Life.Love Game Design Challenge earmarks $7K for a game to prevent violence

The seventh annual Life.Love. Game Design Challenge has $7,000 earmarked for a designer who can create a game about teen dating violence without using in-game violence.

Registration for the international contest, which is open to everyone 13 and older, is open through June 1 at the Life.Love. Game Design Challenge official website. Winners who've designed games to run in HTML5, Unity Web Player, Android 4 or higher or iOS 6 and higher will be also announced in June.

The Life.Love. Game Design Challenge is sponsored by Jennifer Ann's Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating families and young people about the dangers of teen dating violence.

"Video games are often unfairly blamed for violence in our society," said Drew Crecente, executive director of Jennifer Ann's Group. "Using them as a tool for social change to prevent violence is fitting as well as being very effective. We have found that teens prefer to explore a sensitive issue like teen dating violence through self-paced exploration. Additionally, parents like to use these games as an easy way to begin a conversation with their teenagers about abusive behavior in dating relationships."

Full disclosure: Polygon News Editor Brian Crecente is the brother of the event's organizer, Drew Crecente.