Check out this “Games Against War” Charity Bundle!

So, today, one of the project managers at VitaGames reached out to me and asked if I could write about the “Games Against War” charity bundle on itch.io – and I really like what they’re doing so, let’s talk a little about VitaGames and “Games Against War”. You can check out the bundle over here btw. You get a lot of value out of it for a minimum of 15 bucks – but it’s also for a great cause!

The “Games Against War” charity bundle is a project where a bunch of developers are raising money for a 3-years game dev therapy program for Ukrainian children. The charity bundle is only available until December 18th.

In essence, VitaGames is a unique project aimed at helping Ukrainian children to adapt to new environments and overcome the adverse effects of war and migrations. It’s an NGO from Ukraine that seems pretty great.

Under the supervision of VitaGames’ project team (which includes software development, psychology and medical research specialists), children learn how to make games – and the idea is that it not only gives them a way to learn skills but also deal with their anxiety and depression levels even after VitaGames educational course has been fulfilled.

The project has been running since October 2022 with three groups of children already having completed the learning course.

Instead of producing games or creating something, the goal of the course is more about the process, which is pretty great in my opinion. At the same time, caregivers and children provided positive feedback at the end of the course already, and they reported a null drop-out rate.

According to the website, the members of VitaGames are firm believers that Game development nowadays is “one of the most modern kinds of art therapy and stress relief” – and I do also think that especially during the ongoing war in Ukraine and other countries, stress and anxiety relief, as well as therapy, are really important.

And obviously, therapy isn’t really about “curing” people but rather giving them the tools to identify issues and overcome them – or possibly deal with those issues better. I can’t obviously relate to people that had to flee their country because of war (I mean, my parents were refugees but I was born in Germany) – but knowing tools and ways to deal with depression, anxiety and stress really helped me out a lot… and that’s why I really recommend therapy. For children, “normal therapy” may not work well, though, so I feel this approach is quite interesting and could prove to be rather helpful, especially considering some of the studies on the website.

Anyway, if you want to support the cause, check out…

Obviously, not everyone is able to support the cause monetarily but spreading the word about it, sharing their tweets and the campaign itself, goes a long way as well.

At last, the Bundle’s games are pretty sweet as well. Feather (by Samurai Punk) and Long Gone Days (by Camila Gormaz) are just a few of the amazing games included in the “Games Against War” bundle. Highly recommend it!

This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well. If you find this post on a website other than Indiecator.org, please write an e-mail to me. Thank you!