Kristina Lyn Heitkamp - Getting Paid to Make Games and Apps

High school students participate in a group discussion. Technology can be used in several ways in a classroom, such as taking notes during a group meeting or presenting information.

Jane The Concussion Slayer

Jane McGonigal believes that reality is broken and games will be the thing to fix it. Game designer and author McGonigal advocates using games to solve real-life problems such as anxiety, depression, and even climate change. In 2009, she suffered a debilitating concussion after accidently slamming her head into a cabinet door. After a few months, she had still not recovered. She suffered terrible migraines and extreme mental fogginess. Her world was turned upside down and backwards. She was anxious and depressed and worried that she would never see the light at the end of the tunnel.

McGonigal decided to use her game design skills to create a game called Super Better. A multiplayer game, Super Better allows a player to set a health or wellness goal and invites other players to help reach the goal. The game, originally titled Jane the Concussion Slayer, helped McGonigal during her recovery and has assisted nearly a half million others reach their own wellness goalswhether its making a physical or athletic breakthrough, or coping with chronic pain.

Since her recovery, McGonigal has been busy writing books, developing games, and serving as the director of Games Research and Development at the Institute for the Future. She is also the founder of Gameful, a secret headquarters for world-changing game developers. But her epic-winning goal is to see a game designer with a Nobel Peace Prize.

POWER OF THE APP

Games and apps have changed lives. Some apps make life a little easier by linking the user to valuable information while others help make the world a better place. Social good apps are motivating users to become more socially involved in important issues. The American Red Cross Donor App allows users to find blood drives, schedule appointments, and track blood donation through to delivery. Donors save lives with a simple tap of an app. Another social good app working to save lives is Spoiler Alert. In 2104 nearly 50 million American households struggled against hunger. Yet pounds and pounds of edible food rot in landfills. The Spoiler Alert app is fighting hunger and food waste by connecting food businesses and farmers with nonprofit organizations to recover valuable food.

Founded in 2004, Games for Change (G4C) is a nonprofit dedicated to leveraging games for social good. G4C understands the power of gaming entertainment and helps create and distribute games that serve a humanitarian and educational effort, such as Cloud Chasers. Released in October 2015, Cloud Chasers-Journey of Hope invites players to help a father and daughter traverse through a dangerous and deadly desert to the world above the clouds. The mobile game allows players to explore the important topic of migration from a different perspective. The player helps the family manage their resources and persevere towards a better future.

HAPPINESS HACKING

Play a game and call me in the morning. This may become a common phrase for medical professionals to use in the near future. Game and app technology in healthcare is an emerging and profitable market.

Technology is changing how doctors diagnose, treat, and interact with patients. Doctors can share progress of a patients recovery or pull up an x-ray on a device.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood disorders, but it also affects adolescents and adults. While drug prescriptions help, researchers discovered that computer games have potential to ease ADHD symptoms, too. Project: Evo hopes to help patients with ADHD, autism, Alzheimers disease, and depression. Neuroscientists developed the concept of the game. Played on a smartphones or tablets, the player roams an interactive, virtual icy world. The goal of the game is to avoid certain objects, such as miniature icebergs, while finding others, such as specific colored fish. As with any technology claiming a fix, skeptics are wary of videogames offering an effective treatment. But the makers of the game, a biotech company called Akili, are treating the game like any prototype for a medical prescription. Project: Evo has been through several clinical trials and is seeking FDA approval. Akili aims to develop a new type of what they call electronic medicine that can be prescribed by doctors.