IMAGE: Creating process of the Tivoli Utopia Game
Defining key terms
Before diving in, it’s important to clarify some concepts in playful and game-based design:
In playful design, there are no formal rules or predefined goals. Play can be described as “a free movement within a more rigid structure”¹, allowing exploration and spontaneity.
A pure game is “a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome”², relying on clear structure, goals, and measurable results.
Gamification involves “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts”³, or more broadly, “any elements that evoke gameful experiences”⁴. It introduces playful mechanics into activities that are not full games.
Serious games are complete games designed for non-recreational purposes, often educational or professional, simulating real-world scenarios to engage players and support behaviour change⁵ ⁶.
Design games, a subset of serious games, focus on participation rather than competition and use rules and tangible materials to guide design-oriented interactions. “Design games are co-design tools emphasising play qualities, supported by materials and rules. They create a common design language, promote a creative and explorative attitude, and help players envision and enact what could be.”⁷
To summarise, it is important to recognise what you are aiming for in your process: a playful activity, a design game enriched with gameful elements, or a full-fledged game. Each has its own structure, purpose, and potential—and knowing which one you are designing will help guide your decisions and outcomes.
IMAGE: Buckminster Fuller & World pease game
When discussing games as a method for futures visioning, it is important to understand futures studies—the study of possible, probable, and preferable futures, along with the worldviews and myths that shape them⁸. Games and gamification are now established methods within this field.
One of the earliest examples of gamified future visioning is Buckminster Fuller’s World Peace Game from the 1960s, designed as a tool to help players engage with complex global problems.
Another early method is the Future Workshop, developed in the 1970s by Robert Jungk, Ruediger Lutz, and Norbert R. Muellert. This participatory technique, particularly suitable for those with little experience in creative decision-making, guides a group through four phases: preparatory, critique, fantasy, and implementation—enabling them to generate new ideas and solutions for social challenges.
Since then, numerous games have been developed within futures research, design, and science (see Games4Sustainability). Sohail Inayatullah, an expert in combining gamification with futures studies, notes that games make specific futures more tangible and alternative futures more legitimate⁹. Games and foresight fit naturally together: foresight methods provide the foundation, while games expand on these insights to create meaningful, immersive experiences—similar to how laboratory experiments function in the natural sciences.
Games also provide a safe environment to explore wicked, complex, and frustrating issues like climate change or biodiversity loss. Players can step outside present-day restrictions to discuss, experiment, and envision potential futures in depth.
Designing a serious or design game is a structured yet creative process that combines research, facilitation, futures thinking, and iterative design. The process can be understood through the following four phases. Throughout all phases, seven design drivers guide decisions and ensure the game is engaging, meaningful, and impactful.
4 Design Phases
1st Phase: Discover
The discovery phase helps you to understand the purpose and context of the game as well as what value the game should create. It’s essential to identify the desired outcomes: what change, knowledge, or experience should players gain?
Explore academic and scientific literature, analyse existing solutions, and engage with key stakeholders. Consider gathering insights directly from potential players to understand their motivations and challenges.
Methods and tools for this phase:
- Benchmark existing games
- Conduct desktop research
- Run expert interviews or focus group discussions
- Run co-design workshops with the core audience
2nd Phase: Define
Use insights from the discovery phase to articulate a clear design direction. Create a forward-looking view—such as a foresight scenario or a future mind map—to describe the world in which the game takes place.
Finalise this phase by producing a clear design brief: what the game is about, for whom it is intended, why it matters, and what broader impact it aims to generate.
Methods and tools for this phase:
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Create a mind map of desired outcomes
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Build core audience profiles
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Develop early experience prototypes
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Test the game flow though prototypes
3rd Phase: Develop
Transform your ideas into a tangible game concept. Define the goals, core mechanics, narrative, roles, materials, and interactions. Build and test prototypes—first internally, then with the target audience. Use a “kill your darlings” mindset to remove anything unnecessary. Aim for coherence rather than complexity.
Methods and tools for this phase:
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Ideation techniques: Design Fiction, Bodystorming
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Prototyping with paper
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Testing the game by observing real players
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Iterating the gameplay
4th Phase: Deliver
Once you have a functional prototype, test and iterate it with the intended audience. This is also the time to approach potential partners or sponsors. When major issues have been resolved, finalise the game’s design, materials, and facilitation instructions.
After launch, collect feedback to inform the next version and track how the game performs in real contexts.
Methods and tools for this phase:
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Surveys or reflection forms for the feedback
7 Design Drivers
These design drivers provide guiding principles for creating impactful, engaging, and meaningful serious or design games.
1. Game dynamics and elements for fluent playing experience
A superb experience comes from clear rules, intuitive mechanics, and functional game elements. Test and iterate until the game flow feels effortless. This is especially crucial for games intended to be played only once. Simple rules, smooth pacing, and minimal friction add significant value for players.
2. The facilitator’s role is to create a motivated and inspiring session
While rules and materials guide the players, the facilitator often shapes the overall experience. Support facilitators with clear handbook, a compelling narrative, relevant theory, and tips for managing likely unexpected moments. Keep in mind that you understand the game thoroughly, but facilitators may not. Equip them with everything they need to succeed.
3. Make futures envisioning easy
Imagining long-term futures is challenging. Many players may not be accustomed to using imagination or thinking beyond the present. Emphasise that the future is shaped by human decisions, and use futures-oriented methods—such as design fiction, prompts, or scenario seeds—to make envisioning easy and inspiring.
4. Acknowledge and embrace the different mindsets towards sustainability
Sustainability can evoke heavy emotions from denial to climate anxiety. Provide ways for players to engage constructively and positively with complex issues. Connecting difficult facts with hopeful, actionable forms of activism helps avoid stagnation and creates a sense of positive possibilities and agency.
5. Create a collaborative spirit between players
Collaboration enhances meaning and mirrors the real-world need for collective action in sustainability transitions. Design for cooperation over competition: create shared challenges, collective achievements, and incentives that reward group success.
6. Make it fun!
Enjoyment is essential. A sense of play makes serious content memorable and engaging. Consider which mechanics, interactions, or surprises can increase the fun factor without compromising depth.
7. Ensure accessibility and inclusivity
Design for different backgrounds, abilities, levels of experience, and communication styles. Use clear language, intuitive visuals, and low-barrier entry mechanics. Avoid assumptions about players’ prior knowledge. Inclusive design expands impact and ensures everyone can participate meaningfully.
As the future is yet to emerge, multiple ways of knowing, along with corresponding methods and tools, are essential. Serious design games are one approach that can make specific futures more tangible and alternative futures more legitimate¹².
Of course, achieving transformative change requires a holistic approach, including new economic models, innovative political practices, updated laws and global goals, and technologies that steer us toward regenerative futures. Within this broader toolkit, games stand out as an inspirational and valuable method, offering an engaging and experiential way to explore, understand, and shape possible futures. Serious games have the power to simplify complex issues, open space for imagination, and inspire collaborative action—especially in fields like sustainability where new perspectives and collective agency are urgently needed.
To summarise, it is important to recognise what you are aiming for in your process: a playful activity, a design game enriched with gameful elements, or a full-fledged game. Each has its own structure, purpose, and potential—and knowing which one you are designing will help guide your decisions and outcomes.
Sources
1, 2
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2010). Rules of play: Game design fundamentals. MIT Press.
3
Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: Defining “gamification.” In Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments.
4
Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., & Sarsa, H. (2014). Does gamification work? – A literature review of empirical studies on gamification. In Proceedings of the 47th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2014)
5
Borges, S. D. S., Durelli, V. H. S., Reis, H. M., & Isotani, S. (2014). A systematic mapping on gamification applied to education. In Proceedings of the 29th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC ’14).
6
Degirmenci, K. (2017). Serious games for eco-effective transformations. ResearchGate.
7
Vaajakallio, K. (2012). Design games as a tool, a mindset and a structure (Doctoral dissertation, Aalto University).
8
Amara, R. (1981). The futures field: Searching for definitions and boundaries. In W. F. Marien (Ed.), Futures research: Issues and methods (pp. 3–13). Elsevier Scientific Publishing.
Bell, W. (1997). Foundations of futures studies: Humanity’s search for meaning (Vol. 1). Transaction Publishers.
9
Inayatullah, S. (2017). Gaming, ways of knowing, and futures. Journal of Futures Studies.