As part of the pre-events for Malta’s "Science in the City" festival, a workshop was held on September 24th, 2024, showcasing the intersection of creativity, education, and social justice through an exercise of board game hacking. Co-organized by STRATEGIES consortium partners the University of Malta and the board game publisher Mighty Boards, the workshop explored the principles of game design while addressing the festival's 2024 theme: "JEDI"—justice, equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Board Game hacking is a key pillar of Work Package 6: Hacking Games to Reimagine Consumption and builds on a research methodology developed by Chloé Germaine and Paul Wake in their project, Games Imagining the Future (funded by Game in Lab), and published in the Ecogames Volume (See: Chapter 23 - Game Hacking and Young Climate Action). In Work Package 6, Chloé and Paul are working with University of Malta researcher, Christian Paller, to further develop the method of board game hacking for use in game development education, specifically in promoting carbon literacy among Europe’s game developers. Workshops like Christian’s board game hacking session at “Science in the City” are helping us refine the method in different contexts and with varied audiences.

STRATEGIES partner, the Manchester Game Centre hosted a game night on September 19th in the Manchester Poetry Library. The game night welcomed researchers from the STRATEGIES project along with Manchester Met students and members of the public to play the new game, Catan: New Energies.

At the Dutch Game Business Event INDIGO on June 19th, 2024, visitors were encouraged to think about sustainability and games. To contribute to the STRATEGIES goal, two INDIGO Talks covered topics that touched upon the issues the STRATEGIES project will explore further in the coming years.

David Fernández Huerta (ustwo) and Jerome Ibanez (Midgard) addressed sustainability in the games industry through their presentations “Values-driven Game Design: The Making of Alba: a Wildlife Adventure.” and “Midgard: Making the Video Game Industry More Sustainable, One Game At a Time.”

Huerta’s talk highlighted how Alba was approached with a different, environmentally forward mindset in game design. Ibanez endeavors to make the industry itself more sustainable and more aware of how to green up its business further and target its carbon footprint.

We are very pleased to welcome three new members to our International Advisory Board. The International Advisory Board provides strategic and scientific support for the STRATEGIES project, providing global expertise in the game industry, sustainability science, the environmental humanities, education, and messaging and communication.

At STRATEGIES we are very pleased to share the news that our project is featured in a new booklet about Horizon Europe projects concerning Cultural Heritage and Cultural Creative Industries.

‘Driving a green, digital & innovative European cultural heritage’ showcases the research projects from the 2023 call for proposals in the Horizon Work Programme, Cluster 2: “Culture, Creativity & Inclusive Society”: Innovative research on European cultural heritage and the cultural and creative industries, building our future from the past.

The STRATEGIES project - a Sustainable Transition for Europe’s Game Industries - welcomes new researchers to our team. We are growing our expertise in games and sustainability, and supporting the next generation of researchers to make a difference.