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Game of Choice, Not Chance is a platform for creating fun mobile games where young people discover, explore, learn and play their way toward becoming empowered decision-makers. Within relatable game worlds co-created with the youth, players navigate challenges while gaining direct access to vital information and resources about their health and well-being.
Young people too often lack decision-making agency
The decisions young people make—or are compelled to make—have a ripple effect on their lives now, and their futures as adults. For girls, a decision to stay in school can protect them against early marriage, pregnancy, and harmful norms. Yet too many do not have that option. Instead, they are forced to marry before they are ready.
Boys want to experiment, innovate and improvise their way to financial independence, but are pushed towards ‘steady’ jobs that cement their role as providers. They want safe spaces to cry and express their emotions, but feel the pressure to be strong.
Young people want to explore different life paths as they transition to adulthood, but often don’t have access to mentors, reliable information and resources to guide them. As they play, they discover how they can use their voices to shape their future and open new worlds of possibility in their lives.
We asked what if?
What if young people could enter alternate worlds as avatars, and gain access to myth-busting information, and explore their interests and preferences without pressure? What if they could try on unfamiliar options for size and experience the outcomes of different decisions?
What if—these powerful possibilities could be placed in the palms of their hands? Through mobile games, they can.
Gaining from gaming
Role play & replay
​​Try different options, experience different outcomes, and ‘try again,’ all in a low-risk environment
Engage in a
private space
​​Explore accurate fertility awareness information and self-care resources that are culturally sensitive in a space that is confidential
Access resources directly
​​Have vital resources delivered directly into the palm of their hands and outside the health system
Receive guidance
​​Get supportive nudges toward positive decisions and self-care from in-game mentor characters and links
What girls and boys are saying
“Decisions are the power that can lead us to the places we want to go.”
~ Dehradun
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“I believe the Go Nisha Go game has helped me in becoming more focused on my education and career. Like Nisha, I am also very aspirational and driven to achieve what I have wanted to. The game gives me hope.”
“After playing this I will do things differently next time… When we are ready to kiss, I will ask her, and won’t force her.”
~ Bablu 18, Patna
“The game talks about career, confidence-building, periods and products to use. It’s really helpful for girls.”
~ Ajmer
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“I will make my brother play this game so he treats girls well.”
~ Patna
“Nisha is a brave girl because she had the courage to make her own decisions. In fact, [in the game] it was not Nisha, but me who was making the decisions!”
~ Dehradun
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“My newly-married friends talk about not knowing enough about pregnancy prevention. This game is very useful in that sense.”
~ Ajmer
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The methodology
behind the games
The games are based on four interrelated, non-linear pathways Discover, Learn, Play, Explore, they create an experience that engages, empowers, and educates game users.
This approach of using multiple, and multi-disciplinary, pathways to change, is of particular interest for impact measurement of innovations, especially digital products that do not easily conform with traditional behavior change models or standard co-design approaches.
Game of choice
is now proven!
Our technology and digital games are research-driven, user-tested, interactive, gamified, immersive solutions with embedded data analytics and precision messaging and now proven to influence behaviors for impact. Read the first-of-its-kind randomized controlled trial (RCT) in the peer-reviewed journal Reproductive Health.
Possibility, Powered by Play. See the short film
