A collaboration between social impact professionals and game developers
Streets of My Town is built by the Institute of Games
The Institute of Games is a social enterprise based in Melbourne, Australia. We work in the cross section of child and youth development and video games.
Our background
The Institute of Games was founded by Steven Dupon. At the time Steven was working as a Youth Worker and noticed video games was rising in young people’s lives. He decided to study the positives and the risks of gaming.
Naturally, in the wellbeing sector, a lot of focus was on the negatives. Addiction, gambling, violence, bullying… These risks are all present in certain games and the Institute of Games has educated thousands of students and parents about how to stay safe and healthy in video games.
Integrating game design in social work
As we got to know gaming better, we could see the incredible potential of games as a tool for social impact. We believe games are powerful and (if developed right) an amazing and positive experience. Streets of My Town is our effort to bring the two industries together and make it easy and affordable for social impact organisations to use games in their work.
Meet the team
Steven Dupon
Design, production, narrative, youth work
A Youth Worker at heart, Steven has a long career empowering and developing children and young people. For over 20 years he’s worked with disengaged young people and developed programs to re-connect them.
Ten years ago Steven noticed the rise of video games as a popular form of entertainment. He embarked on a year long study to better understand the impact gaming was having on young people and hasn’t looked back since.
Steven is now speaker, game designer, producer, workshop faciliator, marketer, developer, advocate…
Milan Egon Votrubec
Programming, Technical Lead
Milan Egon Votrubec is our programmer / developer. He lives and breathes Unity.
After having worked on corporate and Fortune 500 company systems for more than a decade, he transitioned to his passion career – game design and development. In the transition, he brought with him his project management skills and personal professionalism, and mixed that with a massive dollop of game development fun.
For almost 10 years now, he has been peeking behind the curtains, working out exactly how to get the most out of Unity.
Michael Tomkins
Art Director
Michael loves visual problem solving. His skill set lies in translating ambitious conceptual briefs, into tangible and unique stylised stories that are visually stunning.
Michael brings over 10 years experience working in games and animation, including projects with the ABC, Warner Bros, and several indie projects.
His digital work is enhanced by traditional sensitivities and rich colour perception, developed through Michael’s regular practice of oil painting.
Michael also loves dumplings!
Christof Bogacs
writer
Christof Bogacs is a writer from Sydney, Australia. He delights in telling stories that feature optimism, heart and as many bad jokes as he can cram in.
He is the co-creator of VOLUME, an upcoming YA comic series from Scout Comics. His work has been featured in anthologies from Image, Gestalt Comics, Blueprint Comics and A Wave Blue World.
Georgina Bell
Social Worker
Georgina Bell is a social worker with particular expertise in youth mental health and youth peer led community programs. With over 10 years of supporting young people, Gina believes in empowering people’s decision making and help seeking by delivering evidence based information and resources.
She is passionate about utilising the power of stories to support and build strong communities.
Dean Longmore
Game Design
Dean is a human centred designer with a background in game development and education technology.
He is passionate about taking games beyond entertainment, and sees games for change as a key to creating more engaging and rewarding experiences in our daily lives.
Dylan Joel
Music
Melbourne born singer, songwriter and rapper ‘Dylan Joel’ is blossoming. Coming off the back of his debut record and triple j’s Feature Album, Authentic Lemonade, as well as a string of national tours and sold out shows, Dylan has now re-emerged in 2018 with a refreshed sound and an update on what makes him such an ‘undeniable talent’ (TheMusic.com.au).