Two teams of UW–Madison students in the spring 2026 Game Design 2 course, taught by Krista-Lee Malone, teaching faculty member in the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction, have earned international recognition for games they developed to address global challenges.

The student teams participated in the Games for Change (G4C) Student Challenge, an international game design competition that invites young people to create digital games inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  

Among the UW–Madison entries, one team won the Expert Division in the OutGrow Hunger category, while another team was selected as a finalist in the All in for Nature: Reefs and Rainforests category.

The winning game, “Grownity,” challenges players to manage a community garden facing imminent closure. Players navigate local zoning laws, care for plants, and confront a landlord who wants to repurpose the land. Through a blend of visual novel storytelling and gardening and management-style gameplay, they experience the difficulties of managing complex business relationships while maintaining an important community space.

The “Grownity” development team included students Thomas Parker, Liam Panaro, Ben Dutko, and Quinn Lanke.

The finalist game, “Hermie’s Journey,” was created by Cam Erhardt, Annie Povich, and Setrynn Zhou. In the game, players take on the role of a red-legged hermit crab who helps maintain Australia’s Great Barrier Reef by cleaning algae from coral. As the story unfolds, players discover a strange new coral that’s white and stripped of color and must investigate where it comes from.

The G4C Student Challenge, which received over 1,000 entries this year, uses game design as a platform to amplify student voices while developing their skills in coding, digital design, problem-solving, collaboration, and systems thinking. The Student Challenge invites young people to imagine solutions to global problems and enables them to see themselves as engaged citizens and changemakers.

View the G4C Student Challenge Awards Ceremony, or explore the Arcade to play all of the 2026 winning and finalist games.