The Aim of the Game

Our starting goals for this project are pretty clear. We want to design a game for children with Down Syndrome which will help them with their understanding of number. We know that children with Down Syndrome are using tablets. Apps offer so much potential in terms of visual and audio clues, repeatable mechanics, both independent and social play, and wide reach, that it seemed obvious this would be the right medium for the game. So we have started to develop an iPad game based on research indicating that an early ability to distinguish between quantities is a good basis for later mathematical understanding. So far so good! Our challenge is to find the right context, and motivation, to make the game so exciting and rewarding that players keep coming back to it, all the while developing their number skills through play. Here then is the first essential question to be asking ourselves- is it fun?

With this project I am conscious of a second essential question (which comes with a certain weight of responsibility) - is it making a difference for good? It is fascinating to see how games are emerging worldwide as forces for positive change across fields including conservation, agriculture, peacekeeping, and education. I firmly believe that games are powerful tools for making the world a better place. Play transforms, enables, empowers. Games create safe arenas to try new things- to learn to win, to learn to lose. An exhilarating combination of pleasure and power can make us feel almost superhuman within the game world- and with this increased confidence, we benefit from increased attention and memory. This is just the space to work on real world skills. Particularly when the powers of new technology allow for games in which precisely tuned tasks can be finely paced to the needs of the player, and responsive reward systems send in encouragement just when needed. Best of all are the games which send you back into the world still feeling this power.

My motivation for this project is personal. Will and I are designing this game for our brother Tommy, who has Down Syndrome. Tommy on good form is play incarnate. His wordplay can make conversation almost Shakespearean at times, preparing breakfast is a whimsically orchestrated performance, and coming down the stairs an elaborate pantomime of leg manoeuvres to make John Cleese marvel. Tommy can make a banana skin entertaining in a way not many people would imagine. His particular brand of mischief is a constant source of inspiration and delight, and I hope our game expresses some of the qualities we love in Tommy. When I told him we were making a game for people who were not so good at maths he said, resignedly, ‘Ah, like me!’.  Tommy is a successful actor, with many interests and a busy social life, but uncertainty with maths remains one of the last major hurdles to complete independence for him, being so intrinsically wound up with every day life. So much of the successful running of our days depends on the ability to manage time and money. Wouldn’t it be great if we could help others who are similarly limited by difficulty with numbers early on, and isn’t the best way through fun and play? 

As we work on the structure and environment of the game, I keep reminding myself of all the years I have spent learning and playing with Tommy. One of the things I want to hold on to most is a lightheartedness about rules and the definition of winning. Yes rules can be important, but I find actually they don’t matter all that much all of the time. Needing to be creative with the stakes, to ensure all the family was included equally in our games, taught me the value and pleasure of reimagining the contexts and manipulating the parameters in which play takes place. A game is a living, responsive world. If it doesn’t work for everyone, you shift and rearrange it, until everyone can be in it together. We will be looking for opportunities to embody this plasticity throughout our build. We want something everyone can play, and play with.

Ultimately, the aim of this game is to help people become more independent. More a part of the world, more visible. We are lucky to be able to show Tommy off, in his various incarnations on stage and screen. I would love for whatever we create to be a framework which, in the long term, helps more individuals with Down Syndrome to enter the world braver and bolder. With such talented people coming together to make this happen- Dr. Jill Porter, leading specialist in education provision for those with learning difficulties, James Huggins, stellar MD of BAFTA-nominated Made in Me, and my wonderful brother, maker of BBC3’s Growing Up Down’s and all round bright spark, Will Jessop- I have very high hopes. I am thrilled and delighted to make this project the focus of the next few months, with an ambition so close to my heart, a team I am already so fond of, and a process so enjoyable.