Time for some big news! After earning prize money at the Swiss Student Sustainability Challenge, I am working with the Swiss development studio OpinionGames. They will help turn my design into reality by realizing the technical backend for the next iteration of our project.
Now that the elections are over, we are looking towards improving our prototype at cantonal elections. A first opportunity to do this is during elections in my home canton Uri, which take place in March.
OpinionGames consists of Benjamin Lemcke and Sebastian Imbach, both alumni from the ZHdK. The studio was founded in 2016 and offers a range of services in the field of games for opinion shaping and transmission of information. They are both ZHdK alumni. For his graduation project, Benjamin worked on an “opinion game” about three current popular votes at the time. Since then, the studio has been realizing solutions in the areas of educational – and therapeutical games.
Externalized development of the “backend”
As with the first prototype, I am responsible for the application design and content.
On the technical end, I will do the work on the frontend (what you as user see on your screen) while the development of the backend (technical functionality of the application) is externalized.
Thanks to the Zurich University of the Arts, the backend of the first app prototype has been realized by Livio Lunin. This work contribution made it possible to test a first prototype during the national elections. I have wanted to write a post about him and his contributions to this project for a while. You will hear more about him and his work in February.
Working with OpinionGames
So, who will I be joining forces with until February?
Benjamin has been interested in our political system and for participation from a young age. Before founding OpinionGames, he completed several other projects in those fields.
Sebastian discovered educational games during his education to become an art teacher. He is always questioning the “givens” of our society and is an excellent candidate for philosophical discussions.
The two of them met while following the Game Design Master at the ZHdK and now, as alumni of the Game Design study, they met me.
From our first meeting, it was clear that we were working towards the same goal of using the potential of games to motivate people to get politically engaged. As soon as it was official that there would be first financial resources available to develop the prototype, I did not have to think twice on who to contact concerning the next development phase.
I am looking forward to spend the next months working with this team.
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