People’s Pie: Formal/Middle+ Winner

People’s Pie teaches players how the deferral budget works engagingly! In the game players can understand how government financing works, having agency and seeing how their actions affect the game and the problem they are trying to solve - set tax rates, make decisions about funding important programs, and keep residents happy. The game brings federal funding topics to a level that middle schoolers can understand and play with.

The game is not only fun but also well-instructed in teaching content, fits well in a classroom activity in a formal learning environment, and can foster rich discussions and reflections after gameplay. The game allows players to improve their decisions for each turn based on feedback provided - there are three turns in the game, allowing players to try out things.

The game aesthetics are visually appealing, with well-designed artwork and information design; they help the gameplay experience by guiding where players' attention should be while making decisions. People's Pie characters provide a wide range of diversity and representation. The game provides levels of accessibility by offering a support tool, Spanish translations, voice-over, and glossary for the game content key terms.

People's Pie is an original game! The federal budget is an important and complex topic that we don't see games addressing for middle school students. The game turns this complex topic into something approachable and aesthetically appealing; we can see youth engaging with this game in formal learning settings. People's pie offers a beautifully guided experience for users to practice and understand model-based reasoning and the inherent tradeoffs in complex systems.

People’s Pie aligns with Gee principles offering a beautifully guided experience for learners to practice and understand model-based reasoning and the inherent tradeoffs in complex systems.