Iowa State University
Feel invited to submit your contributions to the 3rd Geogames Symposium (3GGS) at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa!
The 3rd Geogames Symposium (3GGS) provides an international forum for researchers, developers, and game enthusiasts to present, exchange, and advance knowledge in the field of geogames. The symposium examines the potential of analogue and digital geogames as catalysts for understanding and transforming communities, environments, and societal practices. This year’s theme focuses on the role of geogames in fostering awareness, responsibility, and care for our planet. In particular, the symposium highlights how geogames can be employed to explore Earth as a complex, living system of interdependent actors and self-regulating processes, thereby inspiring more sustainable ways of living and informing the reshaping of human–environment interactions.
3GGS symposium uses the following definition of geogames: Geogames are digital, analogue, or hybrid games that center on Gaia as Earth’s interconnected system of the physical environment, living organisms and its non-physical elements. They create playful experiences grounded in the use of real-world geographic data, locational knowledge, and spatial reasoning. Geogames are purposefully designed to foster systems thinking, problem-solving, and environmental awareness, with the aim of contributing to the resilience and well-being of Earth’s systems. They are distinguished by their integration of location-based features, real-world data, and interactive, often collaborative, gameplay that reflects the complexity of environmental and societal interconnections.
Let’s explore how geogames can:
- Strengthen community engagement and social cohesion
- Contribute meaningfully to a just, resilient, and regenerative world
- Inspire creative, playful solutions for local and global challenges
- Raise environmental awareness and encourage positive changes
- Enable to visualize and interact with real-world data integrated in games
We warmly invite everyone working on theories, methods, and application areas of geogames to join the symposium. Contributions on game design thinking and philosophies are welcome. Application areas may include urban planning and design, community engagement, placemaking, history, religion, cybersecurity, architecture, cultural heritage preservation, geography, geospatial science and engineering, digital twins, climate resilience, disaster preparedness, geotechnical engineering, psychology, anthropology, health, well-being and more.
Geogames Lab 