"What can you do to develop a game that promotes peace?"
- South Sudanese game developer and game jam organizer Lual Michael Mayen, speaking last year.
South Sudan, a young African nation riven by civil war and armed conflict, is hosting its very first Global Game Jam event this weekend thanks to the efforts of South Sudanese game developers like Lual Michael Mayen.
Fellow game makers should read this The Next Web feature about Mayen's efforts, which include founding a collective (Junub Games) of game developers, artists, programmers, and others who believe in developing games and other apps to promote peace.
Speaking to The Next Web, Mayan says he and his colleagues have designed an Android game about peace called Salaam as well as a peace-building board game, Wahda, that they intend to freely distribute in civilian shelter zones and refugee camps.
Now he's organized an event around the Global Game Jam in an effort to, as he told The Next Web, "make games related to South Sudanse culture so the local people can get attracted in to the industry."
"We are focusing on creating local games,” he continued, and one of his ultimate goals is to develop “more games exposing the dangers of war" because "most of the youth are the ones playing the games and they are the ones involved in the war."
For more on how Mayen hopes games and game development can be used to help promote peace and prosperity, check out the full The Next Web article as well as this brief video interview Mayen did last September.