The Role of Serious Games and Youth as Co-Designers in the ‘Ideal City’: Considering a Healthy and Sustainable Auckland

Abstract

Serious games are an innovative means of contributing to complex problem-solving today. They provide opportunities to consider the many variables involved in each problem and to develop innovative solutions. City-building games, such as SimCity and Cities: Skyline, are widely used in various settings, including education, helping learners and facilitators understand cities as complex systems. Many of the urban issues presented in these games (traffic, pollution, natural disasters, waste accumulation, activity spaces) relate to health outcomes as well as the urban environment. As such, although not designed for health, they often reflect the determinants of health challenges and fit well with a 21st century planetary health model. This small-scale exploratory study, conducted in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, aimed to advance the healthy cities agenda by creating a collaborative space where university students could envision and design sustainable urban futures. The study used a codesign workshop to elicit ideas for future healthy and sustainable cities, modelling themes which could inform the creation of serious games. The study was undertaken as part of a student summer research project which included the codesign workshop, a review, and a poster presentation at the Planetary Health Alliance annual meeting (https://planetaryhealthalliance.org/). Four student codesigners, considered issues and solutions for an ideal or reimagined future city. World-building, a key feature of games, serves as a valuable ‘thought experiment’, going beyond the status quo to alternative futures, to the potential of new technologies alongside traditional values, such as indigenous Kaitiakitanga (Māori guardianship of the natural environment). Serious games’ codesign offers a more creative space than normative education for youth to explore key strategies and ideas, yet it is less commonly used in urban health or public health. World-building allows those involved to move away from siloed disciplinary and sectoral norms. Further research would benefit from exploring the disruptive, fun, challenging, capacity-building, and wicked problem-solving potential of serious games in public health.