// The KRIMINIS arcade

Broken Windows

A platformer built on criminology: broken windows raise the disorder and disorder spreads from window to window. Six levels, one per theory, three bosses, four characters, a daily challenge with a ranking and an endless night shift, on PC and phone.

How to play

  1. Move with ← → (or A D), jump with Space, ↑ or W, dash with Shift and pound the ground with ↓ in the air. Push against a wall while falling to slide and jump off it. P pauses and R restarts. Gamepads work; on a phone, use the on-screen buttons, turn it sideways and tap ⛶ for full screen.
  2. Touch a broken window to repair it. A broken window cracks its neighbors: when one starts flashing, get there before it shatters. Jump on trash, rats and spray cans to clear them, and watch for the red target: a stone is on its way.
  3. Repair and stomp without stopping to build a streak that multiplies your points up to x5. Power-ups help: Eyes on the street (Jane Jacobs) clears the trouble for a while, the Roller repairs everything nearby and the Sneakers give you a double jump.
  4. Each level adds its theory: in the car park, lit lamps keep trouble away (situational prevention); in the industrial estate, shop windows hold while you are close (routine activities: you are the capable guardian); on the rooftops, closing doors cuts off the way in (defensible space). Three bosses: the Dumpster, the Painted Train and the Disorder.
  5. If the disorder bar reaches 100 %, the street is lost. Three stars per level: reach the end, leave three out of four windows whole and find the three criminology cards. Screws buy upgrades in the workshop, achievements unlock characters, and you race the ghost of your best game. The daily challenge has a ranking and can be shared as an image or as a challenge link.

The criminology behind the game

Broken Windows turns into a game mechanic the theory of James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling (The Atlantic Monthly, March 1982): signs of neglect, like an unrepaired broken window, invite more disorder. In the game, every broken window you leave behind pushes the disorder bar up, and with it the trash, the graffiti and the stones.

The spreading cracks come from a real experiment: in Groningen in 2008, Kees Keizer and his team found that people littered far more in an alley covered in graffiti than in the same alley freshly cleaned. The three campaign levels follow the history of the idea: the neighborhood (the theory), the New York subway (how it was applied in the 1980s) and the square (its critics). In the last one, later research has the final word: disorder and crime share causes, and what protects a neighborhood is collective efficacy, neighbors who trust each other and are willing to step in. That is why there you repair better with them.

Read the theory: broken windows, social disorganization and collective efficacy, situational prevention, routine activities, hot spots, defensible space and CPTED.

Sources

  • Wilson, J. Q. and Kelling, G. L. (1982). “Broken Windows”. The Atlantic Monthly, March.
  • Keizer, K., Lindenberg, S. and Steg, L. (2008). “The spreading of disorder”. Science, 322(5908), 1681-1685.
  • Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S. W. and Earls, F. (1997). “Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy”. Science, 277(5328), 918-924.
  • Sampson, R. J. and Raudenbush, S. W. (1999). “Systematic social observation of public spaces”. American Journal of Sociology, 105(3), 603-651.
  • Harcourt, B. E. (2001). Illusion of Order: The False Promise of Broken Windows Policing. Harvard University Press.