By Harold Goldberg

Yesterday, at the 21st Annual Games For Change Festival, the New York Videogame Critics Circle put together a sold-out event called Empowering Diversity In Gaming: Fostering Inclusivity Through Youth Engagement And Storytelling.

Helmed by Circle executive director Ryan O’Callaghan and co-hosted by Microsoft’s Albert Dankwa, the well-attended talk focused on the Circle’s Playing With Purpose classes along with the sometimes fraught pathways to success both Albert and Ryan faced as they made their way in the world. Yet both kept on going — and succeeded.

It’s part of the Circle’s Playing With Purpose mission to forge pathways to success in the games in journalism worlds for underserved and unhoused students. Through our efforts and classes, students learn how to get jobs in games, how to work in teams, and how to write professional-quality reviews and narrative – all based on games.

We want to thank hardworking G4C president Susanna Pollack for helping to schedule our talk at the awesome two-day festival which took place at The New School/Parsons School of Design on Fifth Avenue. We also want to thank mentor Ronald Gordon for helping out our talk.

The festival is a gem of serious games, nonprofit innovation and top notch speakers, the best of such festivals in New York City and perhaps the East Coast.

The festival hosts its own game awards, and here below are the deserving independent games which won:

Game of the Year, Best in Impact, Best Narrative – Stay Alive, My Son Chapter 1 & 2 (UME Studios)
This virtual reality feature combines cinema and gaming, immersing viewers in a groundbreaking, interactive emotional odyssey. It unfolds Yathay Pin’s painful journey through locked memories, family separation, and redemption.

Best in Innovation – Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Summerfall Games)
An epic tale of gods, magic, and a millennium-long journey to rediscovery. Players take on the role of Grace in a world where Greek Gods live in hiding among us, using musical powers to unravel mysteries.

Best Gameplay – A Highland Song (inkle)
A wild adventure through the Scottish Highlands where players guide Moira McKinnon as she runs away across a wilderness of paths, peaks, and dangers. Players climb peaks, spelunk through caves, and find their way to the sea.

Best in Civics, Best in Learning – Headlines and High Water (Field Day Lab)
Players become a young journalist in the fictional town of Twin Lakes, covering a catastrophic flood during the annual Cherry Festival. They interview locals and write stories to keep the town informed while staying safe.

Best in Environmental Impact – The Plastic Pipeline (FableVision)
This game takes players through points on the ‘lifecycle’ of a single-use plastic product, empowering them to learn about policies being used to fight ocean plastic pollution.

Best in Health & Wellness – Soul Paint (Hatsumi & Monobanda)
Soul Paint is an immersive experience taking participants on a journey to explore and creatively express feelings of emotion and sensations in the body.

Best in XR – MLK: Now Is The Time (Flight School Studio, TIME Studios, Meta VR For Good)
An immersive journey exploring key themes of Dr. King’s famous speech, highlighting systemic inequities that persist in our society through first-person stories and interactions.

Best Student Project – Stop and Breathe (One Must Imagine Games)
A game that teaches youth the importance of proper breathing techniques to help overcome anxiety.

Best Board or Tabletop Game for Impact – Daybreak (CMYK)
A cooperative board game about stopping climate change, where players work together to decarbonize the world while striving to build a just and safe future for all.

Journalist and author Harold Goldberg is the founder and president of the New York Videogame Critics Circle and the New York Game Awards.