From Boardgame to Walkabout: Adapting Game Mechanics for the City Streets

The research practitioner will briefly present the Homeless “Monopoly” game prototypes developed in response to the rapid rise of homelessness in Coventry, the 2021 City of Culture. 
Homeless “Monopoly” is a co-creative transmedia research project that explores the potential of arts methodology and gamification to raise awareness in young people of the issues faced by Coventry’s homeless. The project received seed funding from the City of Culture open call (University of Warwick and Coventry University)to research, generate and test the potential impact and efficacy of a prototype board-game and location based walking trail, featuring real life testimonies and scenarios of homeless and ex-homeless people in the Coventry area, contributed via focus groups run in partnership with Coventry Cyrenians. Looking at mechanics of game-play based on the traditional board format, we will explore the adaptations made to encapsulate the testimonies and content collected, alongside artwork designs contributed by Student Activators from Coventry University. The workshop will focus on adaptation of co-creative content and familiar game-mechanics into a prototype AR city trail, using the BEACONING solution, developed by a 15-partner consortium, led by Coventry University and co-funded by Horizon 2020, and the challenges and opportunities this adaptation presents for game-designer and for player. Through a series of participatory interventions drawing on arts practice and Clean methodology (Grove & Panzer 1991, Tompkins & Lawley, 2000), delegates will explore the dynamics at play, mapping considerations that emerge as the game moves off the board and into the real world and the shifting perspectives that accompany the wanderer.