This applies both to regular individuals and corporate executives. The difference is that the latter are more powerful and their actions have greater consequences for the world.

Think about the Exxon scandal. Despite its knowledge about the negative effects of their business on the climate, this oil and gas corporation concealed it for the sake of short-term profit. Or about the super-rich bankers who plan to abandon the rest of humanity when climate change hits the hardest. Or the bulk of small companies that dump toxic waste into the environment.
There are positive examples, too. Ørsted, a Danish energy company, has shifted away from coal to renewable energy sources, reducing their carbon emissions by 83%. In the US, IT company Cisco Systems runs its hardware on 99% green energy. And over in Japan, plastics manufacturer Sekisui Chemicals builds environmentally-friendly housing.

As optimistic as they are, these stories are still too far and between. We need fewer ostriches and foxes, and many more lions.

But how do we turn ones into the others? How do we convince those who devoted their entire lives to the pursuit of money that they should be saving the planet instead?

In the present day, it’s not a false opposition. The actions of corporate stakeholders are governed by the short cycle of financial reporting. Anything that needs more time is a lost cause because it’s not designed as profitable. Yet it takes years, and more likely decades, to achieve and maintain sustainability. That’s why it is incompatible with profit in the current economic set-up, where we reward short-term gains and penalize long-term investments.

However, money and economic systems are merely a matter of social contracts. They may have better alternatives. In fact, some currencies have the potential to incentivize far-sighted behavior.

For example, Wellness Tokens were developed to promote chronic disease prevention in health care; Ecocoins are intended to encourage sustainability; and some other alternative currencies in development, such as ScotsPound and BerkShares, aim to improve local economies. These currencies work like conventional money but are regulated to fit specific purposes. You can earn Wellness Tokens through healthy or environmentally-friendly activities, and spend them on certified eco-products; Ecocoins do not bear any interest, are earned by investing against climate change, and can only be used by corporations.

In general, such alternative currencies are thought to be able to affect human behavior in desired ways through a combination of two factors. First, they function like money, which makes them attractive to use. Second, they are governed by a set of rules and limitations meant to favor some actions or disfavor others.

Save the Future is a game that sets out to test alternative currencies as a method for effecting behavior change toward sustainability. The game’s alternative currency includes mechanisms designed to reward long-term, environmentally-friendly business activities, and to inflict penalties for ones that are short-term and harmful. What’s important, the currency is entirely optional. Participants learn about it at some point, but are under no obligation to introduce it. Therefore, at least in theory, they could achieve sustainability with the use of regular money alone.

We had the pleasure to talk with the developers of the game, Timothy Giger and Bartek Naprawa, about its underlying ideas and how they were forged into a digital product.

Could you briefly explain in what context this game was created?

Tim: The game was created as part of the EIT Climate-KIC Long-Termism Deep Demonstration. The overall aim of the Long-Termism project is to investigate how society values time. It focuses on the transformation of mindsets and the establishment of mechanisms to enable shifting towards long-term thinking, which will facilitate sustainable behaviour and investments into sustainability.

The Deep Demonstration process is co-creative and evidence-based, engaging a large multidisciplinary panel of partners working together and sharing ideas. It is in this context that the idea of creating an online Social Simulation as a platform for creative experimentation around systemic levers came together. The simulation will be used as a collaborative tool for testing alternative policies and institutions that can be later combined into a more sustainable and long-term oriented financial system.

What has been your experience of the Deep Demonstration journey while developing this game?

Tim: Working closely with EIT Climate-KIC and Long-Termism partners during this project has been a great experience and taking part in high level discussions around the notion of long-termism has enabled us to create, in my opinion, a much more meaningful simulation. The simulation focuses around the financial sector and the dilemma of long-term decisions vs. short-term solutions, and therefore a deep understanding of the sector was necessary. At the Centre for Systems Solutions, we’re experts at making engaging simulations that revolve around societal challenges, but we often lack in-house expertise on specific topics. This is where being part of such a project is a great opportunity, because we get to collaborate with experts from all types of sectors.

Could you briefly describe what the game is about?

Bartek: The game is about interlinkages between social, financial and environmental systems. About looking for a way out of seemingly hopeless conflict where population must consume, business must grow, and nature must survive. We focus more on the financial aspect here, and test the mechanism of rewards in alternative currencies, for eco-friendly actions of businesses; we analyze how it influences other elements in a very complex system of the simulation.

How did you get the idea of creating the Save the Future?

Bartek: We decided to take parts of our older title (The World’s Future, which had a similar aim and turned out great), and looked for possibilities to further improve on that. We realised what was missing (mainly the aforementioned financial aspects), and which functionalities could be simplified and automatized.

Why did you choose serious games as a medium?

Bartek: Serious games allow us to immediately see the results of our actions, without putting ourselves in positions of risk. They provide a safe environment for experimenting with varying approaches and for taking different paths – as long as the quality of the game warrants replayability and keeps the users engaged. With an adequately designed system, we can experience long-term, global changes in the matter of hours. An integral, extremely important part of every workshop utilizing such a tool, is the debriefing, i.e. space for players to exchange experiences and discuss lessons learned. Of course they also have the possibility of debating their strategies during the game itself.

How did you decide what elements to include in the game?

Bartek: That wasn’t exactly part of my duties; as a graphic designer I usually am less involved in deciding on the content of the game, but rather in putting the content into an appropriate form that will ensure smooth user experience. But I can say that shifting focus of the game towards things like currency exchanges and stock markets was definitely the answer to the needs of the target group.

What was the most important for you when working on the initial design?

Bartek: To be honest, time constraints. The main design decisions were dependent on this. Specifically, deadlines determined how much of the already existing assets we would use. Of course the ideal situation would be to start from scratch every time, but we didn’t have that luxury.

Tell me more about the graphic design.

Bartek: It’s a great challenge to design a game this complicated, to be compatible with mobile screens. Usually mobile games are much more straightforward, and here we have tons of elements to show and describe. That’s why we opted for a very simple style, with solid colors, stripped down icons (readable in very small sizes), and unobtrusive text explanations in the form of tooltips and discreet popups. Still, the game requires the moderator’s introduction to be fully understood in the short duration of a workshop. Another important thing to notice is color coding (elements related to each other have the same colors – e.g. a facility producing food, a project increasing food use efficiency, and the food itself as a resource in storage or on the market). On a more general level, I am obsessed with consistency of sizes, margins, stroke widths etc., so quite a lot of time went into making sure that everything is coherent across different windows and panels.

Do you feel a difference between working on game design in pre-covid times and now? Did the current situation influence the design in any way?

Bartek: In this case, not at all. Our programmer works abroad, so we wouldn’t talk face to face anyway. I still use the same hardware and software. The only difference is the room I’m sitting in while working, and the fact that I can play my favourite music out loud without driving the rest of the team crazy.

Who is the game for?

Bartek: Mostly for businesspeople, financiers, and government officials on every level. But everybody benefits from understanding the system’s complexities, and there is never enough awareness-rising out there, so I would say that everyone should play. However, the game is definitely not for kids, due to its high complexity.

Where did the title come from?

Bartek: We live in difficult times and the future is a scary prospect – climate disaster being the main factor responsible. It has (or soon will have) negative impact on every aspect of our lives. We must act now to „save” the future for generations to come. The title is a call to action. In fact, I would add an exclamation mark when I’m thinking about it now. If „saving the future” means fulfilling the populations’ needs while protecting nature and sustaining economic growth, then the game is exactly about that. It throws many challenges at a player, but proves that there is no situation unsolvable, as long as people act together and put the common good before particularistic interests and short-term benefits.

Are there any skills needed to play the game?

Bartek: Just basic familiarity with a tablet, smartphone, or mouse and keyboard. Of course, a person with a strong talent for negotiations or a knack for economic strategy games will surely have higher chances for better personal results, but remember – this is a multiplayer game and no one will save the global future alone. Even a group of the most skilled, smart players wouldn’t keep the system in a sustainable state for long, without willing to cooperate and agree for compromises along the way.

What do you want the players to take from the game?

Bartek: We want them to realize the importance of open communication, of working together as a team, as opposed to pursuing individual goals. I can imagine that in a perfect scenario, players would have a chance to learn from their mistakes and on their second try they’ll achieve a better end-state of the game’s world, even if the first attempt was a complete disaster.

What psychological and social processes may occur in and between players?

Bartek: This is hard to predict, because there are always different people in different groups, and no two sessions will be the same. A sensitive person may experience a strong feeling of loss when his/her long and carefully developed assets are destroyed by natural disasters. Someone would feel empowered after successfully pitching his/her idea to other players, while at the same time other participants can experience frustration because their voices didn’t break through. Feeling lost in a complex, fast-changing system is another common symptom of taking part in our simulations. Hopefully it is caused more by how accurately a given game represents today’s reality, and not by user interface flaws.

What do you think are advantages of game-based learning?

Bartek: Game-based learning is experiential, that’s the main difference from passively listening to a lecture or reading a book. There is clear action and reaction, cause-and-effect relationships become more pronounced. Kids in school always prefer practical exercises over theory, whether it’s making smoke in chemical experiments or growing plants for biology lessons. This applies to adults, too: the more engaged we are in a process, the more we will remember the knowledge gained. Good games can make us forget about the world outside and be 100% „in the moment”. This precious state of flow should be used more often for the good purpose of challenging worldviews, re-shaping mental models, facilitating internal reflections… And less often for inventing new ways of killing zombies (although it’s always fun to kill a few).

Do you think we have to think differently about the future of education now? How does it affect serious gaming?

Bartek: Covid is a temporary thing, but it will have certain lasting effects on gaming as a whole, not only the “serious” variety. I can imagine that nowadays more people than ever are interested in games simply because this is one of the better ways to kill the time when you are locked in at home. The whole industry experiences historical growths. Regarding education: in CRS we don’t make face to face workshops with dozens of attendees anymore, we were forced to focus on online experiences that are way harder from the moderator’s (or educator’s) standpoint. It’s difficult to manage a group when you can’t see people’s facial expressions and when they can’t interact with physical objects like cards and tokens, or with each other. You have to be supportive, but asking „is everything clear, do you need any help?” every 2 minutes can be annoying. The temperature of discussion is definitely lower online, I have the impression that participants in Skype/Zoom environments feel somehow more intimidated. It’s a great challenge to reduce this intimidation and make sure that everyone feels equally welcome, involved, and appreciated.

Can serious games promote sustainability? If yes, how?

Bartek: Yes, they can and they do. Mostly by showing the opposite: the results of unsustainable policies or behaviours. Even if a game doesn’t clearly specify any conditions of winning and losing, it can surely make an unsustainably-acting player’s life much more difficult. Thanks to the compression of time, players can experience the long-term results of their reckless behaviours in the matter of hours – and these results can hit really hard.

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Most games (both “serious” and “entertainment”) include more or less the same components, such as a basic storyline that sets the context of the game, a list of defined rules to follow and an achievable goal that motivates players to keep on going. Yet, whereas some games make you literally plunge into the fictional universe, other evoke nothing but a wish to log out and forget all about it. Why? Well, there may be a lot of reasons, but graphic design is surely among the most significant ones.

A tool for shaping and enhancing players’ experience

A skillful choice of graphic elements may work miracles, ensuring a player’s interest and enhancing realistic immersion in the fictional world. However, graphic design follows certain rules that – when broken – may completely ruin the game experience. What are these rules, then? First of all, as opposed to purely artistic activity, design always serves the content. Esthetic matters are marginal, and the main goal is to find the form which presents the message in the most adequate and clear way possible. We can distinguish a few major aspects of that form: composition, color, typography and special effects. Let’s discuss them briefly.

Composition

Composition is all about finding right proportions between individual elements, to highlight key information at the expense of less important content. The sum of all parts should be balanced and static, based on regular subdivisions. We avoid the impression of gravitating towards any direction, as well as small differences in sizes and distances. They cause visual discomfort and look like a mistake rather than a designer’s conscious decision. We should group together elements connected by meaning, and care about keeping steady rhythm between them. Visible and invisible lines help us lead the viewer’s eye where we want.

Color

The choice of colors is also important. Firstly, vivid colors attract attention to most significant elements of the composition. Natural connotations they create (e.g. yellow for energy, green for nature), help a viewer navigate in the sea of meanings. Colors can also build depth and space via, e.g., setting together brighter and darker shades of the same hue, or applying a warm hue over a cool background. Harmony and balance can be achieved by choosing colors with a similar degree of saturation.

Mixing every color from the palette with the same addition, on the other hand, will work like color filter in photography; it glues different part of the design together. Most attractive juxtapositions emerge between colors from the opposite ends of the color wheel, with additional difference in lightness applied. Importantly enough, color has also the great power of creating mood. A negative effect can be amplified with pessimistic black or warning red, while green highlights the positive feedback.

Typography

There are not many games out there that are utterly devoid of text. Serious games are especially rich with written word, which is related to their educational function and the multitude of options and various difficulties that need clarification. Basic rules of typography hold true here: we limit the number of font families within one project to 2-3, we don’t combine similar typefaces together, we stick to the rule of leading being approximately 1,4 x font size, we avoid fancy, decorative fonts, and we keep a sufficient contrast between text and background.

Special effects

Special effects are the very last layer in graphic design. Shading helps create illusion of depth. If it is important to recognize the material of which a given element is made, textures come in handy. They can make things more tangible, they are also usable when designer wants to establish a certain character of the whole design (rusty texture as a recurrent element in P.I.P.E.S. game can be a good example). Effects such as gloss and glow suggest interactivity in digital environment.

So much about theory. Now, let’s check how these rules apply to some popular serious games.

Urban Climate Architect

The initial screen is characterised by perfectly symmetrical composition that follows a hierarchical order of elements. 3D models of three cities are clearly separated from each other and are big enough for us to appreciate little details. The main content catches our attention, whereas secondary pieces of information are moved to the corners. The color palette is very limited. Subtle gradients, shadows and a discreet decorative element (namely the circle of lines shown in convergent perspective), create the illusion of depth and space. Add to it simple, sans-serif typefaces and in the result we have a very elegant, clean and modern look.

Things are getting a little bit worse in the next step. An unnecessary, new typeface is introduced, the composition looks unbalanced and the placement of buttons is counterintuitive.

Fortunately, the situation gets better with another move. The main screen of the game offers a perfect example of a skilfull selection of colors. Red alerts scream for our attention, and we can immediately understand that the three big indicators in the right bottom corner will be very important during the game. I also like how designers solved the need for displaying information; to read the detailed description of a selected item, we have to drag it and drop it on the “i” icon. All the clickable elements are clearly differentiated from the subdued background. Little animated details, such as clouds and birds, add life and motion to the scene.

Every move provides immediate feedback for a player: the animated indicators increase or decrease; whereas the tooltips provide information about threats and investments necessary for keeping the balance in the urban environment.

Actually, the graphic design of “Urban Climate Architect” is worthy of a better case. Deceived by great visuals, we expect something closer to computer strategy games and all we get here is simple, repetitive mechanism of balancing indicators, which gets boring way before we complete the map.

3rd World Farmer

The initial screen may overwhelm a viewer with an abundance of surprising elements, such as unreadable letters in the shape of trees or the word “world” illustrated by a globe (could it be more obvious?) The language choice is signalled by as many as 9 flags (while it could be hidden under a simple drop-down menu) which – together with the flashy yellow letters – make us think that we are entering an amusement park rather than a village in the distant regions of Africa. After a moment to enjoy the biggest bullet-points in history of mankind, we can start the game.

The icons are blurry and small. Luckily enough, tooltips help us identify the objects (if you can read microscopic texts, of course). The prices are small too, and sometimes even partially covered by images (this problem is repeated multiple times across various places in the interface). Visual distinction between available and unavailable investments is way too subtle.

The further into the game the more disencouraging it becomes. For example, instead of brief, singular descriptions of family-related statistics and available actions, we have to scroll through one enormous wall of text which covers all aspects of managing a family, in order to find the information we need. However, this screed reveals itself only if we are inquisitive enough to press the modest question mark in the character card. What is more, after clicking the ‘money’ icon, we are presented with the entire list of items, along with the recommendation: “press green buttons to sell items for the prices given”. There are no green buttons until you actually make some goods, but you have to figure it out by yourself. The annual report is full of information, and it is difficult to tell which piece of it is the most relevant. Was it a good or bad year? Also, sliders behave differently in the report and in the help window.

I’m sure a lot of effort was put into the game’s content. Each round introduces new events; there is a plethora of things we could build if we could ever afford them. Too bad that illegible interface and obsolete design diminish the player’s experience. With the proper UI solutions and more contemporary graphics, the “3rd World Farmer” could be a real hit.

Magnitude Game

A fine example to illustrate that although “simpler is better” it may sometimes deprive the design of distinctive features.

The consequent use of a limited color palette and typography ensures the legibility of the design. The rosette-like ornament and the shield shape (taken from the logo) repeat in many places, which is a signal of designer’s awareness; but overall flatness and stock simplicity of icons could be taken as a flaw. Sparingly used textures or gradients, and more carefully crafted images instead of contour pictograms could make the whole design more attractive and alive; now it seems a bit cold and soulless. I would also replace the (nowadays overused) grotesque font in headlines to something more distinct and expressive, but this is really a matter of taste more than pointing out a mistake.

In summary, Magnitude Game looks solid and correct, if unmemorable. It is a good starting point for future improvements.

I hope that the examples presented here are strong enough to show the importance of proper graphic design, even (or maybe especially) in the genre which is not so famous for its striking visuals. Play the Urban Climate Architect to see how attention to detail and carefully made graphic components can bring the not-so-absorbing game to the next level. Check out 3rd World Farmer and imagine how amazing it would be with an interface designed to actually help the player orienting in a multitude of options, instead of working against him. And if you plan to create a game on your own, hire a professional graphic designer who will save you from glaring mistakes and provide at least correct and solid results – just like the Magnitude Game.

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