'Stop the Blame, Play the Game'

This is an infographic animation that I created during my time at Salford University. I had wanted to make a video that would promote some of the positive aspects of the video game industry, as they often receive a bad reputation in the media.

Whilst conducting my research I had discovered that the turnout of MPs in parliament rarely reached double figures, when a debate concerning video games was placed on the agenda. I found this quite amazing and so I decided to make MPs my target audience, in an attempt to open their minds a little. It was around the time of the 2010 UK general election, and this meant that politicians were more willing to lend their ear to causes in order to improve ratings.

This is the reason that the imagery that I chose to illustrate is of an earlier video game history, relating to games of the 70s and 80s, as these would be more familiar to the target audience. The simple graphics of this era also provided a chance to amplify the message through various data visualisation methods, and I created a backing music track to help the narrative flow smoothly.

This animation project provided a big lesson for me, as the response that it received online was much more than I had expected. It made me realise just how powerful the medium of film and animation can be in the education or promotion of a cause, and I have continued to pursue this path ever since.