Food Force: The First Humanitarian Aid Game 1 Favorite 

In 2005, the World Food Programme (WFP) funded and released one of the most successful games for change ever: Food Force. Created by the British game developers, Playerthree, and the Italian computer design studio Deepend, this PC game was downloaded over 6 million times and played by over 10 million players in 18 countries. In Food Force, players were transported to a fictitious, famine-stricken country in the midst of a civil war. Throughout the game’s six missions, players experienced the crucial steps needed for WFP to deliver large scale, humanitarian aid.

The reboot of the series has been developed and funded by the world-class game studio, Konami. This iteration of Food Force takes full advantage of the social web, as players must interact with each other in order to progress. This is done through buying crops, sending friends on missions, and buying virtual goods to boost performance. Money spent on these items directly funds WFP projects in the real world, such as campaigns that send daily meals to 20 million children every year. These crucial resources allow children to stay healthy and have the necessary energy to do well in school. To make a strong connection to their contributions, players can view their “real-life impact tracker”, a feature that shows them how many children their virtual good purchases are affecting.

Food Force has been in development for over two years and represents a significant advance in Konami’s commitment to supporting the goals of WFP, a collaboration that began in 2005 when they produced the original version of Food Force in Japanese.

As the world’s largest humanitarian aid agency, WFP is no stranger to the power of gaming and has forged impactful relationships with commercial developers – both in creating its own games (such as Free Rice) and by serving as the beneficiary of large-scale socially conscious campaigns run by Zynga and other game studios.