l down for the latest News, Events, Opportunities, and Cool Stuff from where games, geoscience, and environmental research and action meet.
Hello! And welcome to the first Gaming Environments newsletter to be hosted on the Games for Geoscience website. Previously, I have hosted the newsletter on a personal Substack* but from now on this will be its main home.
You can subscribe to the blog and receive a copy of the newsletter straight to you email the third Wednesday of every month. Each issue is split between the News, Events, Opportunities, and Cool Stuff I have found over the month where games meet geoscience and environmental research and action.
If you have not had the chance to check out the Games for Geoscience website yet, do it right after you have digested this newsletter. Games for Geoscience is a science-sharing session held annually as part of the European Geoscience Union's General Assembly. The first was in 2018 and it has grown every year - now we are hoping games will go mainstream as tools for teaching, research, and communication.
I hope you find it useful!
Chris (@FloodSkinner)
News
On the Games for Geoscience blog this month we had a post contributed by Helen Mackay on the party card game all about the environment, Grassroots. If you are very quick, you can still contribute to the Kickstarter to fund the game! It has also been added to our Games Library. Read the blog here.
Issue 16 of Consilience, the online journal uniting science and the arts, is now out with the theme of ‘colour’. Issue 17 will have the theme of ‘Language’ and the call for submissions is open now.
With its Kickstarter successfully reached, Hydrologic Cycle, an area control card game on the global water cycle from Central Michigan University Press., is now available for general pre-order. Get your copy here.
Research in Climatic Change shows that being a gamer make you more inclined to take action on climate change, and that exposing players to climate change messages through games is effective. Read Geeks versus Climate Change here.
How can roleplay games inspire climate action? Sam Illingworth explains more in his latest article in Nature. Read it here.
The Institution of Civil Engineer's is currently running two competitions for school pupils (ages 14-16 and 16-18) through its CityZen programme. Both competitions encourage pupils to explore how civil engineering can make local environmental improvements and control pollution. Find out more here.
Research by Micael Sousa in Educational Media International explores the efficacy of boardgames for informal education with adults. Read Informal adult learning and training sessions here.
Terra Nil, the reverse city builder where you restore environments and leave no trace, is to receive a major free update. Vita Nova drops on mobile and PC on June 24. Find out more here.
Events
The Games for Change Festival is one my annual highlights. It focuses on the use of games for making positive societal impacts. Even though I've never made it to New York (yet!), they usually have great online content alongside the conference and sessions are posted onto their YouTube channel. This year's Festival will be 27-28 June 2024. Details here.
Are you a Postgraduate Researcher working on games for the environment? The Interactive Games Postgraduate Research Conference 2024 will be held on 12 July at York St John's University. Find out more in this Tweet.
Beyond Play is an upcoming conference being held in Bremen, Germany, on 30 Sept - 2 Oct 2024. The theme is the transformative power of digital gaming in a deeply mediatised society. The deadline to submit papers has just been extended to June 30 2024 - find out more here.
A call for proposals is open for the Digital Gaming and Values meeting by the International Academy for the Study into Gaming and Religion. This hybrid meeting will be online and live at the University of Bremen, Germany, on 28 September 2024. It is aimed at early-career researchers and graduate students. Deadline to apply is 1 July 2024. Find out more and apply here.
The call for papers for the Gaming and Learning Alliance Conference (GALA 2024) is open until July 3 2024. The conference, organised by the Serious Games Society, will be held in Berlin, Germany, November 20-22 2024. More details here.
Opportunities
Do you work with analogue games and have a research idea? Game In Lab have a call for proposals open until September 6 2024. There is 24months support available of up to 20k Euros for research projects using board games. Themes include Sustainability & Justice, 50 Years of Dungeons & Dragons, Healthy People and/or Planet, and Cultural Heritage. Learn more here.
Are you making games as a geoscientist? Have you set up a game studio for development? Playing for the Planet have created a Climate Check survey tool to help your game development to be as sustainable as possible. Find it here.
The Serious Games Society is running a competition for new games with the theme Games for Better Futures. The deadline for submissions is August 4 2024 and more details can be found here.
Cool Stuff
Could LEGO lead to improved flood resilience? The LEGO Flood House on LEGO ideas is aiming to do just that. You can support the idea here.
Ever wondered how developers create the physics in game worlds? This presentation about Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom from the Games Development Conference (GDC) is very, very cool and well worth a watch.
With the announcement that Civilization VII is in development (learn more here), Ethan Mollick shared research on Twitter from 2018 that showed that Business Schools students who excelled at previous iterations of the legendary strategy game had better skills. Read more here.
A conference all about Warhammer? It is coming to Hiedelburg University, Germany, September 27-28 2024. You can submit papers until 9am July 31 2014. More details are here. Need inspiration for a geoscience-theme? Check out Simon Clark's video about the planets of 40k below.
About this Newsletter
This newsletter is put together by Chris Skinner (aka FloodSkinner) to support Games for Geoscience. It shares News, Events, Opportunities, and Cool Stuff from where games meet geoscience and environmental research and action. It is free and there is no paid tier. If you want to say thank you to Chris, you can 'buy him a coffee' using the link below.
*I will be closing the Substack after this issue, please move over your subscription if you wish to still receive it via email.