159 A Game About Texting And Driving

An educational game that illustrates the distraction of texting while driving.

The player is doing things that are key to driving, but are abstracted into game elements. Remembering what signs say, altering your speed, changing radio stations, having a conversation with the person next to you in the car, basic steering, driving through school zones, and so on. These are supposed to represent the activities that occupy your brain while driving. Despite them being automatic to long-time drivers, it’s still a very mentally intense activity.

At certain points in the game, the player hears a vibration and text message alert from their phone in their pocket. The game will have a story, primarily told through your conversations with the other person in the car, and by the messages received through the phone messages. When the phone is brought up to read and respond to messages, all other activities in the car must still be performed as normal (reading signs, talking to the passenger, altering speed, generally respond to the road, and so on), while reading and responding to your phone’s message. You can lift up and put down your phone to bring attention to it, and the text input method is more difficult that just typing on your computer’s keyboard what you want the player to input into the phone. It’s simulated in a way that makes it as difficult as it is in real life.

#educational-game, #experimental-game