Micael Sousa

This article addresses the evolving concept of geogames, traditionally focused on digital and location‐based experiences, and explores the potential of modern board games as an analogue form of geogame. While geogames have been defined by their use of real‐world spatial information, often through GIS technology, there is a recognized need to include more abstract and imaginative representations of space, particularly in analogue formats. This study investigates how modern commercial entertainment board games, characterized by innovative game mechanics and spatial representation, connect with the concept of geogames. It employs a bibliometric analysis of geogame literature and a descriptive analysis of modern board games from the BoardGameGeek database. Key findings indicate a lack of research on analogue games within geogame specific literature, while revealing that modern board games effectively utilize spatial units, territory representation, and game mechanics to create virtual spatial worlds. The study concludes that modern board games align with the definition of geogame, advocating for their inclusion in the geogame research agenda.

City-building and other territory-building and transport games are among the most popular strategy and simulation games, either on digital or analog platforms. It is also a type of game that is increasingly used for gamification and serious game applications to support simulation and decisionmaking. However, designing games is not easy, especially for non-game experts. We present a method to find game mechanisms for developing analog city-building games (directly or prototypes of digital solutions). We analyzed the most popular city-building and territory modern board games to present a list of mechanisms and their narrative implementation. Planners and game designers can use this practical guide for consultation while developing and testing their game systems, regardless of the complexity they wish to implement in their simulations.

City-building games are very popular, on both digital and analog platforms. However, analog games named after cities are a tradition in modern board games. These games, resulting from the game design innovations of the last decades, are engaging a growing number of players worldwide. We wanted to understand what drives players and game designers to develop games that have a direct connection with cities or urban matters. We intend to explore them and identify their design patterns in order to support game-based planning support tools, mostly for participatory and collaborative planning. Planners have been using game-based processes, and analog games seem to be the easier solution. We analyzed the top-ranking city-building games (CBGs) and games named after cities (GNACs) from Board Game Geek (BGG) and then ran a survey with BGG users (n = 102). The results show that GNACs do not deeply portray cities but tend to focus on a specific dimension. CBGs are better at mimicking an urban planning process but with many simplifications. Despite this, mastering the design of these two types of games is useful for planners who wish to use game-based planning processes. However, the engagement level might depend on the target audience.

Practical tools to support newcomers to serious game design are scarce. We propose the MACMEO framework, developed as a research design process during several sessions, as a flexible and adaptable gamified analog toolkit to help design analog, hybrid or digital serious games through a structured process. The framework can be applied in faster or longer sessions, requiring minimal resources but demanding facilitation when dealing with less experienced users.