Project Inner Alliance

Project Inner Alliance

Project Inner Alliance is a turn-based tactics game designed to reinforce the relationship between gender-responsive leadership, inclusivity and team cohesion in defense and national security teams. It encourages players to develop empathy by turning the intangibles of gender perspectives, diversity and intersectionality into tangible experiences during high-stakes operations. Players must come to terms with how these themes shape their interactions within their team, while also considering how they influence their interactions with the broader community. The game is set in a fictional but realistic future world where first response organizations have collapsed under the pressure of ongoing climate crises, leading to the formation of a new multilateral paramilitary entity: the Climate Security Task Force (CSTF). The players’ objectives are to rescue imperiled civilians, provide critical aid, and support affected communities in recovery efforts.

Project Inner Alliance

Gameplay

Players work as members of the CSTF. Their team is composed of distinct roles—Squad Leader, Medic, Engineer, Firefighter, and Scout—each with unique abilities needed for rescuing civilians and overcoming environmental obstacles. Gameplay emphasizes squad-based tactics, requiring players to coordinate their skills and strategies to navigate hazardous terrain and achieve their objectives. As players progress, “Conversation Cards” introduce moral dilemmas  that challenge players to weigh operational priorities against ethical considerations. These discussions shape the character’s sense of team belonging and influence community trust, with successful missions building goodwill and failed objectives risking negative repercussions.

A closeup of AOD Network's Transformative Game Titled Project Inner Alliance

Project Inner Alliance

Audience

The primary audience of this project is defence and national security teams across NATO members and partners looking to develop a greater understanding of aspects of the WPS Agenda, and to leverage team diversity and inclusivity. Project Inner Alliance will be accessible to a broader audience, including public servants, corporate teams, and the general public interested in enhancing gender-responsive leadership and understanding diversity and intersectionality within their organizations. Integrating these themes into a serious game using seamless learning techniques enhances players’ retention of these topics and makes challenging topics more accessible, immersive, and relatable, especially for audiences who might otherwise find them intimidating or uncomfortable.

A closeup of AOD Network's Transformative Game Titled Project Inner Alliance

Contact Project Lead

Kassie Miedema is a senior design and foresight researcher at the Archipelago of Design (AOD). She holds a master’s degree in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in Toronto, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo. Kassie continues to contribute her multidisciplinary expertise to address contemporary security and defence challenges using design thinking, foresight, game design, workshop facilitation and other creative problem solving skills.

Kassie is the project lead on Project Inner Alliance. Please reach out to her for any questions or to book your table top experience (3 hrs) starting February 27, 2025.
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