This article is the first of a two-part special. Click here for the second part.
Race and religion; stereotype and prejudice.
Few brave men and women have dared to openly discuss these sensitive topics in Singapore’s delicate multi-racial society, let alone tackle these controversial issues head-on without fear of ruffling feathers. Yet the courageous hundred-odd volunteers behind To Be You did just that.
Arguably one of better.sg’s most successful projects yet, To Be You is a free experimental role-playing mobile game that uses interactive fiction to cultivate empathy.
Players role-play different characters from diverse backgrounds, such as Nadia who is a Malay-Muslim girl who has a crush on a Chinese-Christian boy. Players encounter these characters’ challenges and dilemmas, make life choices on behalf of the character, and subsequently experience the outcomes of these choices.
One of the winners of the Ministry of Community, Culture and Youth’s Mission: Unite Hackathon in 2020, To Be You reached over 1,500 players within two days of its launch on Racial Harmony Day in 2021. It was featured in many media articles, including The Straits Times, The Business Times, Tamil Murasu, SG Magazine, and more.
In less than a year, To Be You recorded over 20,000 play-throughs from more than 5,000 players, and has an engagement rate of 10%, more than 20 times the YouTube benchmark of 0.5%.
Ahead of To Be You’s first anniversary on 21 Jul 2022, we go behind the scenes to uncover the secrets of their success in this two-part special, including a podcast with To Be You’s Project Lead, Lim Zi Kun, and Editor, Desiree Khng.
In this post, we focus on To Be You’s approach to executing a high-quality project.
1. Start with a compelling need and value proposition (read: good idea)
First came the issue – of discrimination based on race, gender, and religion – a problem most of us may relate to or at least recognise. Then came the idea – use a game to cultivate empathy by letting players put themselves in the shoes of others.
Originally called Be Somebody, this project was conceived by Gaurav Keerthi, better.sg’s CEO. It started with a handful of volunteers, before growing to approximately 100 volunteers, with about 10-20 active volunteers at any time.
Volunteers came on board because of the idea and value that they saw – this project strives to cultivate empathy and addresses difficult topics that are race and discrimination. It also helped that the product – a game – was different from most other digital products that are more functional.
Noteworthy was the concept of using fiction to drive social impact, which caught Desiree’s eye when she was browsing the list of better.sg’s projects. As a literature graduate, Desiree, who is To Be You’s Editor, felt that the concept was an excellent application of literature and expounds on creative fiction’s value and necessity in building social empathy.
2. Build the team with the right talent
Word of mouth is the best form of marketing. Interestingly, Desiree brought in her friend, Zi Kun, who would eventually become the Project Lead. Zi Kun is a User Experience Designer by profession and has a background in illustration and game concept art. He enjoys using fun experiences to create an impact.
As fate would have it, Desiree and Zi Kun had a chat and along the way, Desiree shared prototypes with Zi Kun, who was also drawn (pun unintended) into the concept. The rest was history. Zi Kun assumed the role of the Design Lead alongside Gaurav who was the Development Lead. Both co-led To Be You until 2022 when Zi Kun became the overall lead.
The team expanded and welcomed different contributors outside of better.sg, such as talented writers from Sing Lit Station, a charity serving the Singapore literary community, and a sociologist from IPS, Dr Kalpana Vignesha, who served as Research Advisor.
To Be You also counted on companies and freelancers for professional services – most if not all extended steep goodwill discounts for this meaningful cause.
3. Set deadlines and ensure strong consistent leadership
Under Zi Kun and Gaurav’s leadership, To Be You grew from strength to strength. Nonetheless, as with every volunteer project, To Be You was also dependent on the commitment of its volunteers, which may vary and affect the quality, quantity, and speed of deliverables.
The pace changed around March 2021 when Gaurav set a deadline to launch the game on 21 Jul to coincide with Racial Harmony Day. Setting a deadline was pivotal in setting the course of the To Be You ship for navigation, which was instrumental in driving the ship forward (all puns intended).
In an instant, the team had a deadline to work towards. The time pressure also made volunteers feel accountable for their own work. Eventually, the team successfully launched two characters with one chapter each.
For long-term projects such as To Be You, volunteers may also come and go. Therefore it is even more important to have consistent leadership to bring the project through the ebbs and flows, sustain the stamina and enthusiasm of volunteers through lulls, and ensure continuity where new volunteers can continue the good work of their predecessors.
4. Adopt a tech mindset and let prototypes do the talking
Better done than perfect – that’s the essence of prototypes and Minimum Viable Products. Uncanny to be applied to games, which traditionally have to be perfect or complete before release, yet To Be You demonstrated that it is better done than perfect.
The grand ambition was to produce 10 characters. By that measure, the launch fell way short. Nonetheless, the take-up rate was beyond expectations. It did not matter that more chapters and characters were added later on. In fact, it might have helped sustain interest with periodic releases.
In the early stages of the project, there were numerous debates about how much gameplay versus how many stories should be in the product. Prototyping helped solve this problem by enabling the team to visualise and play out their arguments, and eventually reach the best outcome.
In a parallel universe where the game had to be perfected before release, To Be You might not even be live yet, and this article wouldn’t have existed. The tech approach is tested and proven to work. So go forth to prototype, and may the force be with you.
To Be You also recognises that Lady Luck was smiling on the team and the team rode on a wave of societal interest and reckoning on the issue. In addition, To Be You was blessed with the right connections who believed in the value of the product, and that helped To Be You scale greater heights.
Tune in to the podcast below for more elaboration by our invited guests, Zi Kun (Project Lead) and Desiree (Editor), on both Parts I and II.
Experience the game at https://tobeyou.sg
