Hi friends, Hangry community, parents, guardians, gamers, and those simply here for the snacks 👋

This week we’re diving into something we’ve been thinking about a lot lately:

Can games actually help younger players build empathy for others without turning into a dull “edutainment” slog from 1998?

We’ve spent some time researching, prototyping ideas, and testing early progression mechanics, for our game, and there is strong evidence that:

Games can teach empathy — when done right. Transparently, subtly, and playfully. No pop-ups saying “BE KIND NOW.” No finger-wagging quests. Just fun, choice-driven mechanics that nudge the heart while tickling the funny bone have proven to re-enforce a behaviour change for the better.

Let’s break it down.

Empathy in games isn’t about forcing morality lessons.
It’s about letting players:

• Step into someone else’s shoes (literally or figuratively)

• See the impact of their actions through cause and effect

• Make choices that feel meaningful

• Feel something organically — not because the game told them they should
  

Study 1 – Prosocial games increase real-world helping behaviour when players choose kindness rather than being scored on it.
Study 2 – Small emotional moments inside fast gameplay stick better than long moral stories.
Study 3 – Embodied roleplay (perspective switching, 1st-person vignettes) amplifies empathy and memory retention.

This isn’t just a theory, modern games are proving it.

Age suitability: 10+
A quiet multiplayer room where players write gentle notes to each other, while listening to chilled beats. It’s a cosy, safe, wholesome experience, and has helped thousands manage stress through the art of writing kind letters of support to other people in the game.

Why it works: Completely optional kindness. No pressure. Just humans helping humans. The game explores our relationship with other humans struggling to cope with life experiences, and naturally taps into our empathy around anonymity, where helping others we don’t know comes naturally when there’s no baggage or pressure, and how the act of writing back brings us a greater understanding of our collective struggles. A problem shared is a problem halved as the saying goes. 

Age suitability: 12+
A heartfelt cooking narrative about an immigrant family, with puzzles tied to culture and memory through life, love, loss and cooking.

Why it works: You connect emotionally not through lectures, but through food, taste, and family moments of a family emigrating to a Western country, and how re-discovering traditional cuisine in a tattered recipe book, re-connects generations to their past, whilst embracing a future together in an unfamiliar land. 

Age suitability: 12+
A soft, stunning game about ferrying spirits to the afterlife through the lens of a cosy management game. 

Why it works: It explores loss and compassion in gentle, beautiful, non-frightening ways. The style has remnants of a Ghibli’esque world, with wonder and bold characters to interact with as you ferry spirits to the next chapter on their journey. It’s encouraging to see this subject matter being explored through gaming, as cinematic formats tend to not allow the time to digest a narrative or provide room for reflection or repetition of a concept enough for the empathy to take hold. There are several fleeting and emotional moments to experience in this game, along with the Deluxe edition which includes a soundtrack and digital artbook. 

Summary: These titles are evidence of empathy and playfulness resonating with audiences of today. Educational games are often labelled as such, and seemingly offer no fun value. These examples are well crafted visual and audio experiences that go beyond the dopamine craving FPS, Shooter games that plague the charts of today and it’s worth taking the time to try them out with your loved ones to experience something different that may spark further conversation.

Broader discussion around motivations in gaming are also part of the mix, hence research comes from a whole lot of places right now.. Super Sonic has a great article on player motivations in games, that’s a great read and something we’ll also touch upon in the near future too.

We’re taking those lessons and weaving them into our own deliciously chaotic food-delivery adventure right now.

Our first game has always been about:

• Stacking unstable towers of food of various stability and densities.. Think jelly, bread, donuts, marshmallows, burgers etc..

• Racing against the clock and dodging the ever so Hangry residents

• Laughing at your own spectacular delivery disasters in sharable moments (that jelly ain’t gonna stay stacked for long, so hurry hurry to where the party’s at!)

But now, there’s a subtle layer underneath that silliness — something we call:

You can rush the noodles… or slow down for the tiny creature who really needs that meal intact. Your choice shapes the world around you and the outcomes for others as well as yourself.

Deliver a meal to someone who’s had a rough day?
Watch them perk up, thank you, or give you a little tip or story fragment.

A lost critter wandering in the street?
Help them or roll past — both are valid playstyles leading to alternative avenues of game play.

Fastest delivery still counts, so does a clean un damaged order for the neat obsessed among us, but kindest delivery gets its own spotlight and badge too, for those extra something you manage to deliver along your routes.

No moral lectures. No heavy-handed quests to contend with. Just worlds made richer through small acts of care and interactions that build more empathy through funny moments. We learn empathy best through gradual repetition and positive re-enforcement and when we don’t even realise it’s happening, that’s where the magic happens.

Our mission has always been:

Games for good causes that are fun to play.
Not a charitable cause/donation disguised as play. Not morality dressed as a quest log, but actual fun filled escapism that builds.

We want kids to laugh… then feel… then see things a bit differently.

If our delivery game can teach that:

• Slowing down matters as much as first to the post

• People, our environment, and animals! have needs beyond our own

• Kindness has impact

• Helping feels good

• Sharing the joy of playing helps spread the message further

…then we’ve succeeded.

We’re still only at the beginning of this adventure.
You’ve stuck with us through pivots, stalls, small wins, losses, rethinks, and breakthroughs.

Your support keeps us building, every day.

This is a playground for empathy, humour, chaos, creativity, and care, and you’re helping shape it with every bit of feedback and every moment of support.

Gaming with purpose doesn’t have to be boring. It just has to be honest, fun, and full of heart. The world could use a bit more empathy — and a lot more snacks to fuel our game development.

Until next time: 

Stay Curious.
Stay Hangry.

Ceri & Andy

The Hangry Animals Team
www.hangryanimals.com

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