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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: etc.

"it's like a window into the world you love."

Mishka Palacios de Carlo is a university lecturer and game designer. Every Thursday, he goes to a large federal prison in Buenos Aires to teach inmates how to make video games. In a dimly lit cell, 10 prisoners huddled around four computers to listen to lectures and try for themselves.

Maurizio, a 20-year-old Argentine, is one of the prisoners here. Before going to prison, he liked to play action games such as call of Duty and three Men and one Dog. After three years in prison, he had access to computers and mainframes only at weekly workshops. To him, it was like a window overlooking the world.

It was previously unthinkable to learn game development in prison. In the past two years, in three federal prisons in Marcos pass and the neighboring city of Essa, the Argentine government launched the "Prison Video Game Development" project. It gives inmates the opportunity to learn to make video games from scratch, to master narrative, programming, sound design and other skills, and many of the games developed are based on prison life. " This is different from other workshops. " "We are more active in learning because it really involves a technical level and gives us a new life plan," Maurizio said. "

Motta Lopez Gonzalez is an adviser to the Argentine prison service. In Argentina, she said, prisoners have been calling for them to be allowed to use electronic technology to meet entertainment and educational needs. Although some local prisons allow prisoners to use mobile phones, Argentina's federal prison system still prohibits similar acts.

De Carlo, president of the video game cooperation organization Fundav, believes that if more prisoners can master the game development technology, it will further promote the development of the Argentine game industry. After communication with several other organizations that were working with the prison and months of negotiations with the prison authorities, Fundav was finally approved to schedule two hours a week in the pilot prison to teach classes to a small number of prisoners.

In the early days of the epidemic, the Argentine government allowed prisoners in a few provinces to use mobile phones, and even with official approval, it was still very difficult to move forward with the project. Within the prison, even basic needs such as surfing the Internet must be approved by the prison authorities, de Caro said. Even with the Internet, prisons do not allow inmates to access social media or news sites. "workshops everywhere, people can only share the same Gmail account."

Fundav also has to find ways to overcome some technical challenges, such as the generally low level of education of prisoners serving sentences and the limited budget allocated by prisons for non-essential activities. De Carlo revealed that the prison had also hesitated to allow Fundav to use computer software they had never heard of at the workshop. Fortunately, software such as the 2D game maker Construct, the music production suite FruityLoops, and the open source story generator Twine eventually entered the classroom.

"the prison system has great restrictions on the educational content that prisoners have access to, and they often don't understand what tools we need or why we need them." But de Carlo believes the project will help them catch up.

Many people are recidivism, unable to find a job after going out, and may commit crimes again. Another job of de Carlo is to find a place to accept them, de Carlo recalled that during a brainstorming session last year, a particularly shy student was encouraged by his cellmates to describe a prison-themed love game he wanted to make. The protagonist in prison had to hide a mobile phone in order to talk to his girlfriend outside. With the development of the story, there is an increasing risk that the mobile phone will be found by the prison guards, and we have to find a way to charge the phone bill. At the same time, the protagonists are still suffering because their girlfriends gradually lose interest in maintaining their relationship. In this unnamed game, the player's goal is to keep the fading flame of love unquenchable.

"it's a great idea." "everyone actively shares their ideas, such as how the protagonist can charge his phone or how to send photos to his girlfriend through social media, and all of a sudden, it becomes a collective project," de Carlo said. "

Although the resources are limited, DeCarlo's students are already developing or completing many works. For example, "Marcolandia" tells the story of a man named Martin serving his sentence in Marcos pass Prison. This is an open adventure game driven by the player's choice. You can choose whether to take part in the fight, what to say to the police, or whether to stick to the position against the cellmate. All the players' choices will affect the fate of the protagonist.

Lopez Gonzalez, a simple HTML5-based adventure game, said she believes that while there are violent elements in some games made by prisoners, the entertainment and educational value of these programs will be valued-in part because it helps reduce violence in prisons.

In addition to prison topics, they also develop works on other themes, such as the racing game Nascar. "most students like to reflect the themes of their lives at first, but then they feel limited." "as the course went on, they began to explore other topics of interest," de Carlo said. I am always very happy to see the students come up with amazing ideas. "

On the other hand, de Carlo is already communicating with several game studios to ensure that his students can find jobs when they get out of prison. "Game studios need experienced developers, and these people also need to work after their release."

"these students often think about how to adapt to their new life after they get out of prison. In prison, their lives are out of touch with the outside world. In a sense, the outside world will not wait for them. After their release from prison, many people can't keep up with the pace of society."

Becoming a developer may be one of the solutions.

(the picture is selected from a large-scale game showing the theme of prison, which has nothing to do with the content of this article. )

This article is compiled from: http://restofworld.org/ 2023 / video-game-developers-argentina-prisons/

Original title: "Teaching inmates in Argentina to make video games in prison"

Original author: LUC and A CHOLAKIAN HERRERA

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