Client Spotlight: Wicked Saints Studios
January 31, 2024
We’ve had the privilege of advising some very talented founders and funders, and today we highlight a client that’s built a product in a flourishing sector – gaming. Gaming revenues are projected to be $275B for 2023 and innovation outpaces expectation, but much has been written about whether gaming has had a positive affect on society, as games can be addictive and loaded with violence. Our client, Wicked Saints Studios, has taken a positive approach. Co-founded by Jessica Murrey and Alicia Clifton, Wicked Saints uses behavioral technology to create interactive media that is wickedly fun and actively good.
It’s new mobile game, World Reborn, seeks to engage young activists through interactive story games relating to climate, mental health, and equality. Jessica was kind enough to provide us with insight into the company’s mission of empowering young people to do good:
Can you describe Wicked Saints in a few sentences?
Wicked Saints empowers players to believe in and hone their own abilities through immersive storytelling, gameplay, and community. In a world where so much technology is driving us apart or away from authentic human connection, WS is mission-driven to get value-driven Gen Z players reconnected with themselves, each other, and out changing the issues they care about. With experience inside and outside of gaming, the Wicked Saints team is world-class in their fields; grassroots campaign building and behavioral science expertise complement Emmy award-winning writing with gaming design and artistry from legacies like Angry Birds, Entergalactic, Love Death + Robots, Pokémon Go, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Marvel, The Walking Dead and more.
What was your “crucible moment”, or inspiration, for Wicked Saints?
I’ve had many “ah-ha” moments that have led to founding Wicked Saints. The biggest was working with Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest dedicated peacebuilding organization. They do everything from reconciliation after genocide, to prevention of mass atrocities to counter violent extremism. They specialize in Conflict Transformation, getting people to focus on their shared interests and values instead of their separate positions. It’s powerful, life-saving work. I used to train young movement leaders all over the world—Myanmar, Burundi, Colombia, Nigeria, to name a few — in conflict transformation and social change communication, using strategic storytelling and campaigns to shift attitudes and behavior.
Behavior change doesn’t happen by giving people information, it happens through experiences. Stories are a powerful way to give someone an emotional experience they may never have the chance to have. I saw how many lives were transformed by training young activists on conflict transformation and storytelling and wanted to scale it. I attended a gaming conference and realized the potential of interactive stories. With interactive stories, you’re not living vicariously; you’re the main character. You’re making decisions and experiencing the consequences of those decisions, safely. I thought this could be the next evolution of media-based behavior change. Violence prevention training and peacebuilding often involve role-playing scenarios. Interactive story games are a way to scale that, but I felt that it had to be entertainment first and fun enough for young people to opt-in themselves. Wicked Saints was born!
Can you tell us a little more about the theory of Common Ground Activism and how it’s applied within your games?
Our whole lives, we’ve been taught in order to win, “they” (those standing in our way) must lose. But what if that’s not true? What if we change our objective from “make them lose” to 1) make them an ally, 2) prevent harm 3) solve a problem. It would totally change the way we treat each other.
We believe our inability to deal with difference stops us from making progress on every issue we face—poverty, racism, climate, etc. In order to truly fix the problem we often need our opponents, not to think the exact way we do, but to help us come up with solutions together. Common Ground Activism is about attacking the problem, not the person.
It’s simple but hard. This way of shifting your thinking and actions takes practice, and that’s exactly what our game provides. You get to practice dealing with people and problems with the fantasy world of our game and gain energy by applying bite-sized exercises and reflections in your own life. And all of that is wrapped in super fun world lore and augmented reality that helps bridge the fantasy world with the real world.
What most excites you about the world of gaming broadly and Wicked Saints specifically?
Games are such a powerful tool. They’re designed with a core game loop. Every time players go around the loop, they get better and better. They’re gaining mastery, and mastery is how young people start to believe in themselves.
Social Cognitive Theory says the number one indicator of whether someone will take action or not is if they have self-efficacy—the belief in their abilities to accomplish a goal. Right now, too many young people don’t believe in themselves. The CDC reports that 57% of teen girls feel persistently sad, hopeless, and alone. Across the board, teens are having social anxiety and feeling powerless to change a big, out-of-control world.
But within games, there’s a chance to escape into a world where you know the rules and get better and more powerful every time you go around the game loop. So players feel great while playing, but when they stop, reality comes crashing back down. With our game, World Reborn, they get to keep all the power they gain in the game and transfer it to their real life. It’s an escape where your actual life improves the longer you play. How cool is that?
What’s next?
We’re looking for play testers! We want young people to help shape the game. We’re talking with nonprofit partners, game design schools, and other young people and giving them early access to those who join our World Reborn Discord. We’ll feature young change-makers and their ideas to change the world in the game. We’re also talking with top brands who have demonstrated caring about people and the planet about partnering with real-life missions. Our goal is to make this a top-charting game that empowers Gen Z to live a happier life and build a better world.
Back