None in Three: The Design and Development of a Violence Prevention Game for the Caribbean Region

Approximately 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. The None in Three project aims to reduce violence against women through training of civil society organisations and public awareness. It also seeks to change attitudes of young people through the use of a prosocial game.

This thesis demonstrates techniques used to develop a violence prevention game. Emotional reporting interfaces and techniques were evaluated. Script writing was shared across a multidisciplinary team of experts in the Caribbean. A number of techniques were used to speed up development, including the use of Adobe Fuse and Mixamo’s motion capture store allowing for the semi-automated creation of 3d characters. An event editor called Actus was developed, which allowed for a multiple-choice dialogue system to communicate a level’s objects, saving event implementation time.

The None in Three Caribbean game’s development lasted 18 months and resulted in a 3d point-and-click adventure game called JESSE. The game was rolled out in a trial in schools in Barbados and Grenada. Findings indicate that players become more familiar with an emotional self-reporting interface over time, and that children are more adept at identifying threatening behaviour and body language than other emotions. Players initially found the controls challenging, but usability greatly improved in the later, larger environments. The most effective learning appeared to come from the game’s dialogue. Players seem to predict what will happen if they don’t take action, and the majority of players choose to leave at the end. It is difficult to determine if this is due to information they learned during the game or prior knowledge. The None in Three project has announced a global expansion, with 5 further games being developed for different countries around the world.