A list of recent newsgames

Feb 24, 2018

Updated 8 December 2020

I’ve written previously about how games can help journalism find new ways to make people care about the news beyond the personal relevance and utility of information. I’ve been keeping an eye out for examples of newsgames ever since we started making The Uber Game in early 2017, and am really glad to see this becoming an ever-widening field with examples from both newsrooms, game studios and other places.

This proliferation means that the boundaries between what is a newsgames, simulations, interactive explanation and interactive fiction is becoming increasingly blurred. And that, I think, is a good thing.

Really cute news game about understanding the new Singapore government budget #SGBudget2018 from @STcom https://t.co/xA0GkUqsHO I guess from @vivi_pazos and team? @RobinKwong someone should collect links to all of these in one place

— Yan (@yanoak) February 20, 2018

Paul Bradshaw has a nice pinboard list, and Ian Bogost’s book, Newsgames, give a comprehensive overview.

But in any case, here’s the list I compiled. Apologies in advance for any I have missed, and please let me know about any omissions @robinkwong on Twitter!

I’ve also put together a ‘Deep Dive’ on Refind that’s meant to be a guided introduction to newsgames and their role in journalism. Check it out!

• Survive the Century

• Steer through the Suez Canal

• Do You Think You Can Tell How a Neighborhood Voted Just by Looking Around?

• What will it be like when we go back to the office?

• Spend like an MP

• Playing for the ‘right reasons’

• The ReDistricting Game

• Quiz: Can You Tell a ‘Trump’ Fridge From a ‘Biden’ Fridge?

• Quatre Appart & Un Confinement

• Choose Your Own Adventure: Renting!

• The Ocean Game: The sea is rising. Can you save your town?

• Poverty game

• Could you be Speaker?

• The Amazon Race

• The Betsy Devos board game

• You are Jeff Bezos, where should HQ2 go?

• College Scholarship Tycoon

• The nest egg game

• Playspent

• Payback

• Game of $urvival

• American Mall Game

• The Voter Suppression Trail

• Brexit Bus

• Pick Your Own Brexit

• Build your own trading bot

• The Trading Game

• Chair the Fed

• Fake it to make it

• Troll Factory

• Get Bad News

• Syrian Journey: choose your own escape route

• Two billion miles

• Bury me, my Love

• The Good, the Bad and the Accountant

• Play the credit score game

• The Waiting Game

• Can you make AI fairer than a judge?

• The Revolution of Our Times

• Think Military Strikes Could Stop North Korea? Try It and See.

• Could you be a cricket umpire?

• #Hacked

• Pirate fishing

• The good, the bad, and the accountant

• Play Our Game To See If You Can Travel From Glasgow To London On A Typical Day As A Wheelchair User

• The Uber Game

• Dodging Trump’s Tariffs

• Profit vs Purpose: The Trade-off

• Northern Exposure

• Papers, Please

• We are Chicago

• 1979 Revolution: Black Friday

• Spot the ball

• What makes a World Cup winner?

• American Eleciton

• The Evolution of Trust

• Nicky Case’s work and the Explorable Explanations site

What to read next: How (and Why) the Financial Times made The Uber Game