A Case Study in Newsgame Creation: Why Game Designers and Journalists are Still Learning to Work Together Lindsay Grace Dr. Mike Treanor Chris Totten Dr. Josh McCoy American University American University American University American University Game Lab Game Lab Game Lab Game Lab Washington, DC,USA Washington, DC,USA Washington, DC,USA Washington, DC,USA
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT newspapers, recognized an increased visual literacy in its As early as 2001, digital newsgames offered a noteworthy readership. Headlines were no longer simply about finely opportunity to engage audiences and provide a new news crafted writing, it was also about finely crafted visual consumption experience. Nearly 5 years later newsgames information. have not clearly delivered on their potential. With such promise, why didn‟t news presses give way to newsgame The contemporary world of journalism is engaged in studios? another struggle. Journalists are struggling to adapt to a new audience of readers. The inverted pyramid structure This paper provides a simple case study in newsgame must compete with a myriad of listicles, interactive info production, providing a set of lessons learned from an graphics and all manner of entertaining distraction. In the academic studio working with a variety of news carnival of information sources, conventional news delivery organizations including one of the largest United States looks well worn and not a little tired. based daily newspapers. It does so to examine the contemporary opportunities and challenges in producing Into this environment a variety of solutions have been games for news organizations. inserted as experiments.