Group playing the Future City Game    

About the game        

What is it?   
What are the benefits?   
Who is involved?   
How is it played?   
Creative Cities   
Global Xchange   

What is it?    

Future City Game is a two-day activity that aims to generate the best idea to improve quality of life in cities. It can be played about a specific area within a city, the city as a whole, or in response to common challenges facing cities around the world.

Who is involved?
Local stakeholders such as municipal authorities, community groups, or regeneration agencies are licensed by the British Council to run Future City Game. The licensee and the Games Master work together to choose the theme, location and participants for each game to ensure that it is tailored to the local context.

Each team is made up of players from different disciplines, backgrounds and with differing outlooks. Teams can include professionals, community members, students or anyone who has an interest in improving life in their city.

Teams have to use a range of skills to win - soft skills such as presentation, negotiation and reaching consensus; and hard skills such as design, research and interviewing.

How is it played?
The Games Master leads the players through three stages - visioning, testing and presenting - giving the players a set of tools to help them to work together, to develop ideas, and to present their findings.

The teams identify challenges facing the city (environmental, social, economic and cultural) and design solutions which they test and refine with the help of practitioners and community members.

At the end of the game the stakeholders are presented with the ideas and players, observers and stakeholders vote for the winning idea.

Stakeholders and players are encouraged to explore ways in which aspects of ideas from the game can be introduced in the city once the game has finished.

Where is is being played?
Future City Game is currently being played in 15 countries across Russia and Northern Europe. To find out more and to read about games that have taken place visit the Creative Cities website.

How can I get involved?
Future City Game is available under licensee from British Council.
If you are interested in becoming a licensee, contact your local British Council Project Manager to see what opportunities are available.

If you would like to play Future City Game, visit our calendar to see what games are coming up in your country.

If you would like to be trained as a Games Master, please contact your local British Council Project Manager.

DCSIMG