allan-mccullough
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GDC: Making games to prevent violence against children
The highlight of yesterday's GDC Serious Game Summit panels focused on an appropriately consequential topic: How games can help protect children from the commonplace dangers they face from predators, both online and off. The panel was led by Child Safety Research and Innovation Center president Allan McCullough -- a man who's strived to develop games which teach young people how to identify and avoid dangerous situations. The two Flash-based games which represent the fruits of McCullough's two decades of labor look deceptively simple on the surface. They are, after all, hand-illustrated, poorly animated educational games geared towards children, with budgets too small to allow the hiring of professional voice actors and experienced gaming professionals. However, beneath the crude surface of these games lie clever methods of imparting crucial information to their young players which could ostensibly help them avoid encounters with people who mean them harm.
