Free game lets you play part of an African farmer
Posted on behalf of: University of Sussex/IDS
Last updated: Monday, 28 April 2014
Guided by Informatics research student Jim Jackson, students and researchers test out the African Farmer game.
A free online game created by Sussex academics that simulates the challenges faced by African farmers has been launched today (Monday 28 April).
The African Farmer game puts players directly into a farming community, exploring the challenges and choices for agriculture workers in Africa.
It is the result of a three-year collaboration between developers in the Department of Informatics at Sussex and researchers from the Africa-based Future Agricultures Consortium, which has its UK centre in the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) on campus.
By simulating the complex decisions and uncertainties faced by small-scale farmers living in Sub-Saharan Africa, the game aims to challenge and engage students, development practitioners, and anyone interested in the challenges faced by farmers in poor countries.
The challenge for players is to manage a farming household in a village, as they make decisions on what to grow, what to buy and how to feed a family – and see the results of those decisions. African Farmer presents players with a range of challenges, from food prices, diets and work, to more unpredictable chance events like weather and disease.
The game is available in two versions. One is a multi-player game, ideal for classrooms and workplace training where a group is guided through the game by a ‘game manager’. The other is a single player game, which can be played by anyone in a standard internet browser.
The project was co-ordinated by John Thompson of the Future Agricultures Consortium in collaboration with Dr Judith Good, Reader in Informatics at Sussex, and Informatics research students Jim Jackson and Eleanor Martin.
The game is open source, so anyone wishing to develop or adapt the game can download the source code on GitHub.
You can play the game online and follow African Farmer on Twitter (@afrifarmergame) and on Facebook.
There are also four videos that demonstrate: