HONEYMOON
HONEYMOON
About HONEYMOON
HONEYMOON is an award-winning game developed by Sandra Lara Castillo and produced by Jennifer Ann’s Group, a nonprofit charity that produces video games about issues that affect adolescents. It is part of Jennifer Ann's Group’s ‘Gaming Against Violence’ program which focuses on teen dating violence prevention and to that end, HONEYMOON acts as a healthy dating simulator for young people to:
- teach them about healthy dating relationships,
- better recognize unhealthy behaviors in dating relationships, and
- learn how to respond appropriately in order to achieve the most positive outcome.
In HONEYMOON, players explore a dating relationship through the experiences of a student, Charlie, who is beginning their very first romantic relationship with Mickey, a non-player character (NPC). The player selects dialogue choices for Charlie to advance the storyline as it follows Charlie and Mickey through the fun and exciting “honeymoon” phase of their relationship. As the game progresses and the “honeymoon” period ends, the player experiences some of the potential challenges found in adolescent dating relationships and also sees how the evolving relationship impacts Charlie’s family and friends.
The story in HONEYMOON encourages conversation about topics that are important to adolescents – but not often discussed.
For example, an opportunity for discussion comes in Episode One at the beginning of the game. Charlie has an early morning conversation with their parents during breakfast that reveals a parent-child relationship that is respectful, trusting, and supportive.
Educators can ask students to discuss this breakfast table conversation:
Why is it important for students to have a trusted adult? and Who is a trusted adult in the student’s life?
There are multiple endings to experience and players are encouraged to re-play HONEYMOON to see how different decisions lead to these different outcomes. The colorful artwork, relatable dialogue, and likeable characters make Charlie's world one that adolescents will feel comfortable revisiting.
HONEYMOON Resources
- The HONEYMOON website has more information about the game HONEYMOON, classroom resources, and helpful information about teen dating violence. (PlayHONEYMOON.com)
- HONEYMOON is featured in 'Learning, Education and Games Vol. 3: 100 Games to Use in the Classroom & Beyond'. This book includes best practices for using games in educational settings. LEG v.3 is available for purchase or can be downloaded at no cost.
HONEYMOON Details
| Development | Sandra Lara Castillo | sandralc.github.io |
| Produced by | Jennifer Ann's Group | Mastodon @stopTDV |
| Published by | Life Love Publishing | LifeLovePublishing.com |
| ESRB Rating | E for Everyone | |
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The nonprofit program that produced this game was selected as a Top-50 program for nonprofits in the U.S. Learn more about our innovative approach to violence prevention through games.
Help us help you.
Are you using HONEYMOON at your conference or school? Or in a research paper or study?
Please let us know!
We occasionally perform maintenance on our games and game pages. So please let us know if you are using HONEYMOON, especially for live events. This way we will be sure to make HONEYMOON accessible -- or will come up with a backup solution.
AND... knowing this information might help us obtain more funding.
Funding helps us update HONEYMOON, create supplemental materials, and support our other prosocial video games. We hope to keep offering them to everybody for free -- especially students, teachers, and parents.
Thank you in advance! We hope you enjoy HONEYMOON.
♥ Jennifer Ann's Group
(contact@jenniferann.org)
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About Jennifer Ann's Group
Since 2008 Jennifer Ann's Group's Gaming Against Violence program has produced more than sixty prosocial games for teens. Previous game topics include bystander awareness, consent, healthy relationships, and teen dating violence prevention. This award-winning program is evidence-based and the games are available for use in university studies. Please contact Jennifer Ann's Group to discuss research opportunities.
Links for Gaming Against Violence program: https://linktr.ee/gamingagainstviolence
More information about our charity is available at JenniferAnn.org. As a certified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization all donations to Jennifer Ann's Group are deductible to the full extent allowed by law. (EIN:20-4618499)
Download
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Development log
- Lesson Plan for Teen Dating Violence Awareness MonthFeb 03, 2022
Comments
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I got the emotionally healthy relationship ending and I'd feel way too bad for the main character to even try any of the other ones
Thank you so much for such a wonderful game. It was so helpful!!
It was one hell of something!!
It was so well made that a person who never have ever experienced an abusive relationship of any kind can feel everything through this game.
Not only did it talk about an abusive relationship but it also highlighted how it feels to be gaslighted and manipulated via role-playing. Through role playing one can feel the exact emotions. The role play urged oneself to defend themselves and call him out. Also it will help people understand that why you can never reason with a toxic person because when we are dealing with a toxic person it becomes really hard to talk things out since that person will do anything to avoid owning up to his/her faults.
Do the abuser ever know if they are wrong (if so then that person is emotionally unstable, controlling, manipulative and have anger issues) or the are totally blind?
P.s. can this game be translated in Armenian? I want to share it with a very close friend of mine!!
Thank you for your review and kind words!
We believe that some abusers don't know that what they are doing is wrong, especially if they are young and do not have much experience with dating. Young people often learn about relationships by witnessing their parents' relationship or the relationships of their older siblings. If those relationships are unhealthy then those young people might believe that abusive behavior is normal or acceptable. Of course, just because an abuser does not realize that they are being abusive that does not make it acceptable. But it does help us to have a better understanding about how to prevent future abuse.
We have never had any of our games translated into Armenian but we will add that to our list of possible projects. Thank you for letting us know about your interest in an Armenian version of HONEYMOON.
And thank you again for taking the time to write a review and share your thoughts and ideas. We are so glad to know that HONEYMOON has been helpful to you.
What a masterpiece! I support your game 100%! A very useful game, both educational and informative towards this misunderstood issue concerning relationships.
I now fully understand what my parents meant by, "no dating when you're in school". Because it would have added many responsibilities and could affect my studies. All-in-all, this was a fantastic experience to play! (;
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your comments with us! We're very glad that you liked HONEYMOON and its message.
Great game and badly needed even by adults who repeat unhealthy relationship patterns.
We agree -- thank you for your comment & kind words!
this is a very enlightening game, it makes me wonder more about how to maintain a self-relationship balance and recognize signs of emotional manipulation
Thank you for playing & for sharing your thoughts.
We agree that relationships can be tricky and hope that HONEYMOON was helpful for you.
Please let us know if you have any questions!