Games for Geoscience is for any geoscientist who has used games, gaming technology, and/or game-based approaches in their research, their teaching, or public engagement activities. Here you will find the latest news, a games library of geoscience-themed games, and a blog full of posts by researchers who use games in their work.
Games have the power to ignite imaginations and place you in someone else’s shoes or situation, often forcing you into making decisions from perspectives other than your own. This makes them powerful tools for communication, through use in outreach, disseminating research, in education and teaching at all levels, and as a method to train the public, practitioners, and decision-makers in order to build environmental resilience.
Games can also inspire innovative and fun approaches to learning. Gamification and game-based approaches add an extra spark of engagement and interaction with a topic. Gaming technology (e.g. virtual reality) can transport and immerse people into new worlds providing fascinating and otherwise impossible experiences for learners.
Games for Geoscience celebrates all things games and geoscience. It all began in 2018 as a science sharing session at the European Geoscience Union General Assembly, running every year since. During the session, scientists from around the world share their work using games with each other through talks or poster presentations.
Following each session we hold the Geoscience Games Night where we come together to play the games and have some fun.
What is geoscience?
Geoscience is the study of how planets work, particularly the Earth. It is multi-disciplinary, bringing together scientists with a wide range of specialisms. This inlcude atmospheric sciences, biogeosciences, climate science, cryospheric sciences, Earth magnetism and rock physics, energy, resources and the environment, Earth and space science informatics, geodesy, geodynamics, geoscience instrumentation and data systems, geomorphology, geochemistry, minerology, petrology and volcanology, hydrological sciences, natural hazards, nonlinear processes in geoscience, ocean sciences, planetary and solar system sciences, seismology, stratigraphy, sedimentology and palaeontology, soil system sciences, Solar-Terrestrial sciences, and tectonic and structural geology.
What are games?
There are games of many types and we love them all. These include analog games (including card, dice, board, war, and roleplay games) and digital or videogames.
You might also hear many other terms used to describe games, including simulation, participatory simulation, interactive workshops, or playable systems.
Games for Geoscience
by Sam Illingworth, artist in residence at EGU 2018.
Well-crafted games can be a useful tool
For helping different publics find their way;
As Plato said: “Life must be lived as play”,
From lawmakers to children still at school.
But research should help underpin each rule,
And fun should make the players want to stay;
Well-crafted games can be a useful tool,
For helping different publics find their way.
From showing how volcanoes can be cruel,
To helping farmers find a waterway;
Forecasts can be enhanced through good roleplay,
Whilst Zelda has made batholiths seem cool.
Well-crafted games can be a useful tool.
Games for Geoscience 