Preventing Teen Dating Violence through Video Games since 2008
Since 2008, Jennifer Ann's Group has sponsored the
Life.Love. Game Design Challenge to challenge video game designers and developers to
create video games about teen dating violence.
Our goal is to increase awareness about teen dating violence as well as provide educational information
to help teens, tweens, and young adults identify and avoid abusive relationships.
Note: Although not required we suggest that you first play Grace's Diary before playing Janie's Sketchbook. Grace's Diary presents a story of dating violence that provides an ideal foundation for Janie's Sketchbook.
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
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)
Second place winning entry 2011
"Moving On" by Gamers of Action
Third place winning entry 2011
"Power and Control" by Jared Sain
Runner-up winning entry 2010
"A Decision of Paramount Importance" by Thomas Liu
Runner-up winning entry 2010
"Jellia's Friends" by Batty Media
Winning entry 2010
"Knowledge can be your bulletproof vest" by Another Kind
2009 Winning Video Games to Stop Teen Dating Violence
First place winning entry 2009
by Jared Sain
Runner-up winning entry 2009
by Brian Crick
Runner-up winning entry 2009
by TORONJA Concepts
Winning entry 2009
by Bence Joful
2008 Winning Video Games to Stop Teen Dating Violence
First place winning entry 2008
"Escape Your Boyfriend's Room"
Runner-up entry 2008
"A Walk in the Park"
Our 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 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 an EVP at UBM Tech, overseeing the Game Developers
Conferences in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Germany, and China. He also oversees the double Webby award-winning Gamasutra website, and the Black Hat information security conferences. 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. 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. He is Jennifer Ann Crecente's uncle.
Drew Crecente is 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 speaks about IPV, teen dating violence, and the use of video games for social change. His speaking engagements include the National Youth at Risk Conference, the Global Humanitarian Summit, Games for Health, and Games for Health Europe conferences. He is Jennifer Ann Crecente's father.
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.
.Ben Sawyer is the co-founder of Digitalmill, a games consulting firm based in Portland, Maine. He is the co-founder of the Serious Games Initiative, a project of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and also co-founder of the Games for Health project which connects health professionals, researchers, and game developers in order to advance the development of health games and game technologies. The Games for Health project receives major funding from the Pioneer Portfolio, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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 U.K. 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.
These video games are free to play and to share
with your friends and family.
However, Jennifer Ann's Group is a non-profit organization and receives no government funding.
If you agree with what we're doing please help - we rely on your donations
to keep doing what we're doing!
