Projects

Project Community Update – December, 2024

Playtest Events:

• November 13 – Canadian Forces College (CFC) Wargaming Club
• November 20 – The Kingston Consortium on International Security (KCIS) on War and Human Security in an Ever Changing World
• November 21 – Canadian Joint Operations Command Headquarters (CJOC HQ)

Key contributors and their role in the project:

• Dr. Philippe Beaulieu-Brossard, Co-Producer and Project Community Lead, Archipelago of Design and CFC
• Kassie Miedema, MDes, Project Lead, Archipelago of Design
• Dr. Vanessa Brown – Lead Subject Matter Expert (SME) and Quality Assurance (QA), CFC
• Dr. Angela Van Barnveld – Lead on Evaluation, Metrics and Monitoring, Chief Professional Conduct and Culture (CPCC)
• Adam Clare, Lead Game Design, Wero Creative
• Denis Coyne, Co-Producer, Wero Creative
• Dr. Colin Magee – Senior Evaluator – Concepts and Doctrine, Canadian Defence Academy, Dallaire Centre of Excellence for Peace and Security
• Dr. Sarah Jane Meharg – Interim Director –  Dallaire Centre of Excellence for Peace and Security
• Commander Jonathan A. Kouwenberg – Human Security and
  Gender Advisor – CJOC HQ
• Maureen Bartram – KCIS Conference Coordinator
• Dr. Howard Coombs– Director of the Centre for International and Defence Policy, Queen’s University
• Maj. Daniel Hoyt, Chair of the CFC Wargaming Club
• LCol. Ronnie Michel, Deputy Chair of the CFC Wargaming Club

 

Building Momentum: 26 new sign-ups expanded the project community to 79 members.

Memorable Moments:

Revitalizing DEI – Despite experiencing fatigue around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, participants found a renewed interest and energy to experience tensions in gameplay. The game design process opened up a new pathway to advancing this agenda, one they had previously believed to be a lost cause.

Experts’ feedback – We were burning with curiosity and great anticipation to hear experts’ opinions and feedback. We were humbled by the invaluable knowledge shared by the playtesters. This feedback is crucial and puts us in a better position to develop learning experiences that are unique and fit for purpose.

Compelling gameplay – A reluctant member of the CFC wargaming group, whom we initially invited to stay for just 15 minutes, ended up staying for the entire playthrough, highlighting the engaging and persuasive power of the gameplay.

Way Forward:

1. Narrativization – Many participants said the most interesting gameplay was when players were prompted to explain—or to narrativize—how they would handle a situation, particularly when there was moral ambiguity or the right answer was not clear. This feature shows particular potential for stealth learning as participants will have to deploy the same adaptive engagement, from engaging children in level two to more subtle intersectionalities in level three.
2. Belonging and Community Trackers – Several participants found compelling that most the game can show the tangible effect of any action on the sense of belonging of team members and on the trust of the community towards the team.
3. Community trust – The community trust score can have more impact. For example, if community trust is low, the civilians you are trying to rescue won’t follow your orders; if community trust is high, the community is empowered to take action.
   
4. Social attributes – There is an opportunity to utilize social attributes more. Learning objectives could be strengthened if there were more moments that highlighted or compelled players to interact with the social attributes of characters.
   
5. Community “bio” – Providing players with the number and characteristics of people who live in the area—such as languages spoken, presence of cultural, ethnic or racial groups and other key demographics—as part of the mission briefing would provide more information for players to use while strategizing and narrativizing.

 

Way Forward:

We plan on conducting playtests with younger demographics (18-24 years old) in late January. If you have access to such demographics, we would be grateful to coordinate a playtest with you!

We will also arrange playtests for the full game including a new level on Gender Based Violence in the Winter.

March will be the official launch of the 3hour long Inner Alliance experience. To book a three-hour training session, contact innovation@aodnetwork.ca.

Contact us at innovation@aodnetwork.ca!

Click Here to Learn About Project Inner Alliance