The title of Change the Game Design 2018 was awarded to a 17 years old girl named Christine from Vancouver. She developed a side-scrolling puzzle game in which a girl Mazu has to solve puzzles to make her way through a dangerous forest. Mazu is a young shapeshifting girl who uses her intelligence to make her way on a journey through an unfamiliar land, which is inhabited by predators and hunters.
Christine got the Grand Prize of $100,000 in faculty scholarship along with a general contribution of $15000 which went to her school. An exclusive experience was provided to her and the other four winners at the E3 expo and they will preview their game design. They also won a tour to the Los Angeles office of Google and a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3.
Google introduced the initiative of Change the Game last year in December aimed to focus on girls and their participation in games. The purpose of the initiative was to focus on the participation of women and young girls in gaming who are generally not represented and to make game designs by them. Google said, “Our mission is to make mobile gaming truly for everyone by celebrating and empowering women as players and creators. To do this, we’re committed to improving gender diversity in three areas of the mobile gaming world.”
