[GothamMedia]

Hello. I'm a web producer / designer for a small, nonprofit NY City policy oriented online publication (www.gothamgazette.com). We are creating a series of short games focused on policy issues (garbage/recycling, land use, budget, etc.)

We're currently hoping to launch a very fun game about the city budget in the form of a labyrinthine dungeon. Think Indiana Jones, I guess. Which dusty book will you pull of the shelf to find out how to get to the next level? The one labeled "Washington DC" or the on labeled "NYC Department of Youth Services" -- choose wrong too many times and you'll run out of time--the City Council will pass their budget without funding for your program.

The concept, graphics and interface questions for the game have been already created -- we just need a developer to step in after the group we were previously working with unexpectedly backed out at the last minute.

The game's a Budget Maze, of sorts, and you can enter at one of 3 different levels. Each level has 4-7 multiple choice questions (with 3-5 possible answers), with the right answer moving you on to the next challenge question.

The original programmers had come up with a smart approach to providing a maze environment: they were building out a 3D environment and creating animated gifs to give you the sense of traveling through a maze. So you'd decide to go forward (click) and a short animation would steer you around a corner or two before landing you at either a dead end or another turn in the maze or a room where a challenge (see dusty books above) was waiting for you.

We are hoping to finish this project in the next month before the city budget is passed. As our previous developers sort of left us in the lurch, we're trying to scramble to keep things up to schedule.

If you'd like to hear more about the project, please email. Thanks much!
YaShen
y@gothamgazette.com