We have a major drug problem in our community and thus, I decided to attempt to design a game that would educate our youth about the dangers of drug use. I used scratch to build this game, as I had never used any game designing software prior to this. I was targeting our students in middle & high school with the game because that seems to be where the largest drug use is occurring. I wanted them to first understand the dangers of the drugs, so I required them to at least click and “read” about each of the 3 drugs first, and then they were able to get a “play game” button.

When they click each of the sprites a factual page comes up about the drug. This is marijuana’s, for example.

Each drug has its own that shows when it is clicked.

Once all three drugs are clicked (and you must click all three, you can’t just click one three times) then you are taken back to where you can click “play game”.

Once you click “Start Game” you’re taken to a screen that gives you “instructions”.

After the instructions are shown, you’re taken to a hallway with a “hidden” drug of each type.

If you don’t find all the drugs within those 60 seconds you are taken to this screen.

As you click on each drug it tells you that you’ve found it. Here it only shows the crack and the heroin, simply because I have it set to disappear after a certain amount of time and I don’t have the ability to click them all and take a screen shot in time.

When you’ve found all 3 of them it displays the backpack with instructions on what to do.

When you click on the backpack it takes you outside the school to the police officer.

After a few seconds you get this final screen to show you you’ve completed the game.

Some thoughts on game design: Now more than ever, I think it’s MUCH easier to PLAY games than it is to design them! Now I’m understanding why games are so expensive. This “game” is nothing like what I played for class and it took me 2 weeks and countless hours! I wanted the game to be more “fun” and have more levels to it, but I couldn’t accomplish that in the allotted time. However, if created to be more engaging and fun, I think a game like this could help our students understand that drugs aren’t good for you. Students in this age group think they know it all, and they don’t want to be “told” about how bad drugs are for them. By playing games & learning about it that way, I think more of them could realize the true impact that drugs have on their bodies.