Freelance web developer Ho Ying Ying, 27, told FMT Lifestyle that her own father once fell victim to scammers when he received a random message requesting his WhatsApp code link.
“I was just shocked that he actually fell for it because he texted the person and asked: ‘Is this a scam?’,” she said.
The incident struck a chord with Ho, and so together with Jaime Lau Aik Seng, 23, and their four Bruneian “Jellytastic 6” teammates, they designed a game called ‘Jelly Shop’ that teaches seniors and other non-digital natives how to avoid online scams.
The game is part of the YSEALI (Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative) Game Changers programme organised by the US embassy here.
“Jelly Shop” is a four-level mobile game that simulates an e-commerce platform, allowing players the liberty to fail many times over in dangerous situations without it costing them real cash.
For instance, shoppers at Jelly Shop may encounter wrongly tagged items, vague messages and confusing scenarios.
“Of course, a game like this cannot possibly educate everyone on the different types of scams there are,” explained Lau, although it was a start, he said.
“Jellytastic 6” emerged as one of the three winners of the YSEALI Game Changers, in collaboration with social enterprise Biji-biji Initiative and Synapze. It is a follow-up to last year’s Games Bagus that was opened exclusively to Malaysian game creators.
The three teams, which received US$12,000 (RM56,730) in seed funding to develop their games over a three-month period, recently exhibited their mobile games at the Malaysia Digital Content Festival, held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
This year, 75 participants from the region were selected to participate in the programme. Thirteen teams were subsequently formed when they gathered in KL for a four-day in-person workshop in May.
“One of the reasons why I wanted to join Game Changers was because they were offering all these workshops and valuable insights from industry experts from around the world. The second reason is because we really wanted to make a game for social impact,” said Ho.
Lau, an art director, echoed Ho. “You are actually making games for social change and that is what games are fantastic at, like fostering empathy for a certain cause or raising awareness.
Interestingly, during the playtesting phase, team members realised just how big a gap existed in digital literacy among seniors.
“Our target audience are people who are above 50 years old. Many of them expressed that they really do need training because some of them were business owners and some were dropshippers. But they didn’t even know how to independently order things online for their businesses. We knew this was a gap that we could help fill,” Ho recounted.
Moving forward, Ho and Lau hope social impact games like “Jelly Shop”, available by year end, can help society live more informed lives.
According to the duo, programmes like the YSEALI Game Changers are crucial because they provide a platform for young game developers and designers from diverse backgrounds to collaborate and create solutions for the gaming industry and their communities as a result.
“All of us want to leave something good behind as our legacy on this earth and this programme really does give you the chance to do that, to actually manifest it into reality,” Lau concluded.
YSEALI Game Changers is supported by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Microsoft Xbox, Persona Theory Games, and Sony Playstation Studios Malaysia.
For more information, visit the YSEALI Game Changers website.