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Short abstract:

Interactive exhibition and 10-15 min test-playing of Serious Games, followed by discussions on turning research into templatic games.

Abstract:

As the name suggests, Serious Games are played not for entertainment but for other purposes, e.g. awareness raising, education, or collaboration. They offer alternative ways of engaging with audiences in an interactive manner. Usually, developing a Serious Game is complex and time-intensive. However, in a templatic game the materials, rules and choreography have already been tested, and new games can easily be created: just swap new content into the game template and adjust the rules.

Two examples of templatic games are introduced:

1. Transition Games are board games where players take on the roles of stakeholders and walk a token through a sustainability transition parcours. Scenarios come up that either help or hinder the transition.

2. Regen-D Games ("regenerative design") use wooden disks with QR-codes linked to multimedia materials that describe different aspects of a research project or initiative. Chance selection with a spinning wheel prompts players to uncover the initiative step-by-step, and to deploy LINK, EVALUATE or JOKER tokens. Regen-D is useful for dissemination and for onboarding new project members.

A selection of published games is available for flexible test-playing (10-15mins): "Pollinators" (Transition Game), "Water management in an Indian eco-village" (Regen-D), and "Collaborative finance" (Regen-D). After test-playing, participants can discuss how to turn their own research into templatic games and how to use them, e.g. playing through research findings with non-academic audiences, developing games with students, or induction for new team members.