GAME-Based Approaches in Geoscience

GAMEBag is a portfolio of projects I have developed or worked on that all seek to use game-based approaches across the geosciences. It is the heart of my research activity and interests. As I have recently returned to academia, this work is mostly in development.

Games for Geoscience – Since 2018 I have been the lead convenor for the popular Games for Geoscience session at the European Geoscience Union General Assembly. The annual meeting sees geoscientists from around the world sharing their work with games. It also includes the world famous Geoscience Games Night!

• G4G Website – I maintain the Games for Geoscience website and it expanding games library.
• G4G Linked Group – Join the LinkedIn group to find out the latest news on geoscience games and share your projects.
• Edited volume – I am in the early stages of initiating an edited volume of articles based on the Games for Geoscience sessions.
• Publications – Hut et al (2016).

Adventures in Model Land – Inspired by the imagination-led world-building processes in tabletop roleplay games (TTRPG), Adventures in Model Land is an open source framework to help modellers build vivid and living worlds based on the ways their models simulate reality.

• AiM Framework – a freely available and open source framework document that leads you through creating a model land.
• Compendium – I am planning to develop a compendium of creative expressions of models lands using the framework by pairing modellers with artists.
• Workshops – these will support modellers to better understand and communicate the limitations of their models by using the framework.

Models without Maths – the majority of real-world decisions made that are informed by numerical models and not made by modellers. The people affected by theose decisions are also mostly non-modellers. Consequently, wider model literacy in society is important to help people contextualise those decisions. Models without Maths are a series of interventions and engagements that seek to build model literacy in a straightforward way.

• LEGO(R) Serious Play(R) – workshops inspired by the LEGO Serious Play system allow participants build their own models for different purposes, helping them realise that whilst all models are worng but can be useful.
• Adventures in Model Land – what happens if non-modellers are led into the wierd worlds created by numerical models. These workshops will use TTRPGs to allow non-modellers explore models guided by their developers.

Rooted in Crisis – Led by Jesse Ross, Rooted in Crisis is an anthology of tabletop roleplay games co-created by environmental scientists and professional games designers. It uses the Trophy Dark system to take a hopeless and forboding approach to climate change. Working with my wife Amy and games designer Gabriel Robinson we have created the game ‘The Forgotten City‘. Progress on the anthology has been delayed but hopefully news will be coming soon!