PC game a winner for youth

AFTER two-and-a-half years of development, Kiama Youth Centre will send its message digital next month with a computer game designed by local youth.

The game, Quense-a-conses, encourages young people to think about risk-taking behaviour.

"Young people can learn about themselves and what they're doing to their body as well as their friends and family," senior youth worker Andrew Chatfield said.

The idea for creating a computer game came while Mr Chatfield and other youth workers were talking to groups of young people to work out different ways to convey the centre's messages.

"When we first started, we didn't know anything about computer game development " it was just this crazy, far-flung idea," he said.

"But we decided it was a really valuable medium to get some messages across."

The centre received a grant from the State Government's Area Assistance Scheme for the project and employed 12 local youth to work on research, graphic design, storyboarding and game development and programming.

Local people are also featured in the characters' appearances and voices.

The researchers conducted surveys, focus groups and interviews with young people and youth workers throughout the Illawarra to discover what they deemed to be risk-taking behaviours.

Mr Chatfield said they found answers as diverse as surfing in a big swell and drinking too much at parties.

"From these we picked the five issues that were most prominent: drugs and alcohol, drink-driving, self-harm " this was particularly an issue for females " and safe sex and teen pregnancy," he said.

Quense-a-conses players examine these issues through character play and a number of mini-games.

"The whole thing has really surpassed my expectations completely and it's something I find really amazing," Mr Chatfield said.

"If one person knows the Lifeline number off the top of their head or what chemicals are in THC and what they do to you, then we've achieved something."

Quense-a-conses will be released for PC initially, but Mr Chatfield said the team was looking at the possibility of putting it out for other consoles in the future.