Understanding complexity: co-producing serious games to address multi-risk challenges.

This poster explores the use of serious games as a comprehensive approach to disaster risk reduction and resilience, bridging gaps between physical and social sciences, policy, and practice amidst the complex and uncertain context of climate change. Developed under the DIRECTED project in collaboration with local stakeholders, these games integrate diverse technical and social science perspectives by combining DIRECTED Data Fabric scenarios with Speculative Design. This integration enhances our capacity to mitigate and adapt to complex disaster risks while promoting interdisciplinary approaches to disaster risk management and climate change adaptation.

Key Objectives:

• Enhancing understanding of risk governance contexts, challenges, and opportunities for integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk management amidst uncertainty.
• Developing "future-making" skills that translate gaming insights into real-world applications, equipping stakeholders to work across disciplines to tackle complex challenges.

The poster will share insights from our scenario-based, gamified Tabletop Exercise, illustrating their potential to address bureaucratic hurdles, disciplinary silos, and unclear responsibilities. With the DIRECTED Rhein-Erft Real World Lab, we co-created a speculative scenario based on model data from the 2021 floods in German federal states—particularly North Rhine-Westphalia—enhanced with projections of future climate change impacts. Using this case study, we will demonstrate how gameplay can enhance imagination, foresight, and collaboration. By exploring participants' contexts and constructing meaning around "what if?" scenarios—rooted in the unique experiences and perspectives of real people—these exercises inspire innovative solutions. Furthermore, they introduce new ways of working that support resilient pathways for risk governance and climate adaptation.

This transdisciplinary approach highlights the role of serious games in fostering dialogue, sparking creativity, and generating actionable insights across science, policy, and practice to address multi-risk challenges.