Helping Hand Games: have fun and do good

How to use games to help people in need? That is Drew Dyksterhouse’s challenge. Drew is a social entrepreneur from the USA. He has been developing games since 2007 when he went to college for Game art and animation, and always wanted to help people in need using his passion. Read his story.

A few words about you…

I’ve always loved games. Over my Game art and animation course of three years, I worked on about six different student lead game projects, one of which won our team a trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. I worked at a mobile game company that created games to promote brands such as Veggietales and WWE. I was there for almost two years and had recently had my first child, so was wanting to find something a little more stable. I taught myself to program and moved into the web development world. I continued to make games on my own, which can be rough. I got discouraged after a couple games and took a break for a couple years. That break became a couple year transformation of me trying to do something more meaningful.

A few words about your project…

1 in 9 people are malnourished according to the World Health Organization.

Helping Hand Games creates games that help fight hunger. We created Fruitums which recently reached 600 downloads. 50% of the money it generates is donated to non-profits working to end hunger. It's free, it's fun and it feels good!

How did you come up with this idea?

I was inspired by companies like Project 7 and Tom’s Shoes. I wanted to do something with my experience and love of games that would be lasting. I always wanted to do something meaningful. So I thought why not use games to raise funds for charities that feed people in need, and Helping Hand Games was born.

What are your biggest challenges?

Getting people excited about being able to help feed others in need just by playing a game is a challenge itself. I feel like part of it comes from needing to gain people’s trust, I need to find ways to be more transparent so that people know that their game time really is being used for good. I’ve started researching into making Helping Hand Games a BCorp, but there is a lot that goes into it.

How is it to be a social entrepreneur?

It can be a little rough at times trying to convince people of the importance of the issue you’re trying to tackle.

Also getting people to believe that the way you chose to try and help is a valid one. But it’s also very rewarding getting to use something that I love to positively change the world. How do you see this business in 5 years? We’ve hit our goal of one million meals. Our next goal will probably be something that provides for people in the long run, cattle, seeds, wells, etc. Meals just seemed like a good point of entry. Once Helping Hand Games has established a presence and I get the hang of marketing, I’m hoping to offer a publishing service to other independent game developers. They’ll gain exposure and get to help feed people through their games. Play more, help more. Download Fruitums: http://helpinghandgames.com/fruitums/