Center for Games and Impact

The Center for Games and Impact’s mission is to investigate, innovate, and cultivate game-infused solutions to society’s biggest challenges. Participants take on partnerships among learning scientists, game developers and socially responsible entrepreneurs to rigorously study and innovate around the full life cycle of impact games. By examining the full lifecycle of impact games—from research, design and development to publishing, assessment and optimization—they seek to pioneer, implement and share best practices for harnessing the unique power of games for achieving sustainable and scalable outcomes. This type of learning is transformational play, and it’s much different from memorizing facts for a test. In a game world, the power lies in taking on the role of protagonist and making choices that have consequences. It helps people learn and grow in a context where they can fail safely and come to appreciate themselves as people who can have a real impact in a world—albeit a virtual one.