“Orphans by Heart” Game

The purpose of this game is to make people sympathize with orphans who grew up in orphanages by putting the players in their shoes.

 Game Link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2GxAw6iPKAjaqVt8UhjNiSEaAY-ZN40MuoDZHr8KK7l7mYA/formResponse

Previous Blogposts about the game Links:

• https://wp.me/paeYEL-t
• https://wp.me/paeYEL-r

Things I changed:

1. I added some options to certain questions after getting feedback from individuals who had an answer that was not one of the options. For instance, in the sibling question, I added more options including “none” because the player might be an only child, and in the mom question, I added the option (1) because some individuals playing my game might have lost their mother when they were kids yet was raised at home with his/her family, not in an orphanage.
2. I slightly edited some of the comments on the short answer questions to consider the different responses players may give, and not assuming just one response beforehand. For instance, in the “memory of someone visiting” question, I added 2 scenarios that the player might respond with, one for who respond to this question with a happy memory, and another for those who respond with a sad memory, and in the “choosing your career” question, I added to scenarios, one for those who answer yes, and another for those who answer no.
3. Since I covered different areas of the life an orphan, I added one more important question which is the career choice.
4. I changed the description of my game from raising awareness for orphans to raising awareness for orphans who grew up in an orphanage because there are a lot of people who lost their parents when they were kids yet lived normal lives at their homes, and those are not the type of orphans I’m trying to raise awareness for. All the scenarios I included in the game are inspired by personal observations of orphans in orphanages and from people who interacted with orphans who grew up in orphanages and those are the type of orphans I’m trying to raise awareness for.

• Creating this game helped me get into depth of what an orphan has to live through by closely observing orphans in orphanages, getting into multiple discussion with others who dealt with orphans, and watching videos of orphans talking about their life experiences. In other words, before this game I emphasized with orphans, but after creating it, I don’t only emphasize with them but also deeply understand what it feels like to be an orphan. The most important things that I learned that there are many different aspects to one story meaning that although I closely observed orphans in orphanages and thought I knew everything about them, creating this game and listening to the inputs of others opened my eyes into aspects that I haven’t thought of previously (like marriage, career choice, and old memories) and thus made me understand orphans more deeply.
• If I had any extra time, I would not have changed anything in the game, because I edited it multiple times based on updated feedback from different people, and I feel like my game started as a good one, but now after adding a lot of inputs from different people, the game became very enriching.