Community is a social experiment, exploring the gentrification process of urban environments, allowing players to see the effects from a bi-partisan perspective. The game is to be a conversation starter about the economic and social impacts that people's actions have on one another.

The setting is a fictional urban sprawl, Jarangahape Road (J-Road). Players take control of three characters, with different backgrounds and goals:

• A property developer owning a block of apartments;
• An immigrant family running a small grocery shop;
• A single, young professional working in the nearby CDB, renting an apartment;

These characters represent a small section of parties often associated with the gentrification process. The impacts explored have been generalised into two aspects:

• Economic: property prices, rents, and inflation;
• Social: Diversity, crime, culture;

The purpose of the game is to grow the value of J-road, through managing the livelihood of ALL THREE of your characters - guiding each one to reach their individual goals.

Players move between the points of view of the characters from a third person point of view, selecting options with each of their missions. Players also have a bird's eye view of J-road as a whole, where they can track the overall welfare of all the citizens, property values, inflation, etc.; as well as the welfare of the three main characters.

These characters each have different options for you to choose from surrounding making money and survival, and there are many routes to grow J-road's socio-economic value, but the key is to strike a calculated balance, having all characters achieve their goals without sacrificing those of the other characters. Failing to do this may lead to one of your characters moving out - because rent is too high, living cists become unaffordable, social impacts like crime become too dire. You lose when the welfare of J-road drops below a particular level representing living standard, or if any one of your main characters move out.

Outside of this, players have no other constraints. As a meta-narrative however, it may be useful to observe gentrification in a generalised manner as follows:

• Young professionals move into an urban, underdeveloped area, attracted by cheap rent, cultural aesthetics;
• More money and people bring socio-economic growth for communities and small businesses;
• Property developers take notice, buy up areas and develop them to attract wealthier demographics;
• Increase in wealth increases living standards, makes the community safer, and attracts commerce;
• Most people are happy for a time;
• Rent goes up, property prices rise, bringing up the cost of good and services;
• The urban environment loses its' 'soul', economic and social factors inevitably marginalise and drive out minorities;
• New young professionals find a more affordable, urban area;
• Rinse, repeat.

So as an aside, playing Community with the purpose of avoiding the above could be seen as the ultimate purpose, but like real-life, Community does not force this impetus.

Platform: PC/Mac.
Target Audience: 18 years and older; Prime Ministers, who let other countries spy on their citizens

Reference Image:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/0...