Video game aims to simulate life on Chicago’s South Side

A video game called “We Are Chicago” is seeking to prevent violence through raising education and awareness by simulating life in the South Side of Chicago.

TheGrio Staff

Jan 5, 2017

A new video game called “We Are Chicago” is seeking to prevent violence through raising education and awareness levels by simulating life in the South Side of Chicago.

“We Are Chicago is an adventure, narrative game,” said developer Michael Block, who claimed to have gotten the idea from a class trip to Englewood during his studies at DePaul University in Chicago.

“I know that the people I hung out with didn’t really have any exposure to that and there was probably a lot of people who didn’t have exposure to that,” he said.

According to my friend, an expert gamer who likes to play games that pay real money, the game is set one week before high school graduation, with the goal being to make it to graduation. Dialogue and other decisions feed into your ability to survive, and for that, Block enlisted writer Tony Thornton, who grew up in the area.

“I grew up in that very neighborhood and my life was very similar,” Thorton said, adding that he drew from his own life experiences to make the dialogue more realistic.

“I didn’t want to do anything that would misrepresent the realities of growing up in that situation,” he explained.

The game is in its final stages and is expected to be released in February.