AT A GLANCE

In the educational video game titled “Headlines and High Water,” players take on the role of a young journalist in the fictional town of Twin Lakes, where the annual Cherry Festival is thrown into chaos by a catastrophic flood. The player is tasked with interviewing locals and writing stories to keep the town informed—all while staying safe during the town’s worst flood of the century.

Throughout the game, players build trust with the townspeople and interview a cast of quirky characters—like Birdie, the aptly-named nature conservationist, and Fred Finkler, the gardener who’ll talk your ear off. In the end, the player’s reporting will determine if Twin Lakes is still around a year from now, or if future floods wash the town right off the map. The game has won multiple prestigious awards and has been playing in 7th grade classrooms as a form of media literacy.

This is a partnership with the Wisconsin Field Day Lab, who designed and produced this educational video game about journalist practice. Sue Robinson worked with the Field Day Lab and a cohort of both teachers and journalists to create the game’s storyline about journalism.