Events
How might a game help us think differently about the future of climate and security in the wake of accelerating geopolitical, environmental, and technological disruption?
Let’s find out by experimenting with game mechanics, scenarios, and educational design together! Workshop insights will inform AOD’s next strategic game exploring climate-security dilemmas.
What: Mission Critical: Climate and Security Game Jam
When: June 17 & June 18
Where: Aterlier C/D, Canadian War Museum, 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa, ON
Dress Code: Game designer chic – casual and comfy
Meals: We recommend getting lunch at the War Museum’s cafe, which covers all dietary restrictions. Keep your receipt as we will reimburse lunch costs.
Keynote: Ben Taylor, a game designer and operational researcher with over three decades experience, and AOD co-president Philippe Beaulieu-Brossard will give a short talk on principles of Game Design 101 and stealth learning for organization transformation”
If you haven’t already done so, please register ASAP at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/mission-critical-game-jam-tickets-1363556457069
Workshop Schedule:
Tuesday, June 17
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9:00–9:30 – Welcome and Introduction
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9:30–10:15 – Keynote
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10:30–12:00 – Master Class: Game Analysis
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12:00–1:00 – Lunch
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1:00–2:30 – Transformative Goal Setting
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2:30–2:45 – Break
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2:45–4:00 – Scenario Building & Sketching
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4:00–4:30 – Group Backbrief
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4:30–6:30 – Break
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6:30–9:30 – Evening Reception: Inner Alliance Launch Event
Wednesday, June 18
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9:00–9:20 – Recap Briefing
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9:20–10:30 – Prototyping: Game Loop
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10:30–10:45 – Break
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10:45–11:15 – Pitching Primer
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11:15–12:00 – First Pitch Iteration
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12:00–1:00 – Lunch
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1:00–3:30 – Playtesting & Refinement
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3:30–4:30 – Final Shareback
Playbook: Mission Critical: Climate Change and Security Game Workshop
The Game Design Challenge: Develop a game concept that can shift player mindsets about confronting the cascading risks of the climate crisis on security, and rethink what effective action or decision-making looks like in a world shaped by climate disruption.
This marks AOD’s fifth serious game co-design workshop, and is one of our most ambitious yet. Building on the momentum of previous initiatives like Breakthrough: The Arctic Albatross, Breakthrough: Shadows of Byzantium and Inner Alliance, this workshop invites participants to tackle the strategic, operational and human dilemmas posed by climate disruption across the security landscape.
Together, we will explore how game design can help national security professionals, policymakers, and analysts engage with the evolving climate-security nexus. From logistics breakdowns and resource competition to migration shocks and grey zone conflict, the game concepts you will image will confront the cascading challenges that arise when environmental instability collides with geopolitical tension and technological acceleration.
This game jam is part of AOD’s broader climate change and security initiatives, supported by Mobilizing Insights in National Defence and Security and NATO’s Science for Peace and Security program, and it aims to seed innovative tools for strategic education, planning, and anticipatory governance. The Ottawa event will also serve as a foundation for a future collaborations with NATO partners and international institutions.
By joining this workshop, you’re contributing to an emerging body of transformative game design focused on security futures. You will also develop your own capacities to model complexity, prototype meaningful decisions, and lead change within your organization. Whether you’re a gamer, strategist, climate expert, or policy generalist, your perspective matters and your contributions shape how others think and act in these domains.
This work requires the kind of multidisciplinary teamwork few mediums can support as effectively as games. To help bridge backgrounds and perspectives, this playbook offers shared language, foundational concepts, and curated resources. Use it selectively: the goal isn’t mastery before arrival, but orientation. We provide this short primer to encourage your boldness, curiousity, and collaborative spirit.
Finally, AOD continues to uphold the Derby Principles for ethical and inclusive design. Our work embraces equity, pluralism, and co-creation in both method and message. Visit PAX Sims to know more. 
What is the problem and what are the emerging policies?
For participants less familiar with the evolving risks at the intersection of climate and security, you may wish to consult the Executive Summary or key findings from the following reports:
- NATO Climate Change and Security Impact Assessment (2024) – An overview of how climate change is altering the Alliance’s operational, strategic, and infrastructure considerations.
- Canada’s Defence Energy and Environment Strategy (2022–2023) – The Department of National Defence’s roadmap for integrating sustainability and resilience into operations.
- Center for Climate and Security (2025) – A resource for understanding regional climate fragility and how it might compound security challenges.
- IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report – Summary for Policymakers (2023) – The definitive scientific consensus on climate risks and adaptation needs.
Why games for transforming beliefs and behaviours?
1. Read Kassie Miedema’s, AOD design & foresight researcher, blog to better understand why by appreciating the state of the art of game for change from observations collected at the Game for Change conference in New York City in June 2023.
2. If you are still skeptical about the power of games to set conditions for changing beliefs and behaviours, watch Jane McGonigal’s Games can Make a Better World Ted Talk (20 min).
3. For more concrete examples, watch Rob Pearson’s 7 video games conducive to transformation (19 min)
June 17 – 9:30 – 10:15 – Game Design 101
Designing a game for the first time can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re new to tabletop mechanics or don’t consider yourself a “gamer.” The good news: nobody arrives as an expert. The key is iteration and open feedback. These short resources will get you started::
1.For a comprehensive overview of board game design as a process, watch Gabe Barrett’s How to Make a Boardgame in 2023? (up to 23 min mark)
2. For a glossary of key terms used in board game design (5 min. read)
3. For a more advanced resource on the fundamentals of game design, listen to AOD member Loagan Stroud’s podcast on designing interesting decisions (19 min).
June 17 – 10:30 – 12:00 – Master Class: Critical Game Study & Debrief of Inner Alliance
Players will play test Inner Alliance, AOD’s most recent transformative game. How do game mechanics and player experience shape transformation? What worked and what didn’t?
1. What do you think about the player experience as a whole? What makes the game fun? What makes it engaging?
2. What may make these games potentially transformational in terms of beliefs & behaviors ?
3. What would you keep versus what would you change in these games? Why?
June 17 – 1:00 – 2:30 – Transformative Goal Setting
What change should your game create in the player? How would it persuade a skeptic?
June 17 – 2:30 – 4:00 – Scenario Building and Sketching Concepts
What’s your climate-security context? What actors and dilemmas are at play?
For an overview of the basics of storytelling, watch Adam Koroguz, AOD member’s monthly campfire.
June 18 – Day 2 – Recap and Mini-Brief on Game Loops
How do we structure play to generate insight, tension, and transformation?
For guidance on playtesting, you can check out this video by YouTuber Adam in Wales (23 mins).
June 18 – 9:20-10:30 – Prototyping Mechanics and Loops
Prototyping Mechanics & Loops
What do players do? What do they feel? What changes across time?
1. For what it means to prototype game features and why we do so as early as possible, listen to Cogito design video (8min).
2. Tracy Fullerton’s Game Design Workshop, the ultimate reference, offers a thorough summary of physical prototyping as a method in chapter 7:
June 18 – 10:15 – 12:00 – Pitching Primer & First Iteration
What’s your hook? What’s the change your game delivers?
June 18 – 1:00 – 3:30 – Playtesting & Refinement
What worked? What needs balancing? What’s the emotional arc?
Please contact Oliver Jones, our senior researcher on AOD discord channel or at oliver@aodnetwork.ca for further targeted resources
This Workshop is Funded by
