Helder, Games For Health, Centrum Triade, AdSysCo and ImproVive. But especially with young people themselves. Within a week, these parties worked with young people to put together a VR game as a prototype. The power of co-creation with the target group was immediately demonstrated. Roger ter Heide of ImproVive explains, "We worked with young people from the start. This is the only way to create a story that connects to their experiences. They provided input around the use of language, but also voiced the voices and helped fill in the animations of the avatars via motion capture."
We want young people who may face knife violence to also experience the phases leading up to it.
In the game, this sense of experience is essential: with the VR glasses, the young person steps into a world where the player's choices directly affect the outcomes. The dilemmas they face can end in outside help and a de-escalating conversation, or conversely, in an incident resulting in a prison sentence. VR makes a player feel present: "We want young people who may face knife violence to also experience the phases leading up to it. We did choose to be careful about violence, and intimidation. You don't want to avoid the subject of knife violence, but of course you don't want to cause trauma either." explains ter Heide.
On the one hand, the game is a personal experience, but it should also facilitate a conversation. This debriefing with the group is important: it enables youth workers and teachers to return to a specific theme in the following weeks, or to discuss the topic further one-on-one with young people. The game works in a variety of schools, from group eight elementary school, to middle school and high school. ReAction is also played at colleges to train social work students. Although the perception of these groups differs, they all succeed in starting a discussion that is relevant to them.
The further development of the game has rightly earned the support of the Ministry of Justice and Security and many municipalities and welfare organizations.
Susan Rozemeijer, project leader from MEE & de Wering: "The VR game ReAction is a good tool to start the conversation with young people about making conscious choices." The game is now being rolled out nationwide, but in the beginning it was quite a search for what is needed to get such a project off the ground. "The first prototype showed that you can indeed achieve a credible game and outlined a clear path to finish it further. Further development after that also rightly earned the support of the Ministry of Justice and Security and many municipalities and welfare organizations to finish the game." said Roger ter Heide.
The project also involved collaboration with JOZ in Rotterdam, SMD and Incluzio from Zaanstad. This close contact with project management, youth workers and young people is an important reason for the success of the project, according to the ImproVive team.
Here you can watch the trailer of ReAction. Here you can read more about the project on the website of ImproVive, a digital agency that uses VR, game technology and AI to create immersive solutions.
