‘Our Planet at Play’ was a project led by Daniel Fernández Galeote, supervised by Prof. Juho Hamari and Dr. Nikoletta-Zampeta Legaki, and supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Nessling Foundation. The project aimed to understand the potential of games for climate change engagement. The research took place between 2020 and 2023, culminating with a successful doctoral dissertation defense in 2024.
The final goal of ‘Our Planet at Play’ was to develop, test and publish a new digital game to promote citizen engagement with climate change, its causes, present and future impacts, and climate action measures. In doing so, we have been firmly committed to delivering opportunities for deep and lasting change by supporting cognitive, affective, and behavioral citizen engagement. The game, ‘Climate Connected: Outbreak’, has been used in empirical research and is available for free here.
The knowledge to develop the game stemmed from an exhaustive literature review on the topic of gamification for climate change engagement. In addition, the project included analyses of existing video games that engage players with climate change.
To strengthen our knowledge basis, discuss possibilities, and disseminate results, we frequently engaged in conversation with scientific, educational, activist, and game development collectives.
Publications
Doctoral theses
Fernández Galeote, D. (2024). Gamification and Climate Change Engagement: Building knowledge, developing practice, and studying experiences and effects. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-3255-6
Peer-reviewed scientific articles
Fernández Galeote, D., Sicevic, N., Legaki, N. Z., & Hamari, J. (2024). Changing Climate Change Mental Models Through Game-Based Learning: A Controlled Experiment Involving Cognitive Mapping. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 8(CHI PLAY), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1145/3677062
Fernández Galeote, D., Legaki, N. Z., & Hamari, J. (2024, October). Climate Change at Your Doorstep: An Experiment Using a Digital Game and Distance Framing. In Companion Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (pp. 71-77). https://doi.org/10.1145/3665463.3678780
Fernández Galeote, D., Legaki, N. Z., & Hamari, J. (2023). Text-and game-based communication for climate change attitude, self-efficacy, and behavior: A controlled experiment. Computers in Human Behavior, 149, 107930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107930
Fernández Galeote, D., Legaki, N. Z., & Hamari, J. (2023). From Traditional to Game-Based Learning of Climate Change: A Media Comparison Experiment. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 7(CHI PLAY), 503-525. https://doi.org/10.1145/3611039
Fernández Galeote, D., Legaki, N. Z., & Hamari, J. (2023, October). Climate Connected: An Immersive VR and PC Game for Climate Change Engagement. In Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (pp. 266-273). https://doi.org/10.1145/3573382.3616053
Fernández Galeote, D., Rajanen, M., Rajanen, D., Legaki, N. Z., Langley, D. J., & Hamari, J. (2023, October). Gamification for Climate Change Engagement: A User-Centered Design Agenda. In Proceedings of the 26th International Academic Mindtrek Conference (pp. 45-56). https://doi.org/10.1145/3616961.3616968
Fernández Galeote, D., Legaki, N. Z., & Hamari, J. (2022). Avatar Identities and Climate Change Action in Video Games: Analysis of Mitigation and Adaptation Practices. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-18). https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3517438
Fernández Galeote, D., Diamant, M., Volkovs, K., Zeko, C., Thibault, M., Legaki, N. Z., Rajanen, D., Rajanen, M., & Hamari, J. (2022). The Good, the Bad, and the Divergent in Game-based Learning: Player Experiences of a Serious Game for Climate Change Engagement. In Academic Mindtrek 2022: 25th International Academic Mindtrek conference (pp. 256–267). https://doi.org/10.1145/3569219.3569414
Fernández Galeote, D., Diamant, M., Volkovs, K., Zeko, C., Thibault, M., Legaki, N. Z., & Hamari, J. (2022). Understanding the Game-based Learning Experience: A Framework of Frictions Between Design and Play. In FDG’22: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-4). https://doi.org/10.1145/3555858.3555933
Thibault, M., Fernández Galeote, D., Macey, J., & Jylhä, H. (2022). Forests in Digital Games-An Ecocritical Framework. In FDG’22: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-4). https://doi.org/10.1145/3555858.3555941
Fernández Galeote, D., Hamari, J. (2021). Game-based Climate Change Engagement: Analyzing the Potential of Entertainment and Serious Games.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CHI PLAY), 226. https://doi.org/10.1145/3474653
Fernández Galeote, D., Rajanen, M., Rajanen, D., Legaki, N. Z., Langley, D. J., & Hamari, J. (2021). Gamification for climate change engagement: review of corpus and future agenda. Environmental Research Letters, 16(6). https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abec05
Other publications and appearances
Spanellis, A., Harviainen, J. T., Fernández Galeote, D., & Thibault, M. (2024). Gamification for Sustainable Development. Simulation & Gaming, 55(3), 361-365. https://doi.org/10.1177/10468781241249324
Fernández Galeote, D., Legaki, N. Z., & Hamari, J. (2024). Dataset FSD3817 Experimental research on games for climate change engagement 2022. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3817
Whittle, C., York, T., Escuadra, P.A., Shonkwiler, G., Bille, H., Fayolle, A., McGregor, B., Hayes, S., Knight, F., Wills, A., Chang, A., & Fernández Galeote, D. (2022). The Environmental Game Design Playbook (Presented by the IGDA Climate Special Interest Group). https://igda-website.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/06100719/EnvironmentalGameDesignPlaybook_Alpha_Release_Adj.pdf
Fernández Galeote, D. (March 4, 2021). Climate change is everywhere you look – climate action is everything you do.
Nessling Foundation. (November 17, 2020). Games help in the fight against climate change.
Tampere University. (March 4, 2020). TechBites keynote: Gaming climate change. Daniel Fernandez Galeote, Tampere University.
