STI Wars

About our project

Sex education is a vital weapon in the fight against STIs – and STI Wars is a brand new and exciting way to get young people talking about Sexually Transmitted Infections. We’ve developed a fun, memorable game experience which helps young people explore how to avoid risks and prevent STIs, in way that allows open, pressure-free conversations.

Project Aims

• Create a fun, non-patronising, age appropriate game that gives young people a chance to talk about sexual health issues.
• Aimed at 13- 18 year olds
• Embed the educational content within the gameplay – the game is the central educational activity, not an 'ice breaker'.
• Help remove taboos around discussing STIs and sexual health, allowing players to talk openly without feeling embarrassed, awkward or under pressure.

Why a sex education game?

200,000 new cases of STIs were diagnosed in England alone in 2015. Sex and relationship education clearly isn’t helping young people stay safe and to avoid STIs. The sexual health time bomb is ticking and we want to help defuse it – so we’ve created STI Wars to help make sex education useful, effective and engaging.

Original idea for STI Wars

Aida de Heras who was a student at Edinburgh University came up with the idea :

“Taboos are not helpful - they only contribute to creating and perpetrating unnecessary myths. Obviously sexual health is one of those topics, and should be approached at an early age for teenagers to be well equipped and know what their options are, and what they may be exposing themselves to.

When I started studying my MSc in Science Communication and Public Engagement in 2016, the idea of play as a learning tool became more and more interesting. I am someone who learns by doing and I am also a huge fan of being silly and having a good laugh. I think that ‘fun’ experiences can be particularly memorable, and games are great at generating those. I decided then that I wanted to make a game which creates an atmosphere where there is no pressure, no judgement and is a safe space to openly explore the subject of STIs.”