Food Force
Encyclopedia
Food Force is an Educational game
published by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in 2005. Due to its content, it is considered a serious game
(game with educational purpose). Players take on missions to distribute food in a famine
-affected country and to help it to recover and become self-sufficient again. At the same time they learn about hunger in the real world and the WFP's work to prevent it.
In 2011, a new, socially interactive game was launched in November by the World Food Programme in partnership with Konami. The game, which is takes place entirely on Facebook, is amongst the first games ever to feature a real world impact through virtual goods.
, which is suffering from both drought
and civil war
. The player's character is a rookie who has joined a team of UN
experts, including a nutritionist
, a logistics
officer, a pilot, an appeals officer, and the director of food purchasing.
The game contains six missions:
Most of the gameplay is arcade oriented, with time-limited sequences. All six missions can be played through in under an hour, though players might replay the individual missions, as their high scores can be uploaded online for worldwide comparison with other players.
and Macintosh. Linux
users can use Wine
to install the Windows version of the game and the Quicktime bundled with the package. Users are encouraged to burn it onto CDs
and distribute it to friends. Developed by the British
studio
Playerthree and the Italian
company Deepend
, the program uses Macromedia
for gameplay and QuickTime
for video.
The Food Force website also has lesson plans for teachers, reports on recent WFP work, a high score table and other features.
, based on Food Force, has been developed as free software
under the terms of version 3 of the GNU General Public License
. It is cross-platform
as it is written in the Python programming language, and runs on platforms including the One Laptop Per Child XO
and the Sugar desktop environment. Food Force 2 is available for download on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX platforms.
Educational game
Educational games are games that have been designed to teach people about a certain subject, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play...
published by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in 2005. Due to its content, it is considered a serious game
Serious game
A serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion,...
(game with educational purpose). Players take on missions to distribute food in a famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
-affected country and to help it to recover and become self-sufficient again. At the same time they learn about hunger in the real world and the WFP's work to prevent it.
In 2011, a new, socially interactive game was launched in November by the World Food Programme in partnership with Konami. The game, which is takes place entirely on Facebook, is amongst the first games ever to feature a real world impact through virtual goods.
Gameplay
The game takes place on the fictional island of Sheylan in the Indian OceanIndian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, which is suffering from both drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
and civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
. The player's character is a rookie who has joined a team of UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
experts, including a nutritionist
Nutritionist
A nutritionist is a person who advises on matters of food and nutrition impacts on health. Different professional terms are used in different countries, employment settings and contexts — some examples include: nutrition scientist, public health nutritionist, dietitian-nutritionist, clinical...
, a logistics
Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...
officer, a pilot, an appeals officer, and the director of food purchasing.
The game contains six missions:
- Air surveillance: Locating hungry citizens in a helicopter
- Energy pacs: Produce a balanced diet of riceRiceRice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
, cooking oilCooking oilCooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is usually liquid at room temperature ....
, beanBeanBean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....
s, sugarSugarSugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
and saltSaltIn chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
within a budget of only 30 cents per day - Air drop: drop food supplies in a target zone, while compensating for wind direction
- Locate and dispatch: co-ordinate supplies of purchased and donated food from around the world
- Food run: Lead a food convoy to a depot, dealing with hazards like landminesLand mineA land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
and roadblocks - Future farming: Use food aid to help a village develop over 10 years, by investing in it carefully with nutritionNutritionNutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
training, schooling, "food for work" and HIV/AIDS treatment
Most of the gameplay is arcade oriented, with time-limited sequences. All six missions can be played through in under an hour, though players might replay the individual missions, as their high scores can be uploaded online for worldwide comparison with other players.
Availability
The game is freely downloadable, with versions for the WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Macintosh. Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
users can use Wine
Wine (software)
Wine is a free software application that aims to allow computer programs written for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, known as Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like...
to install the Windows version of the game and the Quicktime bundled with the package. Users are encouraged to burn it onto CDs
CD-R
A CD-R is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. CD-R is a Write Once Read Many optical medium, though the whole disk does not have to be entirely written in the same session....
and distribute it to friends. Developed by the British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
studio
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
Playerthree and the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
company Deepend
Deepend
Deepend was a multiple award-winning UK web design company originating in the UK in 1994. Its managing director was Gary Lockton and its Creative Director was Simon Waterfall. It went into liquidation in 2001...
, the program uses Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
for gameplay and QuickTime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
for video.
The Food Force website also has lesson plans for teachers, reports on recent WFP work, a high score table and other features.
Food Force 2
Food Force 2Food Force 2
Food Force 2 is an Educational game developed with an aim to defy the pedantic system followed in many countries and to help children explore the community, learn importance of food nutrition.- Game Play :...
, based on Food Force, has been developed as free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
under the terms of version 3 of the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
. It is cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
as it is written in the Python programming language, and runs on platforms including the One Laptop Per Child XO
OLPC XO-1
The XO-1, previously known as the $100 Laptop, Children's Machine, and 2B1, is an inexpensive subnotebook computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to "explore, experiment and express...
and the Sugar desktop environment. Food Force 2 is available for download on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX platforms.
External links
- Food Force official website
- Food Force official website (Latinamerican Edition)
- Worldview A teacher's resource on the Food Force website
- Food Force - Bowl 2006
- Food Force on OLPC
- FoodForce2 site
- Friends of the World Food Program United States agency helping raise funds and awareness about global hunger
- World Food Program UN Agency
- Pictures for truth A game for Amnesty International released in 2008
- memellon Developers of the Latinamerican Edition released on October 2008