Abhi Ya Khabi

Abhi Ya Khabi was designed for people from rural and tribal India with low to mid-level literacy, and low game-literacy, and introduces them to a play environment where they have to make choices that reflect their real life. By investing money into different actions (from volunteering to building a new house) players collect ‘smiles’ in reward and protect themselves from life’s potential traps. With the aim of collecting the maximum number of smiles symbolic of the fundamental objective to maximize one’s wellbeing, players must decide their strategy and build their own path to happiness through the different items and challenges of the game. In effect, players are effectively competing against themselves to maximize their levels of personal well being (measured by money and smiles) lent itself well to creating an environment where each player (regardless of their demographic background) saw themselves as equals. After (and along with) the actual game, a discussion session is held in which participants analyze different elements of the game and then create new content to bring important social issues to their community and wider social circle.