The Source

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The Source was an alternate reality game and summer program for Chicago high-school youth designed by Game Changer Chicago at the University of Chicago in Summer 2013. The game ran for five weeks and featured STEM-focused (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) challenges and workshops in 21st century skills. Youth were distributed across teams lead by undergraduate and graduate-student mentors, and competed with one another to gain points as an urban realist mystery unfolded via video blogs.

The Source was part of the 2013 Chicago Summer of Learning, a collaboration between the MacArthur Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation engaging Chicago-youth with on-hands learning.

To read the development blog covering The Source, please see: http://gamechangerchi.tumblr.com/tagged/The%20Source

(Entries authored by me: Designing Week 2 and on ARG Worldbuilding and Narrative)

My Roles:

During this project, I primarily served as a game and experience designer. I was the lead designer for Week 2 of the program, which focused on the intersection of science and medicine. Throughout the rest of the program, I worked with the design team designing daily activities, balancing games, and working with mentors. On Fridays, I worked directly with a group of youth by leading a workshop on photography and videography. Additionally I served as a video editor on the narrative team, producing a number of the video blogs.

Narrative:

Adia is a straight-A student on the south side of Chicago, excelling at her coursework and extracurriculars. Her father left unexpectedly when she was five years-old, but she recently discovered a box of clues he left behind and letters he mailed but were wittheld by her mother. With the help of her friends Ros and Micah, she sets up a video blog to communicate to a team of Chicago youth they've recruited to crowdsource the puzzles. Together and in secret, they attempt to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance, a dream of his called The Center, and whether he is closer to coming home than she knows.

In addition to her vlogs, Adia, Ros, and Micah communicated to players via the game's online platform and text messages.

All of the vlogs are hosted on The Source's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/sourcethegame

Gameplay:

The program ran for five weeks, and each week of the program was oriented around a different letter in STEM and a different civic engagement or social justice topic (including: health disparities, school bullying, homophobia). Youth completed digital challenges on their own on Mondays, met with their teams at the University of Chicago on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9am-3pm, and had the option of attending digital literacy workshops on Fridays.

Daily activities included games designed specifically for the program, including the creation of the Hexacago game board which was repurposed with a differently-themed game each week. Youth also interacted with STEM-professionals like physicians and robotocists, went on field trip scavenger hunts at museums, solved cryptographic puzzles, practiced collective storytelling, and researched hidden evidence boxes. Completing activities successfully during the week conferred team points, and participating in workshops and the additional exercises on Fridays earned digital badges showing specialization in a 21st century skill.

The Source's online platform with team rankings and badges can be seen at: http://thesource.uchicago.edu/