1. Game of Homes – DRAFT REPORT
11 November 2015
Summary of findings from Berry St school workshops
Below, we outline:
 our objective of conducting feedback workshops;
 our initial approach to facilitating workshops with kids from the Noble Park and Morwell
campuses of the Berry St high schools;
 why our initial approach had to be adjusted and our learnings from adjusting our approach;
 our insights from the workshops; and
 recommendations for a minimum viable product (MVP), suggestions for a second version product
(2VP) and insights that will be relevant when implementing the MVP.
Approach to workshop
In both workshops we explained that we were building a game - that if you played the game you
would earn points, and with those points you could buy things without having to use money.
Objective 1: Meaningful rewards – We explained that the purpose of the workshop was to
find out what the students needed or wanted in the next week, or month or
year, so that we could build those things into the game.
Objective 2: Engagement with the game – We tried to work through a game pathway in
the student booklet to observe whether the students would be
engaged/interested/excited by the paper prototypes and underlying content.
Need to adjust approach
Whilst we had planned to run the session by a "page turn" approach to obtain feedback on each stage
of the game as shown in the student booklet we found we lost the attention of the classroom very
quickly. Instead, we asked lots of direct questions to each student.
Observations from adjusting approach
When we asked each student directly what they were interested in the response rate and
insightfulness of feedback became more useful. Upon hearing what the student was interested in we
were then able to think of a pathway of things relevant to that student. It was at this point that their
interest was piqued and they began to show understanding of what the game was, and what could be
gained from playing it.
The kids in each group took a while to grasp that they could think freely about what they needed and
wanted - perhaps this question had never been asked of them, they were wary of being open and
expressive in the classroom or they were doubtful of whether saying anything would actually result in
their needs and wants getting met.
Recommendations for MVP and suggestions for GP
Accordingly, our strong recommendation for an MVP is to include example interests and rewards in
the registration process to assist the student’s visualisation of what they can earn via learning about
their interests. The linkage between rewards and investing in what you’re interested in needs to be
shown.

2. Once students understand this basic “linkage” method, there must be an ability for the student to
request rewards that match their interests. In response, we must be able to promptly negotiate
agreements with reward-providers to have their participation in the MVP trial.
MVP Recommendation 1: Registration process must include example interests with possible
rewards that can be earned by investing time (by playing the game)
in that particular pathway.
MVP Recommendation 2: The player must be able to suggest rewards (to the extent those
rewards are not already available) that motivate them to continue
investing in what they are interested in.
MVP Recommendation 3: Prepare template “Rewards-provider” agreement with 5 potential
Reward-providers (e.g. Coles, JB-HiFi, Telstra, Myki, Cotton On,
Utility bill suppliers). The template agreement should set out terms of
providing trial funding; what goods, services or opportunities are on
offer; and the amount of points (and/or points history) required to
purchase the goods, services or opportunities. Refer Appendix [XX].
NB: Opportunities may only become available based on points
history rather than the primary scenario of having enough current
points to convert into goods or services.
Due to the anticipated level of difficulty of incorporating such a feature, the following is suggested for
the 2VP rather than an initial feature of the MVP. That is, to include a way for the game to suggest
other interests (and associated rewards) based on the player’s game history.
2VP Suggestion 1: The game must be able to suggest other interests (and associated
rewards) based on the data obtained from the player’s game history.
Insights from workshops
The two classrooms had quite different reactions. It would be helpful to understand from the teachers,
how the backgrounds of the students differ between campuses.
Noble Park campus
There was some strongly spoken students in the Noble Park campus that focused on how difficult the
game would be to build and how difficult it would be to source the rewards, rather than providing
answers to the questions we were asking about what rewards would be meaningful to them and
whether the game was interesting.
An initial comment was, "Is this game about depression?", and was very much posed in the pejorative
sense as if to mean that the student would discredit the game if it had anything to do with depression.
MVP Insight 1: Any communications about the game must focus on the ability of the game to
reward an individual for figuring out what they’re interested in, and investing
time in that interest/s. An individual can record feelings via the diary feature,
and there are pathways you can choose to play if you are interested in
getting yourself better – but it is your choice to play those pathways.
The purpose of the game is to bring goods and services that you need and
want, to you; rather than you having to navigate a number of systems to try
and get to the same outcome.
The strongly spoken Noble Park kids expressed that the Government wouldn't even let something like
this be built. One comment was, "The Government would never let you do this". As a result, we spent
quite a bit of time explaining that:

3.  this idea had nothing to do with the Government and that the Government should not be able to
“stop us”;
 we had "super smart" people able to build the game and great organisations willing to provide
rewards; and
 the game builders and the reward-providers needed to know that the game would be played and
that the rewards we build into it would be what the kids need and want.
MVP Insight 2: Actually having an MVP for the students to engage with, with real rewards on
offer, should eliminate these sorts of questions and focus the students’
attention on contributing information about their interests and associated
rewards.
One student had been completely disengaged for the whole workshop and was quite distracting to the
other students. When we found out that he is interested in motorcycles, and when we offered that the
game could teach him about small engines, more about motorcycles and eventually lead to some
work experience and meeting motorcycle racers, he then acknowledged those rewards would be
meaningful to him. However, from this particular student we got no feedback in relation to the game.
MVP Insight 3: Any communications about the game must focus on the individual, the
capacity to tailor rewards to their interests, and that the more the game is
played the better it can learn and provide the individual with pathways that
are interesting to them and from which rewards can be earned.
Morwell campus
Overall, the kids seem to work as a team and encouraged each other to respond to the questions we
were asking. The kids were fascinated to hear about how the game could learn about them – that the
more they engaged with the game, the more it would learn, and the more tailored opportunities and
rewards could be offered to them to earn. The classroom reached consensus that they would use the
game as a “companion”, of sorts, because of the potential of the game to offer insights into their
personalities and futures and the ability to predict what they might be interested in learning and
earning.
In response to the question, “What would you play for?” one girl said, "food" - that food was all she
needed and wanted. Across all ages a common theme for the ideal reward was a laptop and a myki
card for public transport, but the older kids (16-17) put value on a car and having the utility bills paid
for.

4. Game features
Description
Minimum viable product
1. Website
[Responsive to iOS and Android (rather than building native to iOS and Android)]
2. User profile
a. Name
b. Age
[ideas on how to confirm this? – manually enter with case worker]
c. Gender [male, transgender, female]
3. User settings
a. Agree to T&Cs
b. Agree to let us analyse your data to give you better goods, services and opportunities
c. Use my location
d. Share my info with [specify organisation / case worker] [when I request to share / once per
week / monthly]
4. Landing page
a. Struggling
b. Stable
c. Ok but numb
d. Starting to become interested in things
5. Game pages
a. Struggling landing page
i. Talk to someone
ii. Get creative
iii. Be active
iv. Eat something healthy
v. Gain perspective
vi. Give back
Etc. Refer to paper prototypes
b. Struggling: Talk to someone
i. Friend
ii. Family member
iii. Listener
c. Struggling: Talk to someone: Listener
d. Struggling: Talk to someone: Listener: Volunteer
i. Alcohol & drugs
ii. Violence
iii. Bullying
iv. Whole life has been hard
v. Relationship, pregnant, identity
e. View profiles of available volunteers and select
f. Ability to receive calendar invite once meeting requested
g. Ability to cancel or postpone a meeting by providing [reason]
6. Points calculator
[At top right corner of each game page]
7. [XX] points = [Reward] banner
[At top of each screen]
8. Volunteer registration page
a. Name
b. Age
c. Gender [male, transgender, female]
d. Working with children verification
e. Professional qualifications [GP, psychologist, social worker, alcohol & drug worker,
counsellor, lawyer, other]
[How can we check/verify this and/or input proper name of qualification and create rules to

5. group, e.g. Paediatric surgeon could be “GP”]
f. Life experience [alcohol & drugs, violence, bullying, whole life has been hard, difficult
relationship/s, teenage pregnancy, identify
9. Volunteer admin page
a. Update availability to volunteer each 2 weeks for [fixed / location at time of request] location
b. Ability to receive calendar invite when a meeting is requested in an available time
c. Ability to receive cancellation / postponement notifications that delete / alter the calendar
invitation
d. Ability to verify that player has had meeting with volunteer
e. Ability to send short message to player
[player gets bonus points for creating a positive relationship]
10.Reward-provider registration page
a. Company number
b. ABN
[check against ABN lookup/ASIC]
c. [$XY] funds for [X number] of [Y rewards]
11.Reward-provider admin page
a. Update funds, types of rewards
b. Stats on number of rewards claimed
12.Basic diary application
Algorithm that identifies words, repetitiveness of words, and word patterns to find relevant goods,
services and opportunities based on those words.