Profit Seed
The Profit Seed game explores the issues surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMO) and the patenting of agricultural seeds. It is also an experiment with a novel game mechanic. A player uses her mouse to control the wind, trying to plant heirloom seeds while preventing GMO seeds from blowing onto a farmer’s plots. If enough GMO seeds land in the field and germinate, the lawyer from an agribusiness corporation comes to sue the farmer and take his land.
Profit Seed was designed using the Values At Play curriculum which can be used to design activist games or simply novel games with unusual mechanics. The project is a collaboration between the Tiltfactor Lab and members of the Rochester Institute of Technology game design program.
ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
- Joseph, Barry. “Get Serious.” School Library Journal 56.2, February 2010, 24.
- Alhadeff, Eliane. “Profit Seed: Serious Games Explore Issues Surrounding GMOs.” Future-Making Serious Games, September 18, 2008.
- CREDITS
- Designer: Mary Flanagan
- Hunter College Student Game Designer Nicholas Pappas
- Game Programming:Brian Mayzak, Ben Dapkiewicz, Greg Kohl, RIT students
- Art: Grace Ching-Yung, Peng, Jennifer Jacobs
- Music: Raymond Blanco, John Licari, Ryan Krause
- Content Development: James Bachhuber, Zsusa Mitro
- Video and Tutorials: Anna Lotko and Chris Takeuchi
- Playtesting: Brendan Scully
- Software Engineering Direction: Dr. Christopher Egert
- Thanks to Angela Ferraiolo for contributing to the initial idea
With support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, Collaborative Research: SoD-TEAM:
Values at Play: Integrating Ethical and Political Factors into System Design, CNS-0613867
