Tools | Simulation & Policy Games

The theme of this simulation game is managing the growing demand for mobility and the use of new technologies by testing real-time traffic scenarios and traffic flows of various modalities. For example, where do bicycle superhighways make sense, and how do they affect other traffic flows? In the simulation game, participants experience the consequences of their decisions. They develop a shared understanding of the consequences of specific, planned mobility measures—related to their city and the available space.

Where does an intervention make sense?

Conquer the right street for the summer holidays with a card game. We rely on the collective intelligence of neighborhoods.

The city of Munich has been setting up summer streets during the school holidays for several years. We always found it a shame that the proposed streets, ultimately approved by the administration, were not well received by everyone. We set ourselves the task of using our expertise to help this wonderful idea achieve a breakthrough. The card game stimulates discussion, structures debate, and, last but not least, is simply fun. It is aimed at everyone—politicians, administrators, and, above all, the public.

Half a dozen people are needed to get the game started. The crucial question of the desired use is the starting point: Should children be able to play intensively in the street, do you prefer oases of peace, should space be created for art and free music, or would you rather create a large summer vegetable garden?

The underlying dialogue concept is not only suitable for the improvement of summer streets, but can also be adapted to the development of other urban areas at any time.

Strategic guidelines meet operational implementation

How can the coordination processes between management and employees be improved? How must work processes be organized so that customer needs are met despite work intensification and disruptions? With the help of the Signal Box simulation game, an interactive, haptic simulation game, we address the understanding of operational and strategic requirements. In the simulation game, participants manage and maintain the signal box of a main station. Incoming trains must arrive on time and at the correct platform. How do management's strategic specifications change working conditions? This would be a challenge in itself if it didn't lead to disruptions. Based on the experience gained in the game, we will work with you and your employees to optimize the real coordination processes in the company.

Questions of the simulation game:

• Coordination between teams
• Interaction between management guidelines and operational implementation
• Dealing with disruptions

Mobility in the neighborhood

The goal of the UTurn game is for a group of residents of a neighborhood to reduce their CO2 emissions from their personal, daily mobility behavior by at least 10% within two rounds. It is a hybrid simulation game based on a map of the respective neighborhood and a web-based app. The app facilitates participants' personal calculations and summarizes the figures of all group members per round. At the end, participants compare their figures from both rounds and receive immediate feedback on whether the game goal has been achieved. Since the game is primarily about the willingness of citizens to use environmentally friendly means of transport, data analysis is based on active and honest participation. Additionally, an interactive bot system can be used to support participants' role-playing.

The concept and simulation game was developed together with the HBK Braunschweig, Institute for Media Studies and OFFIS in Oldenburg .

• City center, Munich (D)
• Mierendorffinsel, Berlin (Germany)
• Sonnenberg, Chemnitz (Germany)

Regional cooperation

HEXGame maps administrative units at the municipal, regional, and state levels. Decisions are made in a fictitious country. Participants assume leadership roles at the three levels of HEX-Land. The goal is to develop the entire country over several years without neglecting individual regions or municipal areas. Participants can only achieve this with optimal information exchange and transparent resource allocation. Limited time and crisis events, such as storms or refugee movements, create additional pressure within the system to make decisions and act. Strategy development, leadership, and communication are thus addressed at the participant level.

The simulation game is very well suited as a starting point for further developing cooperation in the region or metropolitan area: %u201EHow do we organize our cooperation?%u201C.

• Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance (D)
• DHBW Stuttgart (Germany)
• Municipality of Wageningen (NL)
• Municipality of Zwolle (NL)
• Youth work Geretsried eV (D)
• Youth Welfare Office Stuttgart (D)
• Rotterdam Police (NL)
• Waterschap (NL)
• UNESCO

Play in Play with the City

In the 1950s, Aldo van Eyck (architect, Team X, Amsterdam) formulated the demand for environments that connect people. He created inspiring, open spaces for children throughout the city of Amsterdam. We took up his idea and adapted it. We experimented with environments to open them up to different people. These were temporary spaces, installations, and playful experiments in which people entered into self-organized dialogue. We started these experiments in Munich and continued to test them at the We Make the City Festival in Amsterdam.

A playful moderation of mobility offers

Everyone seems to share the demand for environmentally friendly mobility options and radical CO2 reduction in German cities. In reality, however, driving bans are politically difficult to implement, and the reactions to them are emotionally charged. How can municipalities encourage politicians and citizens to rethink their approach, how can they convince people to choose more sustainable mobility behavior? Traffic Planning, developed at the TU Delft Summer School, concretely and playfully maps mobility in the region or city. Using the simulation game, participants compare their personal knowledge of the local traffic situation and construct a shared map. The participants then assume different user perspectives. The task is: How do they get to work, school, or the cinema in the evening on time? In addition to personal preferences, obstacles also become clear, such as unnecessarily long transfer times in public transport. These topics give rise to concrete projects for traffic optimization.

• CO2 reduction, Stuttgart region
• Mobility situation, Röhn-Grabfeld region
• Mobility situation, Schweinfurt region
• Introduction of the meeting zone, Gärtnerplatz, Munich
• Voting public transport offers, city center, St. Petersburg