In our final week of Games for Justice 2021, our youth finished final touches on their games and demos, and presented them to family, friends, and community members. We also were able to take time at the end of the week to truly appreciate each other and celebrate our amazing work. This week by far was the most emotional, and I could not be more grateful for everyone's amazing energy and for collectively creating such a beautiful experience this summer. I hope that whenever we look back at these reflections as a group, we can remember the beautiful, chaotic, gorgeous, wild memories we made.
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Chinh
It felt like doing a final or a the last homework of a school year. It actually felt better since I enjoyed the process and presenting my work to everyone. I hope to keep moving forward on coding and creating music. I am looking forward (not really) in doing my summer hw and college stuff.
Destiny
Everything went very well. Today is the last day of the program and I cried because of the warm and fuzzies we did. I am going to miss everyone. The connections made in here are amazing for real.
Faria
The biggest highlight of this week was definitely being able to finally present and show our games. To me, our game turned out so well and I’m happy that other people thought so too! I’m going to miss this program so much and everyone that was apart of it. This was such an amazing experience, being able to design a game for the first time. I’m so excited for our future mini-meetings! <3
Hanan
My biggest highlight was presenting our final games to everyone. I was so excited to share the game that we had been working on for a majority of the program. Everything went well which I was happy about and the game turned out amazing. I was happy the audience enjoyed the artistic aspects as well as the gaming parts. This was such an amazing experience and I’m so happy I was able to participate in this program this summer.
Mo
My highlight of the week seven was presenting to my friends and family and showing the final product of our game. look forward to meeting everybody in this group again and working with them in some other way.
Kiran
No thank you I’ll be in denial that there are no more future weeks for a bit more :( Week 6 was so good- I think that all of our hard work really came together this week. That moment when the construct minigame got implemented into the twine narrative and then we published the game after some troubleshooting… it felt unreal!! I like how we’ve been able to make space for rest and having fun while creating our game. Getting feedback after presenting was really cool; I was thinking back to the beginning of this program and I couldn’t even imagine how far we’ve come. Games 4 justice forever in my heart <3
William
This last week we got to present the demo of the game we have been working on, and though we weren't able to get more done, I’m proud of how the demo game worked out. This program has been a great experience to motivate me to learn about game design and game engines. I’m grateful for all of the games for justice staff for facilitating this program and I hope that I can make more games from this experience.
Thank you GFJ for this awesome opportunity!
Husain (Coordinator)
I cannot believe it’s week 7. This group has been such an amazing community to spend time with this summer and the way we’ve shared vulnerability, joy, pain, and everything together has felt so healing. I honestly am not sure how I’m going to go back into the semester, but I can only hope that I leave this space with as much intention for future community building as we invested in each other this summer.
I’m so proud of how we’ve treated each other, and how much we’ve created together. Most of all, I’m really grateful for this amazing group of people who came together for these seven weeks and opened up possibilities for games, community, joy, and exploration that we couldn’t have had individually. I’m going to miss everyone here a lot, and I’m determined in looking forward to our future reunions!
Ishika (Staff)
I’m kind of amazed that seven weeks together is already over and it’s very bittersweet. The presentations yesterday went so well and I was so proud to see all the work both teams accomplished throughout the program. The audience’s reactions were also so heartwarming and supportive and it was an all around great space. I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with everyone and seeing what everyone accomplishes in the future!
Kiara (Staff)
The speakers went hard! I loved hearing/watching people follow their passion; either career wise or hobby wise. I felt reminded that these models of life are possible.
Sandra (Staff)
I loved seeing everyone’s project coming all together! The moment the youth were presenting, it became so real that they made a game and I was so proud of them. I look forward to see how everyone grows and what the future holds for everyone :) I’m excited to see how Games for Justice expands.
Zarya (Staff)
After yesterday’s speaker series I was thinking quite a bit about the power of this community and what we have been able to do not just creatively through these powerful games but from building our racial support communities, supporting one another/being supported through tough times, and of course the countless laughs that we have shared. There is so much resistance in poc/queer joy and expression. Being apart of a community that centers that, especially for youth, has been so transformative.