In the game, players start in their new virtual home with three flatmates and must make sure their money can pay the bills, buy food, and cover all their activities. Each day, they need to make decisions about what they want to do and where they want to be. The choices they make after receiving advice from each of their flatmates affect their bank balance, health, and well-being.
The game has four levels. Each level introduces new concepts, more scenarios, and specific quests, such as getting a job or gaining a driver’s licence. The development of Stand Tall began when the IHC Library identified a gap in the collection of information aimed at teens to help them become independent, specifically to help them budget and manage money. A generous donation led to a series of workshops in Wellington with parents and older adults already living independently to figure out what teens needed and what we could develop that would help.
An idea emerged for a game that teens could play independently and would support any other formal learning. We knew from our workshops that the game must be fun and engaging. It would have to be online, preferably on phones, include voiceover to minimise the amount of text that had to be read, introduce money and budgeting concepts clearly and straightforwardly and use graphics to illustrate bank balances and player wellbeing. At the end of those workshops and after working with Wellington-based Optimation, a specialist in digital platforms, we had a game concept and specifications we could take to a game developer.
In late 2019, we received some more funding. This meant InGame, an Auckland-based game developer specialising in educational games, could produce a detailed, costed specification for our game. Unfortunately, COVID hit in early 2020, and plans were put on hold as the library pivoted to supporting other IHC projects and working from home. However, the pandemic provided an opportunity to bid for funding from the Ministry of Social Development. In November 2020, we received money from the MSD Disability Wellbeing Fund, which meant we could give InGame the green light to develop a prototype of the game and prove that the concepts could work.
n-person workshops were held in Auckland with intellectually disabled and neurodiverse teens to test the game concepts, initially with paper versions and later with digital prototypes. Some of these game testers also gained paid work by creating game art and avatar accessories and voicing a game character. With a working prototype, we gained more funding from generous donors and supporters. After lots of development and further testing, we launched Stand Tall in December 2022 in versions for the web and for Android and Apple devices.
The final two levels of the game were developed in 2023, and by the time of the LIANZA Conference in November 2023, all four levels were available to any user, anywhere in the world, for free. We’re excited by how far the project has come. We believe the role of the IHC library is to support all of our members and create knowledge, and the game helps meet that need. Although the game is complete, we aren’t finished. We’ve started promoting it to our target audience, and we’re planning workshops with Stand Tall players and supporters this year to develop version 2.
If you’d like to find out more about the game and play the current version, please look at our website. There are links to the game on all available platforms and more information, including videos of the workshops and reactions from players. If you are interested in promoting the game in your library, we have posters and other promotional material – contact us at librarian@ihc.org.nz. We are also interested in any feedback about the game.
Finally, we want to thank everyone who has supported us in developing the game: The Dines Family Charitable Trust, Sky Auckland Community Trust, Ministry of Social Development, Holdsworth Charitable Trust, Glenn and Sonja Hawkins and Avanti Finance.
Phil Clarke is the Head of Library and Information Resourcing at IHC Library in Wellington. He has worked in tertiary and special libraries in the UK and New Zealand. He’s keen for everyone to know about the IHC Library and the service it provides to anyone, anywhere in New Zealand, who needs to know about intellectual disability, autism and associated conditions.
