Project description:

We developed a game that allows readers to understand the problems that their hometown is facing during the process of playing. The game includes thinking about land planning and how cities will change in the next 20 years. We present serious issues to readers in an interesting way.

Impact reached:

Over the past five years, Taiwan’s land planning has ushered in major reforms. Land planning is an important foundation for Taiwan’s land development, but the planning of each region is complex and profound, which makes it difficult for ordinary people to understand it, and therefore it is impossible to discuss or monitor the government’s plans. Therefore, READr tries to use games to allow readers to understand the national land plan from a simple direction, and know the future state of their own area, and then monitor relevant policies. After the general public understands the national land plan, they can also understand the potential advantages and problems of each place, including location issues, population issues, resource capacity issues, and individual issues.

Techniques/technologies used:

It uses pixi.js, an engine that uses Javascript to write games, and uses pixi-sound with game music, and the foundation is through Canvas. The game page is completed with vue.js and node.js.

Context about the project:

It is the most difficult to integrate the land planning content of all counties and cities and designing four small games. We had to find out the differences in the problems of each county and city, analyze the policies and integrate their contents. We all know that journalism often does “translation” work, so journalists often need to translate policies, issues, or interviewees’ arguments into words. But in this report, after translating into text, the reporter hopes that readers can understand the policy in a more intimate way, so another translation is performed, translating the text into the design script of the game. Although this is not the first news game, it is still worth choosing to integrate the policy explanations of 20 counties and cities through four mini-games.

What can other journalists learn from this project?

The “translates” job from journalists, besides describing it in words, it is very important to be aware of what form can allow readers to understand the meaning of the issue and the views of all parties in a more understandable way. Especially in the current era of digital news reporting, what reporters can learn is that they must think about what kind of content can be matched with what kind of report format. The media that can be carried by digital news is very diverse, and various media and forms of expression have their significance. How to make the best presentation is a question that can be continuously considered.

Project links:

https://www.readr.tw/project/3/nation-plan