Major video game developers around the world are set to collaborate on a compilation of new games for the charity, War Child.

The teams behind blockbusting titles such as Halo 5, Alien: Isolation and the Football Manager series, will each be given six days to produce a game based around themes provided by the charity, which seeks to help children in conflict-affected countries, including Syria. The resulting compilation, titled HELP: Real War is Not a Game, will be available via digital download early in 2016.

The initiative is set to mark 20 years since the charity’s famous Help album, which saw artists such as Oasis, Manic Street Preachers and Paul Weller record an album of covers in just 24 hours. The resulting record, and a series of follow-ups, have raised over £1.5m to help children affected by war.

“War Child’s work revolves around a simple premise ... no child has started a war, so no child should be affected by one,” said Miles Jacobson, founder of the global games jam committee and studio director at Sports Interactive, creator of the Football Manager simulation series. “Whether it’s providing child-friendly spaces for Syrian refugee children in Jordan and Iraq, creating child helplines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, or the work they do in so many other countries – they make the world a better place for children forced to live with war.”

“Game jams”, competitions in which small teams of developers are given a limited amount of time to create games based around a specific theme, have become increasingly popular over the past five years. This year’s Global Game Jam saw over 30,000 participants registered in 78 countries, who went on to create over 5,000 games. Usually they are entered by students and small teams, but War Child is recruiting some of the world’s major developers, reflecting the star-studded line up of the Help albums.



Studios currently committed to contribute include 343 Industries (Halo 5), Creative Assembly (Alien: Isolation and the Total War series), Bossa Studios (Surgeon Simulator) and Team 17 (the Worms series). Between them, the studios have sold over 100m titles.

“The idea came about over a drink, as these things tend to do,” says Jacobson, who was involved with the original Help album while working for Blur’s record label Food in the 90s. “I was with a couple of people from War Child discussing what we could do music-wise for the 20th anniversary, and looking at the revenues of the last few albums I threw in the idea of doing a games project instead, and it just went from there.

“We hope that post announcement more studios will get involved – I want more than 20.”

According to Jacobson, the studios will be given a selection of themes to base their games around, but that the entries will not necessarily be overtly political or educational. “No child has ever started a war. No child should be affected by war. That is an example of one of the briefs that will be given to the studios, and one of the things that War Child are trying to get across,” he said. “But the games don’t have to have a message – they are an entertainment medium. Whilst a message would be great, and raising awareness of War Child and their work are essential, so is making the games fun for those that are going to spend money on them.”

Video games have become an important method of raising awareness over the last decade with charities such as Greenpeace and Save the Children creating or commissioning their own titles, often available free online, in order to highlight elements of their work to a digitally aware audience. The UK games industry charity GamesAid has raised over £1m for a variety of smaller charities helping disadvantaged and disabled children and young people.

“It doesn’t just have to be the subject matter for games to make a different in raising awareness,” said Jacobson. “As a medium, video games have amazing engagement, so these things can be done more organically, which makes it even more powerful.”

