If Trip Hawkins’ new game takes off, it would be a more satisfying outcome for the founder of Electronic Arts than creating Madden NFL football, designing the 3DO game console, or creating mobile games with Digital Chocolate. That’s because the emotional stakes are high with his startup, called If You Can, and its game, dubbed “IF…”.
IF… takes place in a magical fantasy world of dogs and cats.
Hawkins told GamesBeat in an interview that his new project is educational, and it supplements learning in schools by focusing on subjects most of them don’t teach: social and emotional development. IF… is a fantasy simulation/role-playing game where kids try to walk in the shoes of an animated character who has to learn how to be sensitive to other living beings and how to deal with his or her own powerful emotions.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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