20 years after music legends such as Oasis, Blur, The Stone Roses and Paul McCartney gathered together to create the album Help raising over $1 million for the charity War Child helping to protect children in the war-torn Balkans, game developers are now gathering to create a compilation of games called HELP: Real War is not a Game for the same cause.
The game jam will take place in several locations internationally over six days to develop a compilation of games suitable for the project. Several major developers have already signed up for the project including 343 Industries (Halo 4, Halo 5), Bossa Studios (I am Bread, Surgeon Simulator), Creative Assembly (Total War), Curve Digital (Stealth Inc), Sports Interactive (Football Manager), and Team 17 (Worms). The creators of the Unreal, Gamemaker and Unity engines have also donated their tools on a "no cost, no royalty" basis.
The international game jam will result in a compilation of games called HELP: Real War is Not a Game which is to be sold on Steam in March 2016. All profits will go to help War Child.
Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive and founder of the global games jam committee had this to say on the project:
“War Child’s work is amazing. It revolves around a simple premise... no child has started a war, so no child should be affected by one,” “Whether it's rehabilitating ex child soldiers in Democratic Republic of Congo, creating child helplines in Afghanistan, providing safe spaces for Syrian refugee children, or the work in so many other countries – wherever they are they make the world a better place for children forced to live with war. For so many studios to have got involved in this project at such an early stage is really humbling. I hope many more join the cause and get involved in something that will be fun, rewarding and make a huge difference in children’s lives across the world."
This is not the first time that video games and War Child have collided. Earlier this year 11 bit studios donated some of the profits from This War of Mine to the cause as well as creating specific War Child Charity DLC to show their support.
HELP: Real War is Not a Game will be released through Steam and other digital download platforms in late March 2016. You can find out more from their website or Twitter.
Will you be buy HELP: Real War is Not a Game?
