About Newsgamer
We are building a new media category: playable news.
Newsgamer combines journalism, game design, civic education, behavioural insight and responsible AI to help people understand the world by making decisions inside it.
Our story
The decisions were never yours. Until now.
Despite decades of digitisation, the way most people consume news hasn’t fundamentally changed. It is still a passive experience. You absorb the information. You scroll. But you don’t act.
That frustration is the origin of Newsgamer. In 2017, our founder David Koranyi — then a foreign policy advisor with two decades of experience across the EU, the United Nations and the Atlantic Council — had a simple question: what if the audience could step inside the story? Not as a spectator. As a decision-maker.
What if you could sit in the president’s chair during a geopolitical crisis and choose how to respond? What if your choices had consequences — on the economy, on your popularity, on lives? What if you could experience the trade-offs leaders face every day, and walk away understanding why there are no easy answers?
We built a prototype with funding from the Google News Initiative, launched it at Google’s Digital News Innovation festival in Paris, and were featured in the Financial Times as pioneers of a new interactive news format. We joined Columbia University’s Startup Lab. We piloted with newsrooms, think tanks and major international conferences. We tested our platform during the 2024 US election, reaching young voters across battleground states.
Now we are building something bigger: a fundamentally new media category. AI-powered. Fact-checked. Interactive. A platform where news is not something you consume — it’s something you play.
The team · Co-founders
Policy, gaming, AI and behavioural design — in one room.
David Koranyi
Founder & CEOTwo decades of foreign policy and democracy promotion. Former chief foreign policy advisor to the Prime Minister of Hungary, director at the Atlantic Council, UN advisor, and President of Action for Democracy. Master’s from Corvinus University Budapest and Columbia SIPA.
in / LinkedIn
An Coppens
Co-Founder & Lead Game DesignerFounder of Gamification Nation, one of Europe’s leading gamification consultancies. A globally recognised expert in game design for social impact, behavioural engagement and learning outcomes.
in / LinkedIn
Domonkos Kovacs
AI Systems DeveloperCreator of the Authoritarian Collaboration Index. Expert in computational political analysis and AI-driven data systems.
in / LinkedIn
Dalma Türk
UI / UX Designer
Gergő Papp
Team
Ali Abbas
DeveloperAdvisory council
The people we call when it has to be right.
Asi Burak
Award-winning gaming executive, author, former Chairman of Games for Change.
Dave Anthony
Lead Developer of Call of Duty games.
Evanna Hu
Security Policy Technologist and CEO of Omelas.
Tan Tran
Co-founder and CEO of GameSalad.
David O. Dowling
Professor, Iowa University School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Sandra Matz
Professor of Business at Columbia; author of Mindmasters.
John T. Watts
Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Center, Atlantic Council; wargaming expert.
Eric Zimmerman
Award-winning game designer, Gamelab co-founder, co-author of Rules of Play.
Lisa Witter
Co-founder and CEO of the Better Politics Foundation.
Headshots to be added before publishing.
Trusted by
- MVP built with support from the Google News Initiative and Columbia Startup Lab.
- Featured in the Financial Times as a pioneer in interactive, playable news.
- Piloted with newsrooms, think tanks and at major international conferences.
- Tested during the 2024 US election with Gen Z-optimised creatives across Meta and Snapchat.
For investors & funders
Why now.
Democracy has an engagement crisis, and it starts young. Only 27% of Gen Z strongly agree that democracy is the best system of government. Nearly half don’t follow political news at all. The traditional toolkit — textbooks, lectures, newspaper articles — was built for a generation that no longer exists.
But 87% of Gen Z play video games weekly. 46% say they feel most engaged when learning is hands-on, like simulations. They haven’t stopped caring. They’ve stopped being met where they are. Newsgamer is the bridge.
Why us
A new category
Not an incremental product. Articles inform, videos illustrate, podcasts narrate — newsgames immerse. We are building the format the next generation of news will use.
A defensible AI moat
Our proprietary engine is built around verification, not generation: realism scoring, automatic fact-checking and transparent citation trails. Hard to replicate. Trusted by educators and editors who would never ship un-cited AI content.
Proven traction
Built with Google News Initiative and Columbia Startup Lab support. Featured by the Financial Times. Pilots with newsrooms, think tanks and international conferences. Tested at scale during the 2024 US election.
A founder team with depth
The policy, gaming, AI and behavioural design depth to ship this at the standard it demands.
The bigger vision
Imagine legislators seeing how their constituents actually navigate a healthcare dilemma — not what they check on a survey, but what they choose when consequences are on the line. Where millions express their policy priorities not by filling out forms, but by making meaningful decisions that mirror the trade-offs leaders face every day. A platform where play is participation. Where every game is a small act of democracy.
Working in democratic resilience, media innovation, civic learning or youth engagement? We’d like to talk.
Press
Recent mentions.
Publication · date · link — to be populated with confirmed press list and publisher permissions before publishing.
Press kit: logos, founder headshots, screenshots, fact sheet.