Becker College’s MassDiGI Program Develops Game Addressing Income Inequality

Monday, November 07, 2016

GoLocalWorcester Business Team

Lotto Boxes

Becker College and MassDiGI teamed up with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in order to build the free, social impact game, Lotto Boxes, which addressed income inequality.

“Working on Lotto Boxes with Becker, MassDiGI and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation was a great opportunity for us. The high level of communication and collaboration that went into the effort was the key to finding the right way to balance the social impact message with gameplay,” said Becker Alumnus Ryan Canuel.

The mobile game’s development team which includes Worcester-based startup Petricore Games, led by Canuel, and Becker senior Rejon Taylor-Foster, publicly launched the open beta version of Lotto Boxes at the SVCF Innovation Conference in San Francisco, Calif., last month.

Lotto Boxes

Lotto Boxes is designed to be played by young people then placed into context by teachers or parents through a discussion of the issues. To help with that, the development team plans to work with educators, community-based organizations, and non-profits to create a course-pack of related learning materials to go along with the game.

“Our goal was to not only build a fun game, but to build a fun game that carries with it an important conversation. We feel Lotto Boxes does that. Our development team is looking forward to learning more from player feedback with an eye towards what’s next,” said MassDiGI Managing Director Monty Sharma.

Lotto Boxes, which is available now in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, lets players tap the screen to open boxes, sort them and collect Golden Tickets. Hidden amid the action is a secret.

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