1. 1
Cenwei Zhang
302 Mindy Lane
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854
October 30, 2015
Lisa Laitman
Director of Alcohol and Drug Assistance Program (ADAP)
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
17 Senior Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1281
Re: Solving binge drinking problem in Rutgers students
Dear Director Laitman:
Rutgers, as an institution of higher education, is dedicated to sustaining an academic culture for
all students on a campus environment to facilitate their success at college. The negative
consequences of the misuse and abuse of alcohol are one of the most serious problems at college
today. “Rutgers takes seriously its commitment to maintaining a healthy and safe campus
environment that includes the regulation of alcohol and environmental management approach
that includes education, prevention, intervention, enforcement, treatment, and recovery
support”(Rutgers Office of Student Affair 2). However, alcohol-related accidents still occur
every school year. In response to the several alcohol-related problems last school year, including
the death of a student after drinking at a fraternity, Rutgers banned fraternity and sorority house
parties at the 86 officially recognized fraternities and sororities on its New Brunswick campus
for the rest of the spring semester. I can recognize this was a hard decision as it receives
disputation among students, and it cannot be a long-term solution.
ADAP has made a great effort to address alcohol-related issues at Rutgers and has always been
actively helping Rutgers students with drinking issues. However, most of the ADAP programs
focus on consultation and recovery supports but lack general education on how to deal with
alcohol. I believe new and effective actions to prevent drinking accidents should be done after
these painful lessons. Here I call for a new effective way that uses game-based education to raise
the awareness of alcoholism among students. It will integrate proper information about drinking
and alcohol into a real life simulation adventure game.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my letter. I hope that you will consider this plan to
address the alcohol-related accidents on Rutgers campus. I am confident that we can significantly
decrease binge drinking among Rutgers students under the new game-based alcohol education
plan. Feel free to contact me at any time via email at cz202@scarletmail.rutgers.edu or by
phone at 732-799-9196 if you have any questions.
Sincerely,

2. 2
Cenwei Zhang
Solving Binge Drinking Problem
in Rutgers Students
A proposal to implement a game-based educational program of alcoholism
Submitted by:
Cenwei Zhang
Submitted to:
Lisa Laitman
Director of Alcohol and Drug Assistance Program (ADAP)
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
17 Senior Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1281
November 10, 2015
Prepared for:
Writing for Business and Professions
Professor Sara Perryman
Abstract
In this paper, it is proposed that Rutgers University Students in New Brunswick, New Jersey, be
provided with a game-based education of alcoholism to arise their awareness of alcoholism. The
negative consequences of the misuse and abuse of alcohol are one of the most serious problems
at college today. Although Rutgers takes seriously its commitment to maintaining a healthy and
safe campus environment including the regulation of alcohol, comprehensive counseling and
supporting services such as Alcohol and Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and Health Outreach,
Promotion and Education (HOPE), its efforts provide limited results. Rutgers should pay more
intention to precaution and work out an innovative way to educate students on drinking properly.
Game-based education that is frequently discussed as a new supplement to class education is
proposed as a new way to solve binge drinking problem in Rutgers.
Leaning from two successful models of game-based education programs on alcoholism named
“It’s Up 2U” and “N-Squad Web Adventure”, it is proposed that Rutgers can develop an online
web adventure game about alcohol education with common drinking scenes in Rutgers. With are
real life simulative plots and scenes, the game will integrate appropriate information to prevent
students from excessive drinking and drinking-related crime by showing them how to prevent
and deal with these accidents appropriately. Detail budget and expected result about the plan are
also discussed in this paper.

3. 3
Table of Contents
Abstract..........................................................................................................................................2
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... 3
Table of figures.............................................................................................................................. 3
Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................4
Introduction...................................................................................................................................6
Literature Review ......................................................................................................................... 9
Plan: Game-based Educational Program.................................................................................13
Budget ..........................................................................................................................................13
Discussion and Evaluation Plan.................................................................................................15
Work Cited ..................................................................................................................................16
Table of figures
Figure 1: Heavy and binge drinking among adults in 2010 ...................................................... 6
Figure 2: Chronic diseases and conditions that are. By definition alcohol attributable (i.e.,
require alcohol consumption as a necessary cause)................................................................... 7
Figure 3: Past Month, Binge, and Heavy Alcohol Use among Full-Time College Students
Aged 18-20, by Gender: 2002-2005.............................................................................................. 8
Figure 4: Quotes from the interviewed players/students on the topic whether they
experienced the game as fun game to play................................................................................ 10
Figure 5: Students’ Uses of ATOD Before and After the ATOD Intervention of It’s Up 2U
....................................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 6: Reported Pre- to Post-Intervention Change in Misperceptions about ATOD ..... 11
Figure 7: Learning Objectives Covered by the N-Squad Web Adventure............................ 12
Figure 8: Source of budget on the simulation game of alcoholism at Rutgers...................... 14
Figure 9: detail budget of the simulation game of alcoholism at Rutgers ............................. 15

4. 4
Executive Summary
The negative consequences of the misuse and abuse of alcohol are one of the most serious
problems at college today. Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, despite its hard efforts to
combat binge drinking, also suffer from the negative consequences of binge drinking. Alcohol-
related accidents including one student’s death still happen consistently in the past year. Rutgers
should try its best to eliminate binge drinking because binge drinking at college leads to negative
effects on students’ health, academic performance and life attitudes, as well as damages to the
reputation of Rutgers.
Binge drinking has negative impacts on college students in many ways. First, binge drinking
damages the human organ system and neuropsychological system. (Shield, et al. 1). Secondly,
heavy drinking will lead to poor academic performance with its damage to the
neuropsychological performance including attention span, comprehension and interpretation of
visual information, which are required for a good academic performance (Tapert, et al. 5).
Thirdly, Problem drinking also has negative influences on the social lives of students. Frequent
binge drinkers are 21 times more likely than non-binge drinkers to engage in vandalism, be
injured or hurt, engage in unplanned sexual activity, not use protection when having se and get in
trouble with campus police ((“Binge Drinking on College Campuses” 1). Last but not the least,
drinking accidents may also damage the reputation of Rutgers for it is not qualified to provide a
healthy and safe environment for students, thus discourage the parents and students from
choosing Rutgers.
Rutgers have detailed alcohol policy for its students and also provide comprehensive counseling
and support services for students who have problems with alcohol (including alcohol and other
drug treatment). If a student violates the alcohol policy, Office of Student Conduct can add a
disciplinary file to the student’s record of even place a hold on the student’s ability to register for
classes (Rutgers Office of Student Affair 5). ADAP includes nine programs that focus on
counseling and supporting students who are concerned about their drinking or drug abuse
(“Alcohol & Other Drug Assistance Program”). Health Outreach, Promotion and Education
(HOPE) trains alcohol & drug peer to help inform students about the responsible decision
regarding alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. However, the alcohol regulations and programs
either punish a student only after the student has been caught because of his/ her misconducts on
drinking, or only helpful to students who has self-awareness of their heavy drinking status and
looking for help voluntarily. Thus, they may not be effective for general students who do not
perceive the harm of alcohol and lack information about proper drinking behavior.
As the problem cannot be addressed through the current regulation and consultant-based
programs related to alcohol issues, Game-based education that is frequently discussed as a new
supplement to class education is considered a new way to raise awareness of alcoholism in
college.
Game-based education is successful and effective in integrating both academic knowledge and
social values in college. Trygve Pløhn carried out an experimental pervasive game called
"Nuclear Mayhem" in Nord-Trondelag University, Norway, to provide a gameplay that is
strongly related to the course syllabus to support learning in a university course. The game has

5. 5
proved to be a promising tool to support learning and transform the area for learning to become
pervasive as it is relative to the players everyday life. (Pløhn 2). Such game-based education was
also successful in an experiment named “ To do or not to do”, carried out at National Taiwan
Normal University, China. The online moral game has proved to be effective in helping college
students to explore and establish appropriate moral values (Hong, et al. 82). These two examples
prove that game-based education can be a new method of education at the college, which makes
college students more willing to learn.
Game-based education that is specific about alcoholism in Unite State is also examined in studies.
An evidence-informed, game-based, e-learning Alcohol, Tobacco And Other Drug (ATOD)
prevention program named It’s Up 2U, is used as a way to fulfill ATOD prevention education
among middle school students. The finding supports that participation in the game was
associated with a decrease in reported ATOD use and misperceptions about ATOD use. Another
successful model is a multimedia game called N-Squad Web Adventure that serves as an
intervention that conveys knowledge about the consequences of alcohol consumption to a
secondary school audience (Klisch, et al. 2). It has proved to be effective in delivering age-
appropriate health education, as students who played the game scored higher on the test about
alcohol knowledge and reported a positive attitude toward learning (Klisch, et al. 4). Although
both these two models are conducted with high school students, it is expected to be effective in
college. High school students and college students are in similar ages and the former discussion
of "Nuclear Mayhem" “ To do or not to do” also has proved the effectiveness of game-based
education in college.
Inspired by the case of “It’s Up 2U” and “N-Squad”, Rutgers can develop an online web game
about alcohol education with drinking scenes at Rutgers. The game will be designed as an
adventure game. When the character follows the right path and chooses the correct information
about alcohol, the character will unlock the next scene. The plots and scenes will be a real life
simulation to Rutgers college life and the game can also include real-life characters on campus
with their permission. Scenes could include occasions that are highly associated with alcohol-
related accidents including where strangers offer the character a drink at a sonority midnight
party, etc. (Wechsler, Henry, et al 25). The game will integrate appropriate information to
prevent students from excessive drinking and drinking-related crimes such as rape, violence, and
aggravated and simple assault by telling them how to prevent and how to deal with these
accidents appropriately. What's more, the game can be added to the curriculum requirements to
make sure every student would play the game.
The estimated budget of the new program is $50, 000. The up-front development and the
maintenance budget will mostly rely on Rutgers school funding and be partly supported by funds
collected in Kickstarter, an online funding platform for creative projects. ADAP can hire student
engineers and offer them with student wage and internship credit to cut back the cost of
development. The further maintenance fee can access grants from the U.S. Department of
Education, which grants money to institutions of higher education in recognition of their
programs of Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention on College Campuses (U.S. Department of
Education 6). A detailed budget of the program is discussed in the paper.

6. 6
Introduction
The negative consequences of the misuse and abuse of alcohol are one of the most serious
problems at college today. According to a national survey, almost 60 percent of college students
ages 18-22 drank alcohol in the past month, and almost 2 out of 3 of them engaged in binge
drinking during that same timeframe (“College Drinking” 1). Figure 1 lists heavy and binge
drinking facts among adults in 2010 that 2 in 5 young adults between 18 and 25 binge drink, and
1 in 7 reports heavy alcohol use. Also it shows that among all the age groups, college students,
who are mostly between 18 and 25 are most likely to engaged in binge drinking and heavy
alcohol use, which makes colleges the frontline to combat the misuse and abuse of alcohol.
Figure 1: Heavy and binge drinking among adults in 2010
Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, though dedicated to sustaining an academic culture
for all students in a campus environment to facilitate their success at college, still fall victim of
binge drinking in college. In Sep 2014, a 19-year-old Rutgers student Caitlyn Kovacs, died of
alcohol poisoning after a party at a fraternity house. In Nov 2014, a 20-year-old was taken to
hospital after drinking heavily at a different fraternity house. Six fraternities and one sorority
were under review for alcohol violations in March 2015. Robert Barchi, the president of Rutgers
university, made comments about the alcohol-related incidents that happened last school year,
“This semester has not been a good semester in terms of harm to our students, the number of
transports for alcohol intoxication, death, physical harm, can’t have that” (Barchi). Rutgers
should try its best to eliminate binge drinking because binge drinking at college leads to negative
effects on students’ health, academic performance and social lives, as well as damage the
reputation of Rutgers.
Binge drinking damages the human organ system and neuropsychological system. Alcohol is
associated with various liver diseases such as fatty liver and alcoholic hepatitis. Figure 2 shows

7. 7
that twenty-five chronic diseases and conditions such as alcoholic gastritis, amnesic syndrome
and psychotic disorder are entirely attributable to alcohol. What’s more, alcohol plays a
component-risk role in certain cancers, other tumors, neuropsychiatric conditions, and numerous
cardiovascular and digestive diseases (Shield, et al. 1). Furthermore, heavy drinking has been
shown to affect the neuropsychological performance (e.g., memory functions) of young people
and may impair the growth and integrity of certain brain structures with irreversible damages
(Tapert, et al. 1). Such brain damage can lead to poorer academic performance as it negatively
effects neuropsychological performance such as attention span, comprehension and interpretation
of visual information, which are required for good academic performance (Tapert, et al. 5).
Figure 2: Chronic diseases and conditions that are. By definition alcohol
attributable (i.e., require alcohol consumption as a necessary cause)
Binge drinking negatively affects college students’ social lives. Research finds that frequent
binge drinkers are 21 times more likely than non-binge drinkers to engage in vandalism, be
injured or hurt, engage in unplanned sexual activity, not use protection when having sex, get in
trouble with campus police, or drive a car after drinking (“Binge Drinking on College
Campuses.”). An environment where drinking is a daily entertainment will easily make student
drinkers neglect the harm of alcohol and take drinking as a normal thing or even a good way to
socialize. However, students need a sober mind to make progress in their university life and

8. 8
binge drinking is a negative behavior hindering students from achieving good performance on
campus. And if the drinking habit inherits in their future life, it will put them at a disadvantage in
their career and family lives, as success requires supports of both sober mind and healthy body.
The college environment can exacerbate the binge drinking problem if the problem is not dealt
properly. Samantha Olson comments on college life that “large populations of teens and young
adults learning how to live on their own also comes with the danger of finding the delicate
balance in their drinking limits that go from fun to dangerous.”(qtd. in Olson 6). Drinking at
college has become a ritual that students often see as an integral part of their college experience.
Figure 3 shows that about 40 percent of full- time college have experienced binge alcohol use
during past month. College students need to raise their awareness of the negative consequences
of binge drinking in their college lives and to be informed appropriate knowledge of how to deal
with alcoholism.
Figure 3: Past Month, Binge, and Heavy Alcohol Use among Full -Time College
Students Aged 18-20, by Gender: 2002-2005
Limited efforts of current supportivesystem
Rutgers have detailed alcohol policy for its students and also provide comprehensive counseling
and support services (ADAP, HOPE) for students who have problems with alcohol (including
alcohol and other drug treatment).
Students will face disciplinary action if they violate alcohol policy at Rutgers. If a student is
arrested or ticketed for underage possession of alcohol, or transported to a hospital due to
intoxication, the incident is reported to the Office of Student Conduct. A disciplinary file will be
added to the student’s record. Depending on the status of students, the Office of Student
Conduct may ask a student to take lectures of alcoholism mandatorily, receive recover
intervention or place a hold on the student’s ability to register for classes until the agreed-upon
intervention is completed (Rutgers Office of Student Affair 5). However, many students do not
learn the alcohol policy until they have already made a mistake.

9. 9
Nine programs related to alcohol and other drugs are available at ADAP, including consultation
and outreach, evaluation and assessment, individual alcohol/ drug counseling, alcohol/other drug
awareness groups, recovery support groups, recovery housing, early recovery program, nicotine
dependence assessment and referral, adult children of alcoholics/addicts group. ADAP focuses
on counseling and supporting students who are concerned about their drinking or drug abuse
(“Alcohol & Other Drug Assistance Program”), meaning it is most helpful to students who has
self-awareness of their heavy drinking status and are willingly looking for help. Thus the
program may not be effective for general students who do not perceive the harm of alcohol and
lack information about proper drinking behavior. However, most students involved in alcohol-
related accidents will not have experience with ADAP programs, as their reckless drinking
behavior is due to the fact that they do not have enough awareness of alcohol’s impacts on them.
What’s more, Health Outreach, Promotion and Education (HOPE) trains alcohol and drug peer
educators to provide information training and education to students to help inform students about
the responsible decision regarding alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Students are sent to peer
educators for education intervention when they are caught misconduct in drinking. (“Alcohol &
Drug Peer Educators”) However, peer educators do not generate great attentions among students.
In fact, their influence is weak because many students do not even know their existence.
These efforts seem to have limited results, as many alcohol-related accidents still happen on
Rutgers campus under the current regulation and programs. Those programs mostly focus on
helping students who already have a problem about alcohol, but overlook the value of precaution
– alcohol education can be effective in preventing alcohol accidents among students. However,
ignorant of the danger of excessive alcohol, many Rutgers students do not perceive the potential
risk that may result from binge drinking. Fraternity drinking parties are always popular social
occasions for underage college students. As the problem cannot be addressed through the current
regulation and consultant-based programs related to alcohol issues, a new way to raise awareness
of how the human body reacts to alcohol and how to deal with drinking needs to be pursued to
reduce harm.
Donald A Carson said “Societal controls such as minimum pricing and more rigorous age
verification are important but will never be adequate on their own. We need to improve socio-
cultural education but be aware of how to optimally deliver this”(14). Regulations with penalties
are not enough to make a radical change in drinking among college students while education is
an intrinsic component of the university’s commitment to reduce or eliminate the harm caused by
excessive alcohol and other drug use. However, many students find the traditional educational
lecture on alcoholism at college boring and that it simply conveys knowledge that they already
know. The key is to work out an innovative way to educate students about drinking. Thus Game-
based education that is frequently discussed as a new supplement to class education is believed
to be a good means to solve problems of binge drinking in college
LiteratureReview
Nuclear Mayhem, supporting academiclearning

10. 10
Game-based education makes learning more interesting and pervasive. Gamed- based pervasive
gaming is a new and emerging gaming genre where the physical and social aspects of the real
world are integrated into the game. Trygve Pløhn carried out an experimental online pervasive
game called "Nuclear Mayhem” to motivate students to devote enough time working with the
academic material in the curriculum throughout the courses. The game is real life simulation as
the storyline was constructed by real life events that had already occurred (reality hack), and the
likelihood that something would happen related to the story that would be referred to by the news
media (newspapers, television) and would be possible to implement as a part of the game story
or game plot while the game was in progress (Pløhn 305). This design of high simulation to real
life helps to create awareness about the game and make the game more pervasive and the game
story more "real". The game blends into the player's everyday life and serves as a new tool to
support learning in a university course. To be successful in the game, the players have to master
the topics in the syllabus. During the study period, students are in the game anywhere at any time
in the players everyday setting, for example, Clues and tasks are found on Facebook, are sent by
SMS to the player's phone in the middle of the night. Figure 4 shows that most interviewed
players of the game gave positive feedback on the game, indicating that they experienced the
game as fun game to play. The game has proved to be a promising tool to support learning and to
transform the area for learning to become pervasive as it is relative to the players everyday life as
students widely reported that the game is fun to play (Pløhn 310).
Figure 4: Quotes from the interviewed players/students on the topic whether they
experienced the game as fun game to play
To do or not to do, establishingappropriatemoralvalues
Such game-based education was also successful in an experiment named “ To do or not to do”,
carried out by Hong and his colleagues. An online moral game was developed to provide moral-
related situations relate to students’ life, and question them with different situations and events
enabling them to think creatively and critically, test their tolerance, honesty, and problem-
solving tendencies. The online moral game integrates moral education to digital gaming platform
and it has proved to be effective in helping college students to explore and establish appropriate
moral values (Hong, et al. 82). Online gaming can be a new method of education at college,
which makes college students more willing to learn.

11. 11
It’s Up 2U, Alcohol, Tobacco And Other Drug (ATOD) prevention
Game-based education about alcoholism is also examined in studies in USA. Heidi Schweizer
and his colleagues carried out an evidence-informed, game-based, e-learning Alcohol, Tobacco
And Other Drug (ATOD) prevention program named It’s Up 2U, used as a way to fulfill ATOD
prevention education. The study is conducted with 522 seventh grade students in the USA. In the
game, the player is in a first person version to investigate the death of a teenage girl whose death
is alcohol related. The game character encounters scenes including drinking party and lab
experience that reveals how human body reacts to alcohol. Players need to find clues and answer
questions about ATOD knowledge to forward the game. The findings support that participation
in the game is associated with decreases in reported ATOD use and misperceptions about ATOD
use. Figure 5 shows 7% decreases of ATOD uses and 18% decreases of misconception about
ATOD among samples after the intervention of the game. And Figure 6 shows that among the
total 522 samples, 278 samples experience a decrease of misconception, 132 experience an
increase, and 167 shows no change about their of their conception about ATOD. The gaming
education for ATOD shows promise for decreasing student misperceptions regardless of risk,
exposure or protective characteristics (Schweizer, et al. 2).
Figure 5: Students’ Uses of ATOD Before and After the ATOD Intervention of It’s Up
2U
Figure 6: Reported Pre- to Post-Intervention Change in Misperceptions about ATOD
24
63
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
After the intervention Before the intervention
Students with ATOD use

12. 12
N-Squad Web Adventure, InformingConsequencesof alcohol consumption
Another successful model is given in the by Yvonne Klisch and his colleagues. They designed a
multimedia game called “N-Squad Web Adventure” in their study to serve as an intervention that
conveys knowledge about the consequences of alcohol consumption to a secondary school
audience (2). Figure 7 examines the learning objectives covered by the N-Squad Web Adventure
and its in-game activity (examples) to achieve the objectives in the different episodes of the
game. The storyline of the game is investigating a death of a victim. The plots of the game
include asking the player to to identify changes in the liver caused by alcohol and to conclude
how these changes affect liver functions. The game is designed to integrate alcohol education
into the game to make the science more fun and acceptable. 335 middle school and high school
students participated in this study with pre-test and post-test of content knowledge about
alcoholism. The mean on the pretest was 18.36 (39.9% correct). The posttest mean was 22.32
(48.5% correct)(Klisch, et al. 4). The players’ increased grade on the content knowledge about
alcoholism and their ratings of the game’s usability and satisfaction after the gaming intervention
predict the effectiveness of the game. This new method has proved to be effective in delivering
age-appropriate health education as students who played the game scored higher on the test about
alcohol knowledge and reported a positive attitude toward learning (Klisch, et al. 1).
Figure 7: Learning Objectives Covered by the N-Squad Web Adventure
Both It’s Up 2U and N-Squad, as experiments of game-based education on alcoholism, offer
value experience to innovative alcoholic education. Although these two successful experiments
on game-based education on alcoholism used samples from middle school and high school

13. 13
students, the game-based education on alcoholism is expected to be effective when applied to
college students as well. Firstly, students from high school and college are in a similar age
category as adolescents who are in a transitional period between childhood and adulthood. They
are expected to have similar thoughts pattern. Secondly, although there is no exact same model
for game- based education on alcoholism at college in USA, gamed- based education are proved
to be an effective tool at college at other aspects such as academic learning and education on
moral values. So it can be predicted that game- based education on alcoholism will be effective
on college students.
Plan:Game-basedEducationalProgram
Inspired by the case of N-Squad, Rutgers can develop an online web game about alcohol
education with drinking scenes at Rutgers. The game would be animated in a traditional 2D style.
The scenes will be a real life simulation at Rutgers including the school buildings, student
dormitories, and fraternity and sonority houses. The game can even include real-life characters
such as the captain of the football team and the president of Rutgers University Student
Assembly, with their permission. Particularly, it will include drinking scenes in home parties and
fraternity parties. And the plots will be real life simulation as well. The storyline can be how a
freshman who just entered college life at Rutgers solves problems in his/her social life. Plots
include occasions where strangers offer the character a drink at a sonority midnight party, peers
keep persuading the character to drink more, the character feeling drunk around strangers, etc, all
situations that are highly associated with alcohol-related accidents (Wechsler, Henry, et al 25).
The game will integrate appropriate information to prevent students from excessive drinking and
drinking-related crime such as rape, violence, and aggravated and simple assault by telling them
how to prevent and how to deal with these accidents appropriately. What's more, the game can be
added to the curriculum requirements to make sure every student would play the game.
Also, the game will be designed as an adventure game. When the character follows the right path
and chooses the correct information about alcohol, the character will unlock the next scene. For
example, the character who is new to a fraternity in the game will be able to unlock a scene
where the character becomes a core member. This design will gives player incentives to unlock
the next scene, which will required them to know more about how to deal with alcoholism
appropriately in the college life at Rutgers.
Budget
The estimated budget for the program is $50,000. The up-front development and the
maintenance budget will rely on Rutgers school funding and Kickstarter fund online. A virtual
figure of the source of budget shows in Figure 8. The budget will largely rely on Rutgers school
funding, which will take up estimated $45,000, which is 90 percent of the total budget. And
Kickstarter is expected to cover $5,000 of the budget.

14. 14
Figure 8: Source of budget on the simulation game of alcoholism at Rutgers
Kickstarter is a large funding platform for creative projects, including games, film, music, art,
and more. Projectors can post the detail plan of their project on the website, and viewers who are
interested in the projects can donate money online to support the project. Once the
pledges reached the desired amount, the projectors will use the pledges to bring their projects to
life. People who back Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards in exchange for their
pledges (“Kickstarter”). In the case of educative gaming program at Rutgers, rewards will
includes special clothing for the characters created by the bakers or hints to advance in the game
(e.g. the answer of question asked in the game such as “what’s the safe amount of alcohol take in”
pop out when they use their bonus of hints). It is expected to get at least $5,000 from the
Kickstarter website, major backers of which are expected to be Rutgers students, Rutgers
faculties and parents of Rutgers students. The website not only offers a platform to gather
pledges and offer rewards to bakers, but also help to get public attentions to the Rutgers program.
The estimated fee to develop a 2D simulation adventure game would be around $30,000 to
$50,000 in reference to the projects listed on the kickstarter website. The costs and time to
develop a simulation game in business are $ 50,000- $110,000 and 40-80 days (Hall). However,
to cut back the budget, ADAP can seek cooperation with Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering in the School of Engineering for technological support, and hire 1 professor-
supervisor and 3 graduate student engineers for the program. In that case, student engineers can
be hired for this project with student wage and given internship credits to cut back the cost of
development. The plan will make the development fee of the game, which is mostly made up of
the salary of game engineers, stays within $45,000. A detailed budget of the salary will be
further discussed with Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In consideration of
the fact that the student engineers are part-time workers for the project, the estimated
development time can be expended to 180 days.
The estimated budget on propaganda promotion is $5,000. Propaganda promotion of the game
includes duties of publicity to Rutgers students in the campus website, Facebook, student blog
Rutgers school
funding
90%
Kickstarter fund
10%
$45,000
$5,000

15. 15
also in a form of handing out flyers. Further maintenance fee is $2,000 per year and this part of
the budget will be used to hire 2 part-time student programmers to do jobs including debugging
and updating. Other $3,000 will be used for emergency and unexpected spend. So the total
budget of the program for the first year is estimated $50,000, and the continuing fee for the
program is $2,000 per year. Figure 9 shows a table of the detailed budget uses.
Figure 9: detailed budget of the simulation game of alcoholism at Rutgers
The further maintenance fee can access grants from the U.S. Department of Education, which
grants money to institutions of higher education in recognition of their programs of Alcohol and
Other Drug Prevention on College Campuses. The estimated average size of awards is $ 137,500.
It means once the gamed-based education program on alcoholism won the grants, its former
development and the further maintenance fee can be completely covered by the grant.
However, money will be granted only after the program is proven to be successful (U.S.
Department of Education 6).
Discussionand EvaluationPlan
Taking consideration of time of conducting the actual executive plan, game design, game
development and propaganda Promotion, the game is expected to launch in 1 year. And in
reference to the models of “ It's up 2U”, in which samples show a decrease of ATOD use by 7%
and a decrease if misperceptions about ATOD use by 18% after playing the game) and “N-
Square Web Adventure”, in which samples show 8.6% increase in score of the knowledge test
about alcoholism, the game is expected to decrease student’s use of alcohol at Rutgers by 15%
and decrease students misconception about alcoholism by 25% in 6 months. The figure is
expected to be higher than that is showed in the two models in consideration that the real life

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simulation design provides more instructive and guiding messages specifically for college
drinking at Rutgers and that college students are more mature than middle school students so that
they can take in the appropriate messages more efficiently.
The most advantage of the plan is that it is practical and financially economic. Rutgers does not
need to spend a lot of money to make a huge difference in regards of college binge drinking. And
the game is expected to attract students especially the freshman, as it is a window to look through
real college life at Rutgers.
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17. 17
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