Design Board Games for Socio-Political Change

Turn social events into social change with board games that engage and educate

Board games naturally support social interaction, and are often a reflection of a culture’s values and beliefs. They also happen to be one of today’s fastest-growing hobbies.

With all that in mind, it makes sense that playing board games can affect what individuals think about important issues. And it follows that these games have the power to foster political and social change.

On this three-week course from the renowned Abertay University School of Design and Informatics, you’ll gain skills to analyse the use of board games in socio-political debates and learn how to develop your own game design concept.

Deconstruct and understand the basics of board games

Before you start working on games for social change you’ll learn the fundamentals, processes,and techniques of good design.

You’ll play, analyse, and deconstruct existing games that were developed to benefit society, and will see their potential as a way to encourage activism for political change, climate action, and other important causes.

Create the social and political change you want to see

Once you understand the theory behind producing board games that encourage socio-political reforms, you’ll get a chance to do it yourself.

Not only will you get to develop your own concepts, but you’ll also gain extra insights from the constructive feedback that you get from and give to your peers.

Learn from the best board game design experts

The School of Design and Informatics at Abertay University is the United Kingdom’s Centre of Excellence for Computer Games Education.

Their award-winning courses are widely renowned, and you’ll get to take advantage of all this expertise and support as you create board games to make the world a better place.

This course is designed for anyone interested in board game design, especially as a tool to create political or social change. No prior knowledge is required, but a genuine love of board games will make the course even more enjoyable and meaningful.

• Intro to Games for Change - Play
• Course overview
• Understanding Games for Change
• Let's play some Games for Change
• Summary of this week
• Analysing games we play - Deconstruct
• Analysing Games and Play
• What Goes Into A Game?
• How do we immerse our players?
• Narrative Design
• Summary
• Bringing it all together - Conceptualise
• Intro to week 3
• Game design peer review
• In summary