Escape Fake Minigame

Young students are highly exposed to social media such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. but often lack the media literacy skills to evaluate the source and credibility. At the same time, misinformation and fake contents are becoming more critical to identify by each passing day and media literacy is now crucial than ever before. Within this domain, the project has been conducted in collaboration with the industry partner named Polycular and builds upon their existing media-literacy ecosystem. Our project focuses on the enhancement of their existing educational game with an age appropriate learning activity.

Our final deliverable is a pre-game to the existing game of the Industry partner, that introduces players to the main character, Hannah. She comes from a dystopian future where misinformation and deception have led the world down a dark path. She tries to prevent this future by warning people in the present about the consequences of misinformation and dangers in the digital world. To reach people in the present, Hannah creates a social media profile in our time to connect with people in a way that is familiar to them. Throughout the game players investigate multiple online characters and learn how to evaluate online credibility. By analyzing posts and online behavior, players decide which character is the most trustworthy. If they pay attention, they will discover that Hannah is the most credible person.

Components:
Physical:
- 5 Posters: 1 x Start, 1 x End, 3 x Content with QR
- Fact Checklist
- Teacher Toolkit
Digital:
- 3 Social Media Profiles
- Start and End Screens

Players begin at the Start Poster, where they are introduced to the story of three social media profiles trying to connect with them. The characters are John (Financial Influencer), Sally (Wellness Promoter), and Hannah (Reverse History Hacker). Their task is to figure out which of these profiles is trustworthy. At this station, players also receive a fact checklist, which can be printed on the back of the Postcards from the Future. Players then visit the three content posters in any order. The posters focus on the topics: Partnerships, Networks and Source Credibility. After reading the information, players scan the QR at the bottom of each poster and apply what they have just learned by rating the profiles in each category. To keep track of their findings, they answer the questions on the fact checker. Once all content posters have been visited and the fact checklist is completed, players move to the Final Poster. There, they count the points for each character based on their answers. The character with the highest score is the most trustworthy. Players then select who they trust on their screen. If their choice is incorrect, an error message appears prompting them to try again or to go back to review the profiles. If they choose correctly, the chat with Hannah opens.