Claims about the ‘power’ of games and simulations to slow the speed of climate change are sometimes exaggerated.  We have therefore embarked on a literature review of academic publications on the topic of simulation/gaming and climate change.  In our presentation, we will summarize the work so far.

As we write this abstract, we have identified over 400 items, some published in peer-reviewed journals, some in games conference proceedings, some in magazines or blogs.  We will therefore need to design careful inclusion/exclusion criteria, to have a pool of from 20 to 40 publications.

The types of publications vary widely: research on a particular game, tips on facilitating, overview of the role of games in climate education, use of simulation as a climate research tool, role-play of climate negotiations, necessity of debriefing, evaluation of climate games.  Types of games mentioned or examined also vary: board, online, computerized, single player, interactive, video, escape rooms and even gamification.

We hope that our review will be able to reveal a variety of elements, such as:

• the real potential and limits of games to influence climate education;
• how exaggerated the claims are about the power of climate games;
• what aspects of global warming are present in game publications and in games, e.g., carbon cycle, how GHGs actually 'heat' the planet, floods, hurricanes (and why), slowing of AMOC, role and acidification of the ocean;
• the use of debriefing in climate games.

Our aim is not to propose a taxonomy of climate, althiough categories of climate game types may emerge in the literature. 

[Please note that most ‘games’ related to climate change education are in fact simulations, often with game elements.  In keeping with the long tradition of simulation/gaming (dating back to the early pioneers, such as Duke, Greenblat, Guetzkow), we use the term game to refer to the whole spectrum of interactive events (Ken Jones’ term), from 100% simulation to hybrid simulation/games.]

If you are interested in contributing to this work, please come to see us at our poster, or contact us here oceans dot climate at gmail.

How to cite: Crookall, D., Blair, B., Promduangsri, P., Wellman, R., Krakovska, S., and Nguyen, U.-P. (.: Climate change games literature review: Report on work in progress, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5211, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5211, 2025.

Serious games are designed for purposes beyond entertainment, serving as powerful tools to address environmental challenges. They foster education, engagement, and behavioural change by offering immersive experiences that enable players, stakeholders, and decision-makers to understand complex issues and co-create solutions. However, for beginners, navigating the field of serious games can be difficult. To address this challenge, the Serious Games Cookbook was developed as a practical guide for beginners. It covers essential aspects of applying serious games, including setting objectives, selecting suitable games, and organising game sessions. The cookbook also provides guidance on designing serious games, addressing content development, game mechanics, player engagement, and techniques for influencing perspectives. This presentation will share insights into the development of the Serious Games Cookbook and demonstrate its potential to enhance our collective capacity to tackle environmental challenges.

How to cite: Mao, F.: Learning to address environmental challenges using serious games: A cookbook for beginners, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3570, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3570, 2025.

"Clouded Judgments" is an educational board game designed to deepen understanding of meteorological alert systems and the complexities of decision-making under uncertainty. Inspired by the weather alert framework used in Liguria, Italy, by the Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection of Liguria (ARPAL), the game introduces players to the probabilistic nature of forecasting and the challenges of managing uncertainty in predictions. Players navigate scenarios involving varying degrees of forecast reliability, balancing the risks of overestimating threats (leading to economic and social costs) and underestimating dangers (potentially compromising safety and lives).

Game mechanics include thematic card decks (e.g., "Atmospheric Events" and "Actions"), reliability tokens, resource tokens, and dice rolls to simulate probabilistic outcomes. Players begin with limited resources and must decide whether to invest in improving their forecasting reliability—by upgrading instrumentation or analysis tools—or to use action cards for immediate benefits. Measurements are conducted over successive days, represented by dice rolls, which determine the accuracy of weather data based on the players’ reliability levels. While uncertainty decreases as more data is collected, players must still interpret incomplete or contradictory information and issue an alert specifying its intensity, time of the day, and type. Correctly issued alerts reward resources, while underestimations incur penalties, simulating the societal and economic consequences of misjudged decisions. To avoid underestimations, players may adopt cautious strategies by overestimating threats, prioritizing safety but potentially incurring economic losses.

The game simulates the chaotic nature of atmospheric events, and the resource trade-offs faced in real-world forecasting. By immersing players in scenarios that require critical decision-making and risk management, "Clouded Judgments" allows students to experience the complexities of meteorological management firsthand, beyond theoretical knowledge.

Designed for educators and students, "Clouded Judgments" fosters critical thinking, engagement with meteorological concepts, and an understanding of uncertainty and risk management. By blending real-world analogies with interactive gameplay, the game connects scientific principles to practical applications, making it a valuable tool for teaching and outreach.

Future plans include classroom playtesting phases and outreach activities to evaluate the game’s educational impact and refine its mechanics. "Clouded Judgments" exemplifies how gamification can effectively bridge the gap between complex systems through which meteorological events are managed and public understanding, offering a novel approach to science education and decision-making training.

How to cite: Brusasco, L., Nardella, M., Vannini, S., and Lertora, N. C.: Clouded Judgments: An Educational Board Game for Teaching Meteorological Decision-Making Under Uncertainty, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-638, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-638, 2025.

One of the main aims of study programmes in physical geography and related subjects is to convey a deep understanding of earth surface processes. Practical constraints often force curriculum developers to stick to traditional learning formats, with limited options for the creations of innovative, exciting learning environments. We attempt to close this gap by creating a freely available physical geography computer game. The primary target audience will be bachelor students of geography and related subjects, but the environment will be flexible enough to be adapted for high schools, awareness-building towards geomorphic risks etc. it will be optimized for virtual reality experiences, but also useable with basic equipment (ordinary PCs and laptops, possibly mobile phones) in order to increase reach and accessibility. The game is developed with Unreal Engine 5.

The scene of the game is an 80 km x 80 km landscape featuring all major geomorphic landforms and biomes in a logical arrangement, from the equator to high latitudes, and from high mountains to the deep sea. Terrain elevation is scaled by 1:10, meaning that the highest mountains peak at roughly 900 m asl. Technically speaking, the gaming environment consists of six closely related elements: (i) terrain, created in GIS essentially through the interpolation of manually drawn contour lines; (ii) land cover, created mainly from materials, grass, and foliage available for Unreal Engine; (iii) processes (landslides, volcanic eruptions etc.); (iv) player movement through trails, roads, railways, air and water transport; (v) light and atmospheric conditions; and (vi) most importantly, a set of tasks and rewards.

The player will move through the landscape and guided through the tasks. Tasks will be related to each other, following a storyline, and will focus on gaining a deep understanding of earth surface processes in an exciting interactive way. Particular emphasis will be put on the understanding of spatial and functional relations, e.g. vegetation transects or connections between different geomorphic processes. Rewards will be awarded at important milestones along the storyline.

The proposed gaming environment is still in a very early phase of its first stage of development, in which components (i)–(iv) are implemented along with an initial set of tasks and rewards. This prototype is then intended to be exposed to the target audience, so that students are invited to add their own ideas and that the game will be gradually enhanced and improved. It will be made available to the public as soon as considered mature enough.

How to cite: Mergili, M. and Pfeffer, H.: A comprehensive physical geography game for virtual reality, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-10446, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10446, 2025.

Various contemporary developments, such as changes in water demand and availability due to climate and demographic change, are challenging for water utilities. Raising awareness regarding these issues is essential not only for the general public but also for students in classrooms.
The EWA tool, a free online tool (available at https://sww-ewa.tugraz.at/) aimed at developing optimal designs for water supply systems under uncertain water demand availability, has been equipped with a flexible gamification system to support teachers and educators with this task. The tool provides a user-friendly interface through which hydraulic models can be uploaded, simulated, and optimized for different scenarios. It calculates performance indicators such as demand coverage or the number of unsupplied nodes to enable well-founded planning.
The embedded gamification system allows users to create realistic “challenges” that reflect complex water supply problems with a challenge editor. The generated challenges can be combined with custom models to provide a playful approach to problem-solving tailored to specific water supply systems. Success in challenges is rewarded with prizes, reinforcing the learning content and making planning an intuitive experience. 
Students can solve individual challenges, such as a challenge where the population in a future area is growing, and the water supply systems need to be expanded to supply all nodes adequately. Tasks can also be created for varying operational conditions, such as fire situations or system failures.
The tool's simulation and gamification approaches make it an ideal teaching tool. Students, in particular, can use practical scenarios to better understand the complexities of water supply. At the same time, the tool promotes awareness of future challenges as users can see the impact of demographic and climate change on the systems.
Through this combination of strategic planning, gamification, and knowledge transfer, the EWA tool makes a valuable contribution to students' education and awareness in the classroom. It not only makes the complex requirements for a resilient water supply comprehensible but also conveys them in an engaging and interactive way.

How to cite: Arbesser-Rastburg, G., Stelzl, A., Adler, V., Camhy, D., Pirker, J., and Fuchs-Hanusch, D.: Integrating the EWA Tool into Teaching and Raising Awareness of Water Supply Challenges, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19579, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19579, 2025.

“A life-threatening asteroid is approaching Earth. Mission AVERT, designed to deflect it from its trajectory, is ready to launch – if only the missing launch codes can be recovered in time...”

Interactive games offer an innovative approach to geoscience outreach, fostering curiosity and learning through hands-on challenges. With Mission AVERT, we created a multimedia geoscience-themed escape room game designed for 13 - 14-year-olds to explore geoscience concepts in an engaging and accessible format. Inspired by NASA’s DART mission, students solve puzzles encrypting the mission’s launch codes to deflect a life-threatening asteroid from colliding with Earth.

Mission AVERT showcases the diverse and essential role of geoscience in addressing real-world challenges. Its puzzles cover a broad spectrum of geoscience topics, including earthquakes, climate change, planetary science, and scientific policy communication. Solving them requires teamwork and a variety of skills – ranging from mathematics and physics to language, creativity, and keen observation – ensuring that every student can contribute meaningfully based on their individual strengths. By featuring students and staff from Imperial College London in video messages, Mission AVERT offers young participants relatable role models working and conducting research in geoscience. Comprised of an interactive website, videos, and paper-based puzzles, it integrates seamlessly into classrooms, with little setup or preparation required.

Here, we will explore the design process, educational objectives, and preliminary feedback and lessons learned from our first classroom implementation. We discuss how escape rooms like Mission AVERT can spark an interest in geoscience while equipping students with problem-solving and teamwork skills.

How to cite: Locher, V., Kanimova, E., Johnson, E., Leibowitz, Z., and Zhao, J.: Mission AVERT: A Geoscience Escape Room, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19303, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19303, 2025.

Do you dare to enter the model land? Brave adventurers are sought to explore the mathematical depths of strange new worlds. Your quest will be full of uncertainty, unknowns, and potential misdirections. But the rewards for success are high! Only the wisest will emerge victorious, having uncovered some hidden secret of the universe or been shown tantalising glimpses of possible futures.

Numerical models are used to guide decision-making across almost every part of society, from weather forecasts to predicting flooding, from financial investments to managing outbreaks of disease. Whilst the models try to represent reality, or at least some aspect of it, they make assumptions, are forced into simplifications, and incorporate the biases of their creators and the data they use. Because of this, they create their own version of reality, a concept Thompson (2022) calls ‘model land’.

Adventures in Model Land invites you to bring these worlds to life and to go inside them. Inspired by tabletop roleplay games (TTRPG), we have created an open-source framework to guide you through the process of imagining a model land. Further levels in the framework help you create quests for groups of players to explore the model land, or to reshape existing games to play by the rules of your model. This process is intended to be an enjoyable way to engage with your models but can also lead to greater insights into their limitations and, crucially, their usefulness.

This poster will demonstrate the first level of the Adventures in Model Land framework and provide a link to the document. Members of the project team will be available to discuss your model lands and how you can get involved with the wider project.

Thompson, E., (2022). Escape from Model Land: How mathematical models can lead us astray and what we can do about it. Basic Books.

How to cite: Skinner, C., Thompson, E., Lewis, E., Hut, R., and Illingworth, S.: Adventures in Model Land, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7032, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7032, 2025.

Effective communication of flood risk and the importance of mitigation strategies is crucial to strengthen resilience in communities facing increasing climate challenges. Risky Rudi is an innovative, interactive card game designed to engage players in understanding the three dimensions of risk - hazard, vulnerability and exposure - while exploring the complexities of flood risk management decision-making.

Players act as mayors and are tasked with maintaining their city's resilience score with a limited amount of money. The game includes risk reduction cards categorized by hazard, vulnerability and exposure, each with a cost and effectiveness score (1-10). These cards simulate real-world actions such as developing infrastructure, installing early warning systems, improving education, etc.  Periodic flood events, whose intensities are determined by a dice roll,  request players to use these measures strategically.

Risky Rudi also includes funding cards, representing financial support, and obstruction cards, such as political influence or social inequality, to reflect systemic challenges in flood risk management. Joker cards, such as the climate scientist, provide an additional element to the game mechanics.

Through the game, participants gain insight into the interconnectedness of risk components, the cost-effectiveness of different interventions, and the socio-political barriers to implementation.

How to cite: Meyer, A. and Höller, P.: “Risky Rudi” – A Card Game for Communicating Flood Risk and Mitigation Strategies, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-953, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-953, 2025.

As a media artist, I inquire about climate science through artistic practice, software, and infrastructure studies, and I develop participatory methods to engage the public in climate simulation. In this presentation, I will discuss my artistic and theoretical research into the simple climate model Hector. This model emulates complex Earth System Models (ESM) and calculates temperature change based on the impact of various climate scenarios. The presentation will take the shape of a demo of what I have called a "climate engine", where I have replicated Hector's modelling system within the blueprint of a game engine (Unreal Engine). During this demo, I walk the public through the interface of Hector's climate engine to re-narrate the model's imaginary of climate futures. Finally, I will discuss the potential and limitations of mobilising climate models through artistic game practices to think otherwise about public engagement in climate actions.

How to cite: Legrand, G.: Hector's climate engine, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17418, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17418, 2025.

Climate services, encompassing information products such as weather forecasts and advisories, aim to support decision-making. However, the uptake of climate services remains limited despite advancements in data quality and quantity. Challenges to usability arise from inadequate recognition of local context, a lack of integration of local knowledge and insufficient actionable information for decision-making. Addressing these challenges requires approaches that emphasize the integration of diverse knowledge systems, beyond scientific knowledge, and foster continuous exchange between stakeholders. For climate services this means knowledge exchange and integration between climate service providers, purveyors, and end users.

In this research, we explore whether accessibility and perceived usability of climate information improve when local knowledge is integrated with scientific knowledge provided through seasonal forecasts, using serious gaming as a participatory tool. Our serious game, Farm or Fallow, simulates farming livelihoods based on insights from participatory research conducted in the Alazani River Basin, Georgia. The game is grounded in the climate service co-created to meet the needs of stakeholders in the Georgian Living Lab (as part of the I-CISK project) to ensure that the game is as realistic a representation as possible. This interactive framework enables users to engage with climate services that they have co-created while reflecting on their decision-making processes.

We present preliminary findings from gameplay sessions involving diverse climate service users, including stakeholders from the Georgian Living Lab. The study investigates how participants combine different knowledge systems during the playing of the game, and whether the experience enhances their ability to articulate the value of climate services from a user-centred perspective. These findings provide also insights into how serious gaming can be utilised as tool to enhance user capacities to understand, interpret and use weather and climate information, thereby encouraging uptake of climate services.

How to cite: Rastogi, S., Werner, M., and van Cauwenbergh, N.: Combining Knowledges and Co-Imagining the Use of Climate Services through Serious Gaming, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17653, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17653, 2025.