This document discusses using game design and game mechanics to engage citizens in civic processes like urban planning. It provides examples of games that have been created for this purpose, such as Cards Against Urbanity, a card game started as a joke that is now used at conferences. The document covers basics of game design, elements of games, and how mechanics from different game types like board games, card games, and Euro-style games can be applied to civic issues. Specific mechanics discussed include role playing, deck building, area control, and network building. The document advocates that games can make civic information and processes more accessible, fun, and promote cooperation. It provides advice on game design and provides examples of games that have been created or could be

1. GAME DESIGN | GAME HACKS
for CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
CARDS | BOARD GAME | GAME NIGHT

2. About Us – GreaterPlaces + DotankDC
• Urban Planning tech startup in DC
• Named one of Planetizen’s Top 10
urban planning resources (like
Strong Towns!)
• Working on mobile app and new
print products
• Stumbled into game design

3. WHAT WE WILL COVER
• Simple game design and solving problems
• Game design backgrounder & basics
• Examples of game hacks already out there
• Game design and mechanics
• How can you hack card and board games for your work?
• WILL NOT COVER – Video game design & super complex
strategy games (at least not now)

6. GAMES FOR CITIES: FLIP CITIES*
* needs its own hack

7. CARDS AGAINST
URBANITY
STARTED AS A JOKE AT
NEW PARTNERS for
SMART GROWTH
CONFERENCE

8. CUSTOM GAME NIGHTS AROUND THE COUNTRY …
RICHMOND VA
ARLINGTON VA
SMART GROWTH
CONFERENCE - PDX
NERD TRAIN
CONGRESS FOR NEW
URBANISM
NY LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECTS
Young Professionals in
Transportation (YPT)

9. WHY ARE GAMES HOT NOW?
• Games of all kinds are hot
• Video/phone games
• Kickstarter + Pinterest
• Game and Trivia nights in
restaurants and bars
• Participatory Planning &
Open Government on the
rise
• Game Design already
creeping into processes

10. WHAT IS IT ABOUT GAME HACKING FOR CITIES?
• Fun (expand # & type of participants)
• Portable (try lugging a projector for PowerPoint)
• Relateble
• Co-creation game ideas part of the game
• Incidental learning stealth education
• CHEAP – get game supplies online & Pinterest; or companies
that now specialize in cards/games
• Let’s take a look…..

11. WHAT PROBLEMS NEED SOLVING? ENGAGEMENT
• Participants not informed and/or don’t know what they want
• Going into new structures
• People come in late to the process
• Same people – same echo chamber
• People tired of same tactics (Dot visual preference surveys)
• People inundated with information
• Well organized disruptors
• Language and age barriers
• WHAT WOULD YOU ADD? (USE THE CHAT BOX)

12. ELEMENTS OF A GAME
Player(s) + Information + Action + Payoff
SUB-ELEMENTS OF A GAME
Motivation + Engagement + Meaningful Interaction
Autonomy -
Meaningful Choices
Competence -
Mastery
Relatedness -
Connections

13. TIMING
Game as part of a process used:
• For a process (a new tool)
• As co-creation - participants develop game
• As icebreakers before
• To “blow off steam” after an event

14. GAME HACKS - ICE BREAKERS
Cards to start conversations – city
trivia
Game Elements
Audience: All
• Memory/Knowledge
• Timing/Race – answer Trivia
question first
• Connections

15. GAME HACKS - ICE BREAKERS
Cards to start conversations –
similar to Table Topics
Game Elements
Audience: All
• Connection – answers questions
connecting people to:
• process
• place
• each other

16. GAME HACKS – SCRAPS NEIGHBORHOOD - BARCELONA
“Baseball cards” for places +
stickers (collect ‘em all)
Game Elements
Audience: Families with kids
• Race (time element)
• Mapping – location based
scavenger hunt
• Deck Building
• Completion (fill out sticker sheets
for a prize)

17. World Resources
Institute (WRI)
How to turn 200 page
pdf into an accessible,
interactive product
GAME HACKS - SAFE ACCESS TO TRANSIT MANUAL –
INDIA

18. Why Turn Manuals into a
Game?
• Taxpayer investment
• Don’t want sitting on a shelf
• Competing interests with
limited budget
• Graphics & “game rules” in
place
Need: Make sure everyone’s
needs heard and considered

19. Players assume different roles in
planning transit stations
Game Elements
Audience: Stakeholders
planning transit station areas
• Role playing
• Trade-Offs
• Area Control
• Network Building
• Conflict into Cooperation

20. GAME HACKS - METHOD CARDS
Used by web designers to
communicate using visual, scannable
information
Game Elements
Audience: Public (teaching) or
professional (brainstorming,
strategy)
• Deck Building
• Puzzle – what combination of cards
a best fit for task
• Common vocabulary & mastery

21. METHOD CARDS FOR PLACEMAKING

22. TURNING METHOD CARDS INTO A GAME

23. GAME HACKS FOR REGULATIONS
Center for Urban Pedagogy
Los Angeles CA

24. QUESTIONS?

25. GAME MECHANICS for CITIES
Applied to cities….
Role Playing
(Eminent Domain)
Builds empathy, understand constraints
Deck Building Strategic combinations
Area Movement & Control Area planning, regulatory
Cooperative Play Stakeholder interaction
Economy Management Constraints, Budgets, tradeoffs
Pick up and Deliver Transportation, logistics
Hand Management
(Pandemic, Exploding Kittens)
Optimal sequence/grouping
Network Building
(Catan, Ticket to Ride, Airlines
Europe)
Transportation network building

26. GETTING STARTED - RESEARCH
• Audience
• Needs & Goals
• Player goals
• Your goals
• What are their constraints in meeting full potential?
• Preferred playing style (solo, cooperation, competition)?
• Who is everyone playing with?
• What interactions do they enjoy?
• What metrics do players care about?

27. GAME MECHANICS – CLASSIC BOARD GAME
• Board or path
• Usually driven by
luck/chance
• Graphically simple
• Fun experience drives game
• City hack: Point A to Point B,
regulatory process,
vocabulary

28. GAME MECHANICS – SIMPLE CARD GAMES
• Word play or matching
• Fun experience drives game
• Key - explainers
• City hack: Vocabulary
building, placemaking
matches

29. GAME MECHANICS – EURO BOARD GAME
• Heavy on strategy
• Resource constraints
• Mitigate “bad luck”
• Players expected to
collaborate or compete
• City Hack: Mimic complex
processes (training, resource
allocation, build out)

30. EXAMPLE: STREETCARS & STROADS
STEPS
1) Graphic design package &
printer (18” x 18”)
Or
Search “printable
template” for Chutes &
Ladders
2) Funnest: Coming up with
squares to send
forward/back
3) Cost: ~$10

31. NEXT - TOD: THE BOARD GAME

32. EXPLODING KITTENS - EXPLODING PUBLIC MEETING
How Exploding Meetings Work
1) Meetings stocked with “well
organized opposition” (WOO)
2) Unless – you know how to
handle said WOO
3) Facilitators have strategies to
lessen the chance of exploding
meeting
How “Exploding Kittens” Works
1) Deck packed with kitten cards
– cause player to explode
2) Unless – you can defuse said
kitten
3) Deck also has strategy cards to
lessen chance of drawing
kitten card

33. RECAP
• Participants not informed and/or don’t know what they want
• Going into new structures
• People come in late to the process
• Same people – same echo chamber
• People tired of same tactics (Dot visual preference surveys)
• People inundated with information
• Well organized disruptors
• Language and age barriers

34. WHAT’S NEXT FOR US?
HIRE US!
• Game design for facilitation,
planning and civics
• Custom Method Cards
• Traditional town planning + smart
cites
THE APP (Soft Launch @ CNU)
Tech+Data driven urban design
• Content
• Community
• Connections
• Commerce (Marketplace)