Games for Cities — how games improve city decision-making

Games for Cities in an initiative of Play the City (Amsterdam) and generously funded by the Creative Industries Fund NL. Organising partners are: The Mobile City, the New Media Studies Department at Utrecht University, the Play and Civic Media Lectorate at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, and The Why Factory (TU Delft).

When inserted carefully into urban processes, games significantly improve the practice of conventional urban design by, for example, supporting collaborative decision-making and design, extracting and visualizing useful insights from big data, and contributing to various resolution. However, the field of City-Gaming is relatively new and there is an urgent need for building an integrated community, developing a common language, and supporting newcomers. These are the driving motivations behind the launch of GAMES FOR CITIES: a public research- and event-program that explores the role of gaming for complex urban issues.

Policy makers, game designers, urban planners and other professionals in the fields of city making are invited to attend and discover what kinds of city games could be useful for tackling the pressing urban planning challenges that cities face. Right now, the organization has some games like Overvecht experiment, Launching the Inclusive City and The Circular City-Game Jam. No matter what game it is, the process can be documented and data can be used to conclude what citizens’ need and how issues could be solved in different methods.

Therefore, GAMES FOR CITIES will deliver three useful outcomes throughout its year-long program: 1. A guidebook for policy makers and regulators to employ city gaming in their daily work. 2. Activation and growth of the City Gaming community through public events and an online network. 3. A comprehensive City Gaming insights and database on the Games for Cities website. In short, such an gaming and data-driven innovation really carries unexplored potentials for city-making.