Rapid Games Designing

Rapid Games Designing: designing, not playing

An innovative workshop format where groups design games together to reach deep understandings of complex systems.

The Rapid Games Designing workshop was one of the best I've ever attended.

Not only was it fun, but it also facilitated positive collaboration, strategy, and consideration of implications and connections.

It is an engaging and thought-provoking exercise for students. It would also be incredibly effective for solving complex problems in a professional setting.

Ellen MacDermid

President, MacDermid Consulting
MSc candidate, University of Edinburgh

Rapid Games Design in the Lower Kafue catchment, Zambia

Blog post here.

About Rapid Games Designing

Comparing and contrasting these games leads to an incredibly rich discussion of diverse perspectives on the system and its potential future transformation.

A Rapid Games Designing (RGD) workshop takes 2 hours to one day. Groups are coached to build games to help them express and manipulate their understandings of the complex systems they work in.

Testimonials

Rapid Games Design creates a joyful, out-of-the-box space filled with laughter and a sense of excitement. It is a playful and unique method that connects people from diverse backgrounds who embark on a creative journey to explore collectively new perspectives and common goals for more sustainable futures.

Claudia Heindorf

PEATLANDS FUTURES WORKSHOP, UNIVERSITÄT GÖttingen

In this world full of complexity, contradictions and uncertainties we must learn how to play again. Let us try out new things, listen to different voices, imagine various futures. It can be so easy! A few dice, some numbers, colours, a poster. In learning how to play again, I fell in love with my futures.

Swantje Furtak

PEATLANDS FUTURES WORKSHOP, UNIVERSITÄT GÖttingen

Game design yielded significant insights into assumptions and perceptions and resulting designs of games to reflect real-world or idealistic-world scenarios.

Workshop participant

Tzaneen, South AFrica

I think that in the designing process we clarified our background understanding of water science, strengthened and interrogated concepts in a way/ways that only gaming could have and that orthodox pedagogical tools probably cannot/don’t.

Workshop participant

Oxford, UK