Serious Games allow participants to explore trade-offs, uncertainties, actor perspectives, and governance choices in a structured but interactive setting. At SINTEF, we use serious games to support dialogue between researchers, industry, public authorities, civil society, and other end-users, especially where decisions involve competing uses of space, environmental pressures, policy constraints, and long-term sustainability goals.
This work is carried out in close collaboration with our partner specialising in Serious Game design and development, including House of Knowledge, who led on the technical game design and intellectual property rights. The collaboration combines domain-specific research expertise with advanced game design to ensure both scientific robustness and effective user engagement.
Examples include games developed in projects such as OLAMUR, which addresses offshore low-trophic aquaculture in multi-use marine areas, and project-specific games developed for initiatives such as CLEAR-WATER, PLASTICENE, MarineGuardian, and more, focusing on water systems, pollution, and circularity challenges.
Methods we use: participatory game design, stakeholder workshops, scenario development, role play, systems mapping, qualitative observation, facilitated reflection, interviews, questionnaires, and evaluation of learning outcomes.
Serious games are used both as research methods and as communication tools, helping participants test assumptions, identify conflicts and synergies, and generate practical insights for policy, management, and implementation.