The KSU Game Narrative Lab named as winner of the Critical Thinking Game Design Challenge; announces new launch date for first video game

Corporate Inc Cover Art
Corporation Inc. cover art

KENNESAW, Ga. (Dec 11, 2023) — by Gabrielle Punzalan

The KSU Game Narrative Lab won big at the Critical Thinking Games Design Challenge with their very first video game, Corporation Inc. 

The game was named one of the top winners at the 16th annual Game Design Challenge hosted by the Gaming Against Violence program from Jennifer Ann's Group, a nonprofit charity. Many talented game designers from all over the world submitted their ideas to the renowned game design competition— but Corporation Inc. greatly captured this year’s theme of critical thinking.

[Photo of Dr. Victoria Lagrange, the lab director of KSU Game Narrative Lab.]
[Photo of Dr. Victoria Lagrange, the lab director of KSU Game Narrative Lab.]

The Game Narrative Lab at Kennesaw State University is both a creation and research space, looking into creating prosocial video games that help foster empathy. Their first game, Corporation Inc., focuses on using critical thinking while facing discrimination in the workplace. In the game, players will “experience stepping into the shoes of an immigrant worker at an HR firm in the US and have to make hiring decisions based on, more or less, subjective criteria,” says the lab Director, Dr. Victoria Lagrange. “It is a branching narrative with mechanics close to those of [the video game] Papers, Please.” 

Gamers everywhere won’t have to wait much longer to play the full version of the award-winning game. The Game Narrative Lab team was offered early acceptance and a booth at DreamHack, a large-scale gaming festival held in Atlanta, Georgia. Corporation, Inc. will officially launch at the SIEGE Indie Playground at DreamHack Atlanta on Dec. 15. 

In the meantime, prospective players can watch the official video game trailer to get a look into what the game is all about.

As the launch date quickly approaches, Lagrange reflects on what she hopes the designers and future players will take away from this experience: “Ideally, I would love our team to remember the importance of representation, prosocial games, and how one can use narratives in gaming to alter perspectives or stereotypes. I also hope the game can act as an impetus for future players to empathize with disenfranchised groups.”

[Photo of Katherine Simons, Narrative Team Lead for Game Narrative Lab and Undergraduate Student at Kennesaw State University, English Major.]
[Photo of Katherine Simons, Narrative Team Lead for Game Narrative Lab and Undergraduate Student at Kennesaw State University, English Major.]

Lagrange led a team of students and alumni from several departments at KSU in designing the winning game—including Undergraduate English major Katherine Simons as Narrative Team Lead, Applied Writing student Moki Murillo, and MAPW graduate student Courtney Chester.


“The lab is called Game Narrative Lab for a reason,” Lagrange says when asked about how English majors fit into this collaborative effort. “We focus on video game narratives as a means to foster prosocial behavior and empathy. Our games are therefore heavily narrative oriented. As such, we have a pretty big narrative design team compared to most small game studios.”  The lab’s student-led narrative design team consists of mostly English/Writing majors at KSU who have taken the WRIT 3125 (Interactive Narrative & Games) course to learn the basics of game narrative design.

[Photo of Courtney Chester, MAPW Graduate student on the KSU Game Narrative Lab’s Narrative Team.]
[Photo of Courtney Chester, MAPW Graduate student on the KSU Game Narrative Lab’s Narrative Team.]

Lagrange agrees that the game’s success can be attributed to the hard work and dedication of the lab’s student-led team, citing how the team stayed “extremely motivated” throughout the process and brought “brilliant ideas and fascinating perspectives” to the project. As the lab director, Lagrange emphasizes the importance of supporting games created by students. She explains, “Allowing students from different disciplines to work together on this project as volunteers allows them to gain extremely valuable experience and promote the work that they did together when they look for a job in the industry.”


For any KSU students interested in video game design, Lagrange says this is a great time to join: “Game Narrative Lab is always looking for new members— especially ones that already have some experience with game design, media art, game narrative design, composing for media, etc.” Lagrange reveals that the lab is specifically looking to develop their programming team and their arts & music team. 

[Photo of Moki Murillo, Applied Writing student on the Narrative Team at KSU Game Narrative Lab].
[Photo of Moki Murillo, Applied Writing student on the Narrative Team at KSU Game Narrative Lab].

With their continuing success, Game Narrative Lab is already making plans for the future. Following the launch of their first video game, the Game Narrative Lab team will start working on a new game right after Thanksgiving, and they welcome new members from many different majors. “KSU is in a unique position when it comes to game design and development,” Lagrange explains. “We have a fantastic writing program in the English department that offers game writing courses, great developers from the [Computer Game Design and Development] program, great artists from the art school and great composers for media in the [Bailey School of Music].” 


Undergraduate/graduate students and alumni who are interested in participating should contact Dr. Lagrange before November 17th or after March 1st via email (vlagrang@kennesaw.edu) or through the lab's website. Applicants should be prepared to share what they can bring to the team and what their experience is with game design.

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