Make friends, find that special someone, and solve the mystery of locker 1204 in this hilarious & beautiful episodic dating game for girls 9 - 14. Long Story is a new twist on an old genre: A progressive and queer-positive dating game that helps tweens sandbox healthy relationships and sexuality.

1. A dating game for the real world
More Info: http://longstorygame.com
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2. • Learning to love yourself
• Learning to love others
• Figuring out what kind of others you want to love
• Incidents of bullying related to sexuality and intimacy
increasingly target girls and queer youth
• Bullying at school is exacerbated by ‘always on’
culture that take personal issues online.
More Info: http://longstorygame.com
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BEING A TEENAGER IS…
COMPLICATED

3. If there were a dating sim that helped young people
sandbox important social skills and learn about
intimacy, desire, gender and relationships through
play?
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WOULDN’T IT BE NICE…
Dating sims: Video games with romantic elements. The objective
of dating sims is to choose a date from among several
characters.

4. A game that promotes healthy relationships, self-
care and tolerance for diversity will actually change
how people behave in real life?
But how will we ever know, given that…
More Info: http://longstorygame.com
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MAYBE …

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RIGHT NOW MAINSTREAM
DATING GAMES
SUCK… A LOT.
Promoting shallow values
..and hetero-normative
boringness.
Unless you read Japanese.

6. Long Story is a new twist on an old genre: A
progressive and queer-positive dating
game that helps tweens sandbox healthy
relationships and sexuality.
Coming to your school spring 2014
More Info: http://longstorygame.com
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Solve puzzles and build relationships with new friends
and old enemies to work out exactly what happened -
and if there’s anything you can do to put it right.
When the previous owner of Locker 1224
mysteriously disappeared, you were left
holding the only clues.

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If you manage to work up the nerve to ask out your
crush, there are 5 dateable characters in Long Story:
Two girls, two boys, and one… well, you’ll have to wait
and see.
Abby
Marcel
Colin
Nora

9. HEALTH GOALS
Problem: “There is a significant discrepancy between what youth
are learning about and what they want to know.
Healthy relationships, HIV/AIDS & sexual pleasure are the top
three sexual health topics youth want to learn about.
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Less than 30% of the diverse youth
populations surveyed reported they have
learned about healthy relationships and
no group included sexual pleasure as one
of the top three topics learned.”
Planned Parenthood Toronto Teen Report: pp: 27

10. HEALTH GOALS
HEALTH GOAL #1
Make a game that helps players learn how to talk about and
manage their relationships, feelings, and desires.
More Info: http://longstorygame.com
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Provide guidance in the form of choice
matrices and outcomes so players ‘work
through’ emotional scenarios and can
replay or experiment as much as they want.
Example: Abby can be a great friend,
maybe even a girlfriend. But first you have
to figure out what you want.. And even
then… It’s complicated.

11. HEALTH GOALS
Problem: While focused on prevention and behaviour change
sex education media often fail to acknowledge that cultural
backgrounds and sexual preference play a big role in the
development of intimate practices, and self-care.
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In a global village, a game about love,
relationships and dating shouldn’t present a
single model for a ‘healthy relationship’
because youth bring diverse values and
beliefs to the table.

12. HEALTH GOALS
HEALTH GOAL #2
Make sure characters express different feeling and attitudes
towards, intimacy, sex, desire, sexuality and gender.
More Info: http://longstorygame.com
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Storylines can represent the clash of these
beliefs without privileging one set over
another.
Example: Marcel has a really hard time with
PDA. He’s originally from Dubai and back
home kissing a girl was something you only
did in private.

13. HEALTH COMMUNICATION
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Where do teens go for help with sex & relationships?
Source: Planned Parenthood Toronto Teen Report, 2009

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HEALTH COMMUNICATION
• Young people prefer to come to decisions regarding
health and relationships with help from friends.
• Making friends with a fictional character is called a
“parasocial relationship”
• Lessons learned through parasocial friendships can
impact real world behavior and beliefs.
• A player can choose who they ‘like’ and from whom
they want to learn in the game. They ‘learn’ by having
‘real’ feelings in a sandbox world.

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Female gamers represent 42% of all gamers, the
floor on revenue in that market is @ $25 billion.
“Healthcare
professionals need to
be where our
patients are-using
games and social
media.”
Debra Boyce, MD
Partners in Pregnancy
Clinic,
“Anything would be
better than the crap
they showed us in
grade 8 about
relationships and
sex.”
Rhiannon Gilbart,
age 17

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It’s time for a game that deals with the reality of
growing up in the 21st century.
For more information and to keep up to date on our
progress:
Twitter: @longstorygame
Tumblr: http://longstorygame.com
Email: info@longstorygame.com

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PARTNERS & SUPPORTERS
• Hacking Health Toronto
• Centennial College Applied Research & Innovation
Centre
• Garrison Health Partners
• Planned Parenthood Toronto