Game Reports

"Play Accessible Communities -PAC İzmir aims to transform micro-mobility hubs into inclusive, healthy public spaces. Developed under the EIT Urban Mobility Co-Create New European Bauhaus (NEB) programme, the project brings together Play the City, İzmir Planning Agency, and Transform Transport. PAC promotes accessible neighborhoods by linking mobility with social engagement."

"In November 2024, Ro3kvit and its three Dutch partners—INBO, Stipo, and Play the City—launched an Open Call for Ukrainian municipalities and their local partners to submit projects in which citizen involvement was a crucial factor for success. One could argue that a good relationship between a municipality and local communities is always essential for a flourishing society. Top-down policies without any citizen involvement lead in most cases to mutual distrust between authorities and citizens. In communities under stressful situations such
as war or other (natural) disasters, a sense of belonging and “ownership” of the new situation—which will never be the same as it was—is even more urgent. But the how is not easily answered: on the one hand, there is interest from citizens to be involved and engaged; on the other hand, they (both citizens and municipalities) have many other urgent issues to handle."

"Het Havenspel is ontworpen als een tool ter ondersteuning van dit proces en heeft deelnemers uitgedaagd om de ambities uit de visie te vertalen in concrete, fysieke interventies. Op 29 November 2023

speelden het Havenverbond, de Havenadviseurs en de gemeenteraad Het Havenspel, een serious game om input te leveren voor verschillende ontwikkelrichtingen voor Haven. De ontwikkelrichtingen worden geleverd voor een milieueffectrapportage (m.e.r. rapportage), waar gekeken wordt naar de verschillende gevolgen voor het milieu."

"Played during MARUF23 on October 4-5, 2023 and developed in collaboration with the Play the City team and the Marmara Municipalities Union (MMU), the Play Marmara Food game is the third installment of the Play Marmara series and a serious game initiative themed around urban resilience and sustainability. As the third edition of the Play Marmara 2019 and Play Marmara 'Sea' games series, the game brought together relevant stake- holders to collaborate."

"The Mobility Game: Izmir Fair addresses the key values, goals and solutions that emerged from the Digital Gaming Campus event organized for Fuar Izmir. The game focuses on Izmir's core values, aiming to support the future sustainable and inclusive development of Fuar Izmir. It emphasizes elements such as diversity, empathy, caring and trust. The main goal is to build the future of the Digital Gaming Campus incubation space together. To define with a common mind the proposals that various stakeholders come together to produce in order for Fuar Izmir to move towards a sustainable and inclusive future."

"The Beyoğlu Climate Adaptation Game took place on 30 and 31 May 2022 in four sessions. The game was implemented by Play the City in collaboration with the Istanbul Planning Agency (İPA) and the Urban Planning Directorate of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Department of Zoning and Urban Planning, with the support of the Royal Netherlands Consulate General in Istanbul.

This report presents how the method works, how it was applied in the field, and the game processes and outcomes of the four sessions. In the concluding section, it visualizes the draft climate action plan and timeline shaped through these four game sessions. The reflections of the game results can be found in the Beyoğlu Strategic Plan under the heading “Resilience.”"

“Play Marmara “Sea” directly contributed to the 14th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) “Conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable de- velopment”. It is also valuable in that it creates synergies with other purposes such as resilient infrastructures (SDG 9), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) and partnerships for sustainable development (SDG 17) by ad- dressing human activities on a regional scale to protect aquatic life.”

"In Ooltgensplaat, om gezamenlijke keuzes te kunnen maken en de gevolgen van deze keuzes in beeld te brengen is er het unieke spelvorm van Play the City als werkmethode geïmplementeerd. Kamervullend gedetailleerde kaarten van Goeree-Overflakkee met de ruimtelijke en energetische data. De interactieve stukken en strategiekaarten zijn gebruikt voor een betekenisvol gesprek over de verduurzaming van Ooltgensplaat. Zo verkenden bewoners, gebouweigenaren, woningbouw-corporaties, gemeente, netbeheerders en andere belanghebbenden samen hoe ze mede eigenaar van de transitie worden."

"One of the steps Gazhane has taken in strengthening its position as the country's first climate adaptation platform is to reevaluate the campus and its surroundings with the aim of reducing carbon footprint to zero. For this purpose the serious gaming company Play the City team [based in Amsterdam and Istanbul] produced a city simulation game called "Climate Compatible Gazhane". This interactive working method enables participants to think in an integral manner about water, transportation, green and energy issues together with urban spatial transformation. Its purpose is to support the realization of abstract climate adaptation visions and strategies made at the central and regional levels by identifying concrete projects to be implemented at the scale of the city and neighborhood."

“Network of Games connects city strategy games by linking data behind these games. This is a digital infrastructure that aims to inform integrated city-making. Creating an environment where individual games can be linked to one another will result in an ecology of games which can enrich themselves as well as support more complex city development debate. ”

"Sinds 2014 is de Koepel in Breda niet meer in gebruik als gevangenis. Het Koepelcomplex heeft daarna twee jaar dienst gedaan als asielzoekersopvang en vervolgens als evenementenlocatie en tijdelijke kantoorruimte. Nu is het tijd voor een nieuw hoofdstuk in het Koepelverhaal. Het Rijksvastgoedbedrijf, de huidige eigenaar van het Koepelcomplex, zoekt een nieuwe eigenaar voor het complex. Het gaat om een gebied van 3,3 hectare. Dat is ongeveer vijf voetbalvelden groot. Binnen de gevangenismuren zijn onder andere de Koepelgevangenis uit 1886, de oude rechtbank, een vrouwengevangenis, luchtplaatsen, sportvelden en verschillende werkplaatsen te vinden."

“Ik [Ittje Feddes, de landschapsarchitect] heb aan de bewoners een paar van de oude plannen laten zien. Toen was de buurt eigenlijk veel groener. Vanavond hoorde ik van jullie vele mooie initiatieven: fruitbomen, muziektuinen, hagen planten achter de schutting. Als je op buurt niveau algemene vergroening zou kunnen maken, dat zou kwaliteit enorm verbeteren.”

“Ling-Kong denkt aan een Kangoeroewoning waar ze met haar moeder kan wonen. Een combinatie van twee [zelfstandige] woningen onder een dak. Op de locatie van de oude garage achter de winkelcentrum kunnen Kangoeroewoningen en andere woonvormen plaatsvinden, bijvoorbeeld in een middelhoog gebouw met een binnentuin. Dit gebouw zou als buurthuis ook kunnen functioneren.”

“De Brandweer Kazerne wordt getransformeerd tot een bruisende broedplaats voor creatieven en een buurthuis. 7 van de 13 activiteiten vandaag voorgesteld waren bedoeld om in de Kazerne te gebeuren. De enthousiaste deelnemers willen graag een vervolg van hun acties binnenkort zien gebeuren. Wat zal de volgende stap zijn?”

“The last ambitious efforts for planning the Istanbul Metropolitan Area date back to 2005. When structuring a large and complex urban system at a metropolitan scale, authorities and experts already recognized the necessity for national and regional scale planning. Recently, Turkey has been developing national spatial planning agendas. Issues on economy, transport, ecology, natural disasters, coastal zones, and ecological areas call for an integrated approach at a regional scale. Aside from planning frameworks, regional data and multi-level governance, are the challenges for such ambitions.”

“Amsterdam has always been ambitious about its urban development. With 80 per cent of land owned by the city, Amsterdam has been able to establish a strong tradition of high-quality planning. Since the beginning of the last century, the city has focused on developing social housing on a large scale. In recent years, strong economic growth has made the city a magnet for residents and businesses; and the number of people living and working in the city has never been higher. The dark side of this success is a booming real estate industry, rising prices, and increasing segregation. The city’s tradition of inclusiveness is under threat.”

“This event followed on from a similar meeting on affordable housing held earlier this year. Looking at the reports on each event, it’s clear that there is a large degree of overlap in the policy solutions that emerged from the two sessions. Participants in both sessions came up with proposals that sought to address the high cost of land, that acknowledged the need to respond to the changing nature of housing demand, and that recognised the importance of fostering sustainable communities. It is notable how participants on 18 October reached consensus on the idea that affordable housing should be linked to household income, whereas in the earlier event each policy proposal was based on varying definitions of affordability.”

“Housing affordability is a simple idea: it is a measure of whether households can afford to rent or buy a home on their income. Though the concept is straightforward, delivering housing that is affordable has proved challenging in Ireland. As in many other countries, it has become increasingly difficult in recent years for households to obtain accommodation in many parts of Ireland, most notably Dublin, Cork, and Galway. Responding to the affordability challenge facing households is a core objective of Ireland’s housing policy. Housing affordability is also central to the Irish Housing Agency’s vision to enable everyone to live in good-quality, affordable homes in sustainable communities.”

“With 80 new residents per week, Utrecht is the fastest growing city of the Netherlands and is among the top 10 in Europe. Overvecht, a postwar settlement with a 60% migrant population and 72% social housing stock, is the ultimate arrival town in Utrecht. While Overvecht enjoys a large amount of cultural diversity and a mix of support systems aimed at a diverse residential base, it is also in need of further measures. Ontdek Overvecht is an experiment for an integrated approach to social and spatial issues in Overvecht.”

“With almost 15 000 commuters boarding the train from Khayelitsha station every day, the future development of the townships center is a crucial discussion. Play Khayelitsha focuses on facilitating this discussion in a collaborative way, working towards how to capitalise on the strategic location of the site while at the same time provide a safer, pedestrian-friendly environment. On the 20th of November 2015 a follow up Play Khayelitsha session took place at the Zenzele Training Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. This report informs you on the public discussions held by stakeholders during this work session.”

“On Thursday November 26, 2015, around thirty stakeholders involved in the (re)development of Buiksloterham (BSH) – a brownfield transformation and regeneration project in the northern part of Amsterdam –assembled in Pakhuis de Zwijger, to play the Circular Buiksloterhamgame sesion. In March 2014 many of these stakeholders signed the Manifesto for a Circular Buiksloterham, stating their commitment to developing Buiksloterham according to the principles of a ‘circular economy’. This City Innovation Game is developed by Play the City in cooperation with The Hackable City, Pakhuis de Zwijger, and Stadslab Buiksloterham.”

“The urgency for open conversation and decision-making in Cape Town points at the shift former US president Barrack Obama calls for: conflicting interests between political parties, community leaders, city officials, investors and developers are particularly evident in the urban development debate of Cape Town. For the city to develop coherently, a shared conversation needs to emerge from these various narratives. Methods supporting the collaboration of isolated parties need to be explored.”

“In October 2011, first three Play Noord sessions took place in the Information Center of Overhoeks of the ING real estate. As the debate on Amsterdam’s northern riverfront continued, a follow up session has been organized with existing and new engaged players. This report informs you on the public discussion held by stakeholders during the 2012 Play Noord meeting.”