I was recently (i.e. in 2020) doing an investigation (i.e. my thesis) about how a specific educational serious game performs as a tool for envisioning alternative sustainable futures. One outcome was instructions for creating a game of your own. Disclaimer: these aren’t strict principles but more like a set of essential considerations. Feel free to modify and tweak them to fit perfectly into your situation.
Instructions for creating a serious / design game
Good game goals exhibit 4 essential qualities
1. Concrete
Goals are clear and understandable, so players know exactly what they are meant to achieve.
2. Achievable
Goals are realistically attainable, allowing players to feel empowered and capable.
3. Rewarding
Goals provide intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, keeping players engaged and committed.
4. Collaborative
Goals encourage players to work together, reflecting the essential role of collaboration in achieving real-world sustainability objectives.
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.
The following framework covers the four main phases of game creation.
The first part (Discover & Define) is about research and framing.
The second part (Develop & Deliver) focuses on designing, testing, refining, and launching the game.
1st Phase: Discover
The discovery phase helps the team challenge assumptions, understand the context, and clarify what value the game should create. 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 and solutions related to your them.
-
Conduct desktop research on relevant theories, trends, and models
-
Hold expert interviews or focus group discussions
-
Conduct light player research (short interviews, observations)
-
Create a stakeholder map to understand different interests
-
Run co-design workshops to frame and select the key challenge
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:
-
Create a mind map of desired experiential outcomes
-
Build core audience descriptions or profiles
-
Engage in playful ideation using materials like Legos, design fiction, role-play
-
Develop early experience prototypes to test emotions, pacing, and flow
-
Define a short list of your key design principles to guide later decisions
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:
-
Ideation techniques such as Round Robin, Crazy 8s, or Bodystorming
-
Early prototyping with paper, tokens, or digital placeholders
-
Testing with your design team and observing real players
-
Using an MDA (Mechanics–Dynamics–Aesthetics) alignment check
-
Balancing gameplay pacing, challenge, and cognitive load
-
Ensuring content accuracy, especially on sustainability topics
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:
-
Playtesting and observation with core audiences, partners, and experts
-
Analysing feedback and finalising the game components
-
Creating a facilitator guide and pilot version of the instructions
-
Developing a communications and marketing plan
-
Launching the game, celebrating, and collecting feedback for version 2
-
Planning how to evaluate learning or impact (surveys, reflection forms)
-
Considering the sustainability of the game materials
Designing a serious or design game is a multidimensional process that blends creativity, research, foresight, and empathy. By grounding the work in clear design drivers and following a structured development process, you can create experiences that are engaging, enjoyable and transformative.
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.
The goal is not merely to produce a playable game but to craft an experience that resonates with players, equips facilitators, and contributes to a broader conversation about our shared future. With thoughtful iteration, inclusive design, and intentional storytelling, your game can become a catalyst for insight, dialogue, and change well beyond the moment of play.