On Simulating Shocks and Stresses in Climate Change Games: A Review of Game Design Strategies

In the last few decades, simulation games have been successfully used around the world in the context of addressing climate change related challenges. A particular game design challenge in these games is simulating both short-term events (shocks) and long-term gradual changes (stresses) and their interplay as a result of climate change. In response to encountering this challenge in the design of a climate change game, the study presented in this paper aimed to identify game design strategies and mechanisms to simulate both shocks and stresses in climate change games. Games included in recent review papers on climate change games were reviewed, resulting in the identification of four game design strategies: (1) time-based simulation with triggered events; (2) shocks as changing probabilities; (3) jump to a future climate scenario; and (4) climate change as a game condition. Each strategy is briefly described with examples of mechanisms used in games. From a research perspective, the presented study serves as a precursor to specify research questions and a review protocol for conducting a systematic review on this topic, thereby addressing this study’s limitation of missing relevant games not covered in the review papers. From a game design perspective, the study and identified strategies offer guidance and inspiration for game designers working on climate change games.