Education

The University of Victoria

I originally created the game as a final project for the Geog 391 - Indigenous Geography course at the University of Victoria, and updated the game for Deondre Smiles G.I.F Lab.   

The game is designed to take players through a research scenario with an Indigenous community. Players begin by gathering basic research methods (yellow tiles) and ethical practices (brown tiles). The methods include both qualitative and quantitative tools, and ethical guidance comes from  governments/organizations, and researchers. With these tools in hand the players can now conduct research in the community and collect green tiles that tell stories and provide insight on Indigenous peoples across Canada. 

Players have the option to choose their character from six different ethnic and research backgrounds. These backgrounds influence the characters' biases, and result in characters begging with different credibilities. Using In their credibility players obtain the research/ethics/knowledge tiles. There are opportunities for players to gain more credibility by visiting the communities reservation and traditional territories. Additionally, as players move across the 70 tile board (the number of treaties recognized by the Canadian government) they are faced with choices, opportunities, and setbacks when they land on blue tiles and pick up chance cards.