Last week we brainstormed with our kids in our attempt to find out what games are popular and how we might possibly tweak them so that they could carry an environmental message. This resulted in a flow chart covering a range of different types of games. Many of those classic games can be thematically adapted to our project without difficulty.
This approach may not sound particularly interesting or challenging (and definitely not innovative) but it is a constructive way to start. By covering what is "out there" we can have a better view of what kind of game we want to create and use the original idea a springboard towards something else.
Take the "Jigsaw puzzle", for example. That idea is already in full swing, based on a classic model, using a collaborative input from all over that is likely to result in a very interesting game and one that will be aesthetically pleasing. All of the elements in the picture are challenging for the user because they pose questions, like "why is there a dam in there?" or "what is that bee doing in our vision of the future?". Would a booklet or a few notes of explanation be necessary as a part of the package?
Some of the schools have already mentioned Top Trumps as a starting point. It is a very engaging card game where players exchange information about a subject. Ideal, I would think. Gathering the information is a lot of work, though, but doing it would be very useful.
Another example: Quartette (sometimes known as "Go Fish"). It is a card game that can easily be played with a regular deck of cards, "fishing" sevens or eights etc. from the other players that keep their cards hidden from veiw. In an environmental quartette we have adapted it to the process of recycling. Each "number" stands for a type of bin. So there are four cards with an image of an item that has to be put in a particular bin. So there are four "metal" items and four "plastic" items, four "electronic" things etc. All in all thirteen categories. Each card also contains a list of the other three items that belong to the same category. As you can see, by using our "theme" a classic game can easily be adapted.
Many of the other games could also easily work as environmental games. More about that and other ideas later. I am personally very interested in making a memory game work as an environmental game in which the "pair" is not just two identical pictures but separate images of two different animals that have a relationship between them, as in predator and prey.
Anyway, I hope the flow chart comes handy, even if only as a point of reference.
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