Introduction
Surveys across Australia and the world provide evidence of the impact of climate change on the wellbeing of children and young people. Children typically feel worried, powerless and frustrated about climate change (Jones & Lucas, Reference Jones and Lucas2023). Children who are concerned about climate change have higher psychological distress and more negative future outlook than other children, and this particularly affects those who are female, gender diverse, Indigenous or live in remote areas (Teo et al., Reference Teo, Gao, Brennan, Fava, Simmons, Baker, Zbukvic, Rickwood, Brown, Smith, Watson, Browne, Cotton, McGorry, Killackey, Freeburn and Filia2024). In a global study by Hickman et al., (Reference Hickman, Marks, Pihkala, Clayton, Lewandowski, Mayall, Wray, Mellor and van Susteren2021), almost half of the 10,000 children surveyed said that climate change negatively affects their daily life and functioning. Concern about climate change is rational — under current climate action pledges, those born in the year 2020 can expect to experience up to seven times more extreme events than people born in 1960 will experience in their lifetimes (Thiery et al., Reference Thiery, Lange, Rogelj, Schleussner, Gudmundsson, Seneviratne, Andrijevic, Frieler, Emanuel, Geiger, Bresch, Zhao, Willner, Büchner, Volkholz, Bauer, Chang, Ciais, Dury, François, Grillakis, Gosling, Hanasaki, Hickler, Huber, Ito, Jägermeyr, Khabarov, Koutroulis, Liu, Lutz, Mengel, Müller, Ostberg, Reyer, Stacke and Wada2021). However, some researchers have identified a “discourse of doom” in which young people imagine apocalyptic, dystopian futures as the likely outcome within their lifetimes (Lucas et al., Reference Lucas, Earl-Jones, Mocatta, Beasy, Kelly and Pecl2024; Tucci et al., Reference Tucci, Mitchell and Goddard2007; Zummo, Reference Zummo2024). Dystopian climate fictions may contribute to this discourse (Schneider-Mayerson, Reference Schneider-Mayerson2018). Yet climate change education is partial at best within school curricula, and climate adaptation rarely touched upon in any detail. Where climate change is taught, many teachers feel unprepared for the strength of emotional response that the subject can evoke (Beasy et al., Reference Beasy, Jones, Kelly, Lucas, Mocatta, Pecl and Yildiz2023). This can lead to young people leaving school feeling disempowered by their experience of learning about climate change (Jones & Davison, Reference Jones and Davison2020).
Curious Climate Schools is a programme designed by climate communication, education and science researchers at the University of Tasmania (including several of the authors) that aims to help students learn about climate change in ways that empower and inspire them (Kelly et al., Reference Kelly, Beasy, Lucas, Mocatta and Pecl2023). Research based on questions submitted by 1500 primary and high school students aged 7–18 from 51 classes across the state of Tasmania, Australia in 2021–22 revealed a concerning level of uncertainty, anxiety and pessimism about their futures in a climate-changed world (Lucas et al., Reference Lucas, Earl-Jones, Mocatta, Beasy, Kelly and Pecl2024). This led us to consider how we might be able to support an educational experience for students that offers some hope and reassurance about young people’s futures, while set in a realistic climate scenario. We wanted to focus on how communities might adapt to changing climate impacts to allow them to be more resilient, while reflecting the values of care, equality and justice. We imagined an immersive game-world in which, despite a threatening global scenario, local communities were motivated to work together to make changes that would enable them to thrive. Finally, we wanted to teach students about real, tried and tested actions that can already be applied today to help communities adapt to climate change and build resilience.
Various overlapping terms are used to describe ludic activities designed for more-than-fun. “Serious games,” “persuasive games,” “games for change” and “deliberative play” describe structured play activities that aim to educate, inform, and potentially to influence behaviour or contribute to the resolution of broader social issues outside of the game itself (Glas et al., Reference Glas, Lammes, de Lange, Raessens and de Vries2019). Fundamentally, these approaches offer ways to engage young (and older) people in learning and exploring new ideas, as playful, active agents, rather than as passive vessels for information. Games for change and the like are entertaining, interactive, and importantly real world, in that they open doors to considering social and environmental justice and affecting social and environmental change (Swain, Reference Swain2007).
These types of games are increasingly being used in teaching because they appeal to a wide range of learners. Games engage experiential learning, or “learning through doing” (Kolb et al., Reference Kolb, Boyatzis and Mainemelis2001). Experiential learning is based on creating scenarios and tools for problem-solving, offering students feedback on their progress toward goals, and lowering the cost of failure to encourage them to explore, take risks and find their own solutions (Gee, Reference Gee2013). Games can have rich, story-driven and visually immersive experiences to engage players in imagining and enacting different roles.
Few, if any, climate change games emphasising community climate adaptation and resilience have been designed for education in schools. The Heat Is On contributes to an urgent need for education to develop adaptive capacity and resilience in high school students. This paper explores the design and development process of The Heat Is On as an example of practice-as-research. It describes how the narrative and visual elements of this climate fiction were iteratively co-designed with young people to create a vision for a climate changed future in which communities can adapt and thrive.
The following section briefly describes the theoretical background for game-based learning methods in climate change education, and the benefits of co-design. We then summarise the game world, narrative, physical and digital elements of The Heat Is On, before describing the design and development process. In the Discussion, we explore lessons learned, limitations and future research needs. Finally we suggest implications of this project for climate change educators, and further opportunities for game-based learning in climate change education.
Game-based learning & climate education
Games and play-based activities are increasingly being recognised as effective tools for education, both within schools and in broader society (de Freitas, Reference De Freitas2018). The mechanisms for learning through games and play have been examined by a range of disciplines including psychology, neuroscience and sociology. Several theories of play-based learning are of relevance to games that deal with complex and difficult real-world challenges such as climate change. Psychoanalytic theories of play describe the importance of games as activities through which the anxiety of stressful situations can be explored, and a sense of control gained (Freud, Reference Freud1968). This is in part because games allow players to express and process negative emotions that are frowned upon in “real” social situations (Verenkina et al., Reference Verenkina, Harris and Lysaght2003). Because games are associated with fun, and are unlike traditional classroom ways of learning, players may also gain skills and knowledge without feeling that they are being explicitly taught (Jackson, Reference Jackson2009). Cognitive theories suggest that play both consolidates prior learning and creates fertile ground for new learning, and learning through doing (Lillard, Reference Lillard2015). Socio-cultural theories of play offer that games can enable children to act out and explore adult roles, and understand rules and systems (Vygotsky, Reference Vygotsky1977). They may also be effective in helping players understand the limitations of these systems, and the difficulties inherent in adult roles involving decision-making where there is conflict of values and interests. Recent research suggests that games may be useful in developing “futures literacy”: a critical awareness of different attitudes toward the future, how it affects the present, how to study and measure it, and how to create pathways for action (Mangnus et al., Reference Mangnus, Oomen, Vervoort and Hajer2021; Vervoort et al., Reference Vervoort, Milkoreit, van Beek, Mangnus, Farrell, McGreevy, Ota, Rupprecht, Reed and Huber2022).
The Heat Is On can be considered a “game for change” in that it is designed to help players engage with current social and environmental issues and address real-world challenges (Op de Beke et al., Reference Op de Beke, Raessens, Werning and Farca2024). It joins a growing number of games designed to address issues relating to climate change (Flood et al., Reference Flood, Cradock-Henry, Blackett and Edwards2018; Galeote et al., Reference Galeote, Rajanen, Rajanen, Legaki, Langley and Hamari2021). These games come in a variety of formats: video games, board games, card games, mobile games, role playing games, virtual reality and hybrid games. They contain different game elements, including achievement-oriented elements such as points, goals and levels; social elements such as teams, collaboration, competition, and collective voting; and immersion-oriented elements such as visual game-worlds, role play, narrative, and avatars (Galeote et al., Reference Galeote, Rajanen, Rajanen, Legaki, Langley and Hamari2021).
Many climate change games include simulations of place – creating imaginary worlds in which players are free to make decisions, within a rules-driven framework. The rules that govern choice and change within these worlds are one of the main mechanisms through which game designers influence learning outcomes for players. They may aim for economic realism, for example, or to model a world in which altruism and empathy are given high value. Climate simulation games often tend toward technocratic solutions to climate change, enabling players to “win” through managing resources effectively within existing economic paradigms (Op de Beke et al., Reference Op de Beke, Raessens, Werning and Farca2024). Critiques of such approaches suggest that they could lead to the acceptance of existing systems as part of a natural order and existing crises as inevitable (Hoofd, Reference Hoofd, Glas, Lammes, de Lange, Raessens and de Vries2019). In one simulation game trope, players take on the role of grand strategist or master builder, and are given god-like powers – such games are unlikely to offer learnings about how to take climate action within a system that you cannot control and can rarely influence (Kunzelman, Reference Kunzelman2020). However, simulation games can also position players as resilient citizens who can collaborate to create change, and implement rules which model a politics of care. In this way, games can offer both hope and resilience, opening doors to the understanding of existing systems, and the possibility of change.
Immersion in game worlds is theorised as narrative transportation (Green & Brock, Reference Green and Brock2000), through which players become absorbed in the story of the game, feeling as though they are having a “real” experience. This, it is argued, creates strong emotions and feelings of connection with characters, and may thus have an enhanced influence on players’ beliefs (Green & Brock, Reference Green and Brock2000; Naul & Lui, Reference Naul and Lui2020). Offering players control of aspects of the narrative may further enhance their feelings of agency and freedom (Mateas & Stern, Reference Mateas and Stern2005). Examples of educational games that have been used to study the effect of narrative transportation include Crystal Island, a 3D narrative inquiry game learning application designed to teach young high school students about microbiology (Rowe et al., Reference Rowe, Shores, Mott and Lester2011), and Minions of DisruptionsTM, a collaborative tabletop game developed by Dutch non-profit organisation Day of Adaptation, which aims to engage diverse organisations and communities in collective climate adaptation (Sillanpää et al., Reference Sillanpää, Mauro, Hänninen, Illingworth and Hamza2024). Rowe et al., (Reference Rowe, Shores, Mott and Lester2011) found that students who were more engaged with narrative environment experienced greater learning gains and increased problem solving, regardless of prior knowledge. Sillanpaa et al., (Reference Sillanpää, Mauro, Hänninen, Illingworth and Hamza2024) found that playing collaboratively increased feelings of belonging and social learning among participants, based on their shared participation in developing the narrative.
Co-design in educational games
Co-design is a critical approach in educational game development that integrates the creativity and expertise of diverse stakeholders, particularly young people, throughout the design process (Sanders & Stappers, Reference Sanders and Stappers2008). Co-design aligns with participatory design principles, ensuring that games reflect the needs and perspectives of their intended audience. This is particularly significant in climate adaptation education, where engaging young people in game design can foster agency and deeper understanding of complex environmental issues. Many approaches to co-design exist, and in Australia, it is often framed as a key strategy for innovation and inclusivity in educational settings (Shay & Sarra, Reference Shay and Sarra2023). Understanding popular approaches to co-design is useful for informing educational game development.
Informant design provides a structured approach for involving young people at key moments to maximise the value of their contributions (Scaife et al., Reference Scaife, Rogers, Aldrich and Davies1997). This framework has been successfully used in serious game design to enhance advertising literacy among adolescents (De Jans et al., Reference De Jans, Van Geit, Cauberghe, Hudders and De Veirman2017). Authors note the primary advantage of this framework is that stakeholders, including young people, contribute based on their expertise at different stages of the design process. As a result, young people were able to assume dynamic roles, influencing narrative structures, game mechanics, and learning outcomes in ways that reflected their lived experiences.
Alternative approaches, such as narrative co-design, position young people as central storytellers rather than passive recipients of pre-existing narratives. Uğraş et al. (Reference Uğraş, Rızvanoğlu and Gülseçen2022) describe a process in which children generate the themes and narratives of educational games from the ground up, rather than being constrained by predefined content. This method enhances engagement by ensuring the game aligns with the ways young people conceptualise and relate to key issues.
Cooperative Inquiry further extends participatory design by positioning young people as co-researchers (Druin, Reference Druin1999). Cooperative Inquiry brings together intergenerational teams — including young people, educators, and developers — who collaboratively shape the design process. This approach acknowledges that young people hold unique expertise in their own experiences and provides structured opportunities for them to contribute as users, testers, informants, and full design partners (Druin, Reference Druin2002). In this application of co-design, power dynamics between adults and young people need to be managed to ensure equal contribution and respect. Measures such as informal language, shared physical spaces, and casual dress help to create a more equitable environment (Fails et al., Reference Fails, Guha and Druin2013).
An example of successful co-design in climate education is Climania: The Climate Action Game, which was developed as a participatory tool to engage young people in discussions about the built environment and climate action (Shtebunaev & Carter, Reference Shtebunaev and Carter2022). This game was co-created with 14- to 18-year-olds in response to COP26, using a series of nine workshops where participants shaped the game’s rules, mechanics, and objectives. The young co-researchers worked alongside university lecturers, artists, and industry professionals, developing skills in teamwork, academic research, and arts-led methods. Direct engagement in game creation enabled young people to contribute meaningfully to climate discussions and develop a sense of ownership over the final product.
Co-design methodologies provide valuable frameworks for engaging young people in educational game development. Working with established co-design methodologies supports the development of climate adaptation games that are both pedagogically sound and relevant to the lived experiences of young players, ultimately enhancing their impact as educational tools.
The Heat Is On game world & narrative
The Heat Is On is a hybrid game that is facilitated by a trained Narrator in a classroom environment, and is played by 5 teams. It involves physical elements (cards, maps, counters, and a spin wheel) and a digital dashboard managed through a web app, through which the Narrator inputs game decisions and events, and players can see their scores. Narration is supported by a script with prompts and text to read at specific moments in the game.
We start with a Time Machine. When the Narrator presses the button, players are transported fast forward in time to 2050. “How old will you be in 2050?” they ask. “What kind of job might you be doing? Are you ready? Let’s go!” In the Global Scenario of the game, they explain that “because of human activity, the world has heated up a lot. It’s 2050, and global average temperature has risen by more than two degrees Celsius (2°C) above that of 1900. This makes extreme weather events more frequent and severe.”
The Heat Is On is set in Adaptania — a fictional island grounded in real-world climate challenges (Figure 1). Adaptania is in a temperate zone, so it’s generally not too hot or too cold. It has mountains, bushland, rivers and farm land. Adaptania has a long indigenous history, but its current population includes people from all over the world. Their fairly small population is spread across six towns. Because of its location, landscape, and relatively wealthy population, Adaptania has been less affected by some of the climate impacts that have occurred across the world. However, it still faces significant risks from hazards including bushfire, flood, storm surge, heatwaves and biohazards in the form of pests and disease. All the towns are at risk from all of these climate hazards, but because of the island’s geography, each town has different vulnerabilities.
Map of Adaptania by Rosie Murrell. Note that while teams’ towns are initially referred to by number, this changes when they choose a name by picking two parts of a town name sign.
As Adaptanians, players work together in teams that represent five of Adaptania’s six towns, to take adaptive actions to respond to climate hazards, and to make Adaptania a fair and sustainable society. They play the role of town councillors, and are encouraged to develop and share their own stories about their town’s population, residents’ interests, jobs and values. Creativity is encouraged, and anecdotes about each town dreamed up by players at the start of the game are revisited by the Narrator when they reflect on the towns’ decisions and resilience at later stages of the game. Each game round is a year, and the game runs over three or four years (the number of rounds depending on the length of time available). Each year, teams can choose to spend their budget of “effort points” on a range of different adaptive actions, represented in the game as “Adaptation Cards” (Figure 2). These are real solutions to climate change problems, that are relevant and applicable to current climate impacts. Each Adaptation Card lasts for one, two or three years, and protects the town from one or more climate hazard by building the resilience of its Nature, Economy, Society and/or Health (NESH).
Game pieces for Town 3, including adaptation cards, map, and effort point tokens. Design by Rosie Murrell.
A digital dashboard of each town’s changing NESH resilience is displayed as a radar plot (via a web app) on a screen so that players can see how their choices affect their resilience in each round (Figure 3). The Narrator inputs these choices as they are made, using the app. The NESH resilience radar plot is made up of segments that show the current level of resilience of each town’s Nature, Economy, Society and Health as they relate to different climate vulnerabilities. Each year (or round), a physical “Climate hazards wheel” is spun by a student, to randomly determine what extreme events might befall Adaptania (Figure 4). There are six options: bushfire, flood, storm surge, heatwave, biohazard, and ? – the last being a wildcard option that (at the Narrator’s discretion) could be a policy change, a windfall, a back-to-back disaster, or a gift from each town to another town in Adaptania. Once the event has occurred, the Narrator reads out a description of what happened, and the impact of the event on towns’ resilience is revealed on the digital dashboard, and discussed.
A young player pointing to their town’s Nature, Economy, Society and/or Health resilience for flood on the digital dashboard. Players are encouraged to interact with the dashboard to help them make informed choices for adaptation. Photo: Brad Harris.
A young player spinning the Climate Hazard Wheel. Photo: Brad Harris.
Example of a narrated bushfire event
During a day of Catastrophic fire danger, Joe, an Adaptanian gardener, not realising the risk, decided to do some whipper-snippering in his yard, and accidentally started a bushfire. Smoke spread rapidly across the island, and emergency services struggled to get the growing fire under control. All towns were affected, particularly Town 1, because it is so close to the forest. Towns that put effort into bushfire adaptation were more resilient. For example, in towns that had reduced fuel using fire breaks and controlled burns earlier in the year, the fire did not reach the tree canopy, and was brought under control earlier.
At the end of the game, the Narrator wraps up by pointing to the overall resilience teams have achieved, in contrast to the control town, that did not implement any adaptations. Collaboration and approaches that balanced care for Nature, Economy, Society and Health are applauded as ways to help build resilience. As students return to the present day, they are asked “What did you learn that you can bring back to how we live now?”
Design & development of The Heat Is On
Co-design process
We used a three-stage approach to design the game, building in student feedback and iteration. Stage One involved a series of six workshops conducted by a diverse intergenerational team to develop an initial prototype game. Our Stage One project team was drawn from a diversity of disciplinary backgrounds, including science communicators, climate and spatial scientists, and social scientists. We also represent a diversity of generations, with ages from 19–49, and career stages including undergraduate, postgraduate, early and mid-career researchers. The design scope was for a game that could actively engage up to 30 players in a classroom setting, could be quickly learnt and easily understandable to children from 11 years old and up, could offer experiential learning about how to collectively adapt to climate impacts, and would move beyond dystopian future narratives.
Stage Two used informant co-design to test and develop the prototype with students and teachers at two STEM events for high school students in 2023, using this feedback to develop a more polished and user-friendly version of the game with the assistance of young creatives. We engaged a young illustrator, Rosie Murrell, to update the design from an initial prototype based on photographs and text put together by the design team. She created a warm and colourful palette, and a cheerful design style that aimed to help students envision a bright and regenerative future. She also introduced design elements to help players visualise the NESH resilience scores, time period and effort cost of each adaptive action. Web app developer Jieming Hu created a digital dashboard to enable easier game scoring.
Stage Three involved rolling out the updated game to 14 school and youth groups across Hobart, Tasmania in 2024, and gathering further informant feedback and suggestions from players. Altogether 286 players including around 200 school students aged 11–18 were involved in this process. Their verbal and written feedback, together with observation of gameplay, has enabled us to make a number of changes and improvements to the game.
Game design decisions, mechanics & learning objectives
The Heat Is On is a hybrid game in that it involves elements of tabletop role play and has a digital interface through which teams’ progress can be monitored. It is also interdisciplinary, in that it includes scientific, technological, social, political and geographical concepts and actions in a creative storytelling process. The climate and environmental hazards of Adaptania reflect real-world projections for Tasmania under all climate change scenarios discussed by the IPCC (2023). Rising temperatures and declining rainfall are increasing bushfire risks (Dowdy et al., Reference Dowdy, Ye, Pepler, Thatcher, Osbrough, Evans, Di Virgilio and McCarthy2019). More intense rainfall is raising the likelihood of both flash and riverine flooding, while rising sea levels and stronger storms worsen coastal erosion and storm surges (Grose et al., Reference Grose, Narsey, Delage, Dowdy, Bador, Boschat and Power2020). Heatwaves are becoming more frequent, impacting agriculture and public health and climate change also shifts species distributions and spreads invasive pathogens, affecting ecosystem resilience (McLaughlin et al., Reference McLaughlin, Ackerly, Klos, Natali, Dawson and Thompson2017). This makes the challenges faced by Adaptanians in 2050 highly plausible.
We debated how hot to make our 2050 world in some depth. We were aiming for realism, because we want to help prepare students for the kind of reality they are likely to be facing in their adult lives. But climate projections for 2050 range from 1.1–2.9°C above pre-industrial levels based on IPCC low or high emissions scenarios (KNMI, 2020). We initially (in 2023) decided on 1.5°C of warming, the IPCC’s threshold for dangerous climate change, reasoning that we should avoid scaring students by describing a dangerous scenario that might not take place. But the following year (2024), global average temperatures rose to 1.6°C above pre-industrial levels (World Meteorological Organization, 2025), and we decided that our initial scenario was too optimistic.
Adaptania is, of course, modelled on places we know and love, and it is not entirely by chance that it somewhat resembles the island of Tasmania. This decision was made to help young Tasmanian players connect the imagined world to their own lived experience, while learning about climate impacts facing temperate regions, and the diversity of vulnerabilities dependent on both the geography and socio-ecology of their settlements. The NESH resilience was designed to integrate four key domains significantly affected by climate hazards: Nature, Economy, Society and Health. These domains reflect critical areas of vulnerability and resilience for communities and provide students with insights into the multifaceted effects of different hazard events. We chose radar plots to visualise the NESH index. Radar plots are a space-efficient method to effectively visualise multivariate data, allowing NESH values for each hazard to be represented simultaneously. By highlighting key changes, radar plots enable students to quickly intuit areas of low resilience, and identify how adaptation strategies implemented within each town are able to improve their resilience, supporting informed decision-making within the game.
We incorporated a limited budget of “effort points” as the means to obtain adaptations to promote strategic deliberation and collaborative discussion among players. That these are not directly equated to money, but effort, reflects the value of many different forms of support for adaptation, including financial, political, and physical support. Each adaptation strategy available within the game is assigned an effort cost of either 10, 15, 20 or 30 points, representative of real-life implications. Each adaptation has different benefits across different aspects of the NESH index, compelling teams to critically evaluate which strategies might yield the greatest benefits given their town’s specific vulnerabilities. This design encourages students to thoughtfully allocate limited resources, focusing on both the longevity of each adaptation and targeted action, simulating realistic constraints faced by policymakers in hazard management scenarios. Students must weigh short-term, lower-cost adaptations against more costly, long-term adaptation strategies. For example, to adapt to storm surge, they can implement a one-year strategy of building seafront defences including walls, jetties and groins, or a two-year strategy of regenerating mangroves or saltmarshes to act as natural barriers, or a three-year strategy of changing planning laws and incentivising residents to build houses on stilts and reduce erosion through tree planting. Effort points thus serve as an educational tool to foster communication, collaboration and critical evaluation among students, particularly in engaging with peers regarding the most effective climate adaptation actions for their scenario.
The web-based platform for The Heat Is On was developed in Stage Two to replace an initial Excel prototype that used pie charts, bar charts, and VBA scripts for data manipulation. The web-based platform significantly enhances this foundation, with better scalability, user experience, and visual design. Now built on Google Cloud storage infrastructure, the platform enables potential advanced data analytics capabilities that weren’t feasible in the spreadsheet version. The digital dashboard has four components. The first component consists of a graphic header and footer. The second component showcases the towns’ radar charts (Figure 5), including a control town called “Bludgeton.” Different colours and icons are used to denote the NESH resilience of different hazards. Coloured sets matching the Adaptation card colours are referred to as “hazard categories,” and Nature, Economy, Society and Health (NESH) as “aspects” of resilience. Each individual N, E, S or H of any hazard category as a “segment.” Resilience is measured as a percentage. A red circle at 20% resilience marks a “danger zone” of critical vulnerability that requires immediate action to avoid cascading impacts. If any segment falls within this danger zone, then all other segments for that aspect of resilience will receive a 10% penalty next time a climate hazard occurs. The third component consist of two bar charts. The left panel displays cumulative resilience scores for Nature, Economy, Society and Health across all five towns. This helps the Narrator to explain how well Adaptania is faring as a whole. The adjacent panel shows a comparative analysis of each individual town, represented through coloured segments standing for each of the NESH factors. The fourth component is a log that shows what has happened in each round of the game. The Admin side of the portal allows game facilitators to quickly input teams’ decisions using dropdown buttons, and to apply climate events as they are decided by the Climate Hazards wheel. Future iterations of the web portal will include animations and video elements to create a more immersive simulation experience. This will help to make the role of the Narrator simpler, and potentially to enable teachers to take on this role themselves.
Nature, Economy, Society and/or Health (NESH) resilience scores for three towns as displayed on the dashboard, just after two back-to-back biohazard events (biohazard is the pale purple sector with a bug icon). You can see that Colesbunna has a broad NESH resilience circle, meaning that they have adapted well to climate hazards, while Advenford remains very vulnerable to both storm surge and biohazards, and is in the “danger-zone” represented by the red circle, where any future events will have cascading impacts on their economy, society and health across all hazard-types.
Iterative changes based on student ideas
Student feedback led to many improvements to the game. Two common requests were to have more years to play and to have more effort points to spend. This is a positive indication of the levels of enjoyment and engagement that we saw in the classroom, with students becoming very invested in building the NESH resilience of their town. While the number of rounds we can include is limited by the time available, we have enabled flexibility so that the number of rounds can be increased if we have more time. It is also interesting to note that students wanted more effort tokens rather than fewer extreme events, pointing to the shift in mindset towards focusing on active adaptation decision-making that is encouraged through the game design. In response to these requests, the game was adjusted so that if a town achieves a resilience score of 100% for any NESH segment, that town receives 5 effort points back. This was incorporated into the game narrative by explaining how strong resilience in one area has flow on effects to other areas, effectively mirroring the “cascading impacts” of having critically low resilience.
Informal feedback from watching how students responded to various elements was also used to improve the game design. During one game with not enough players for each town, a town was left out of the game. This effectively provided a control for everyone to see the impact of the adaptations they were applying, and groups were excited to see how much better their NESH resilience was after each event compared to this town. This led to the permanent inclusion of “Bludgeton” in the game, which enabled a new narrative about a town with an ineffective council and no community engagement.
While every experience of the game is unique due to the role-playing and random aspects of the game design, we consistently find that the positive energy in the classroom (smiles, laughter) grows throughout the game. Some students get very interested in the role-playing elements of the game, sharing creative ideas about their town. Examples include towns made up entirely of retired people, or one particularly interesting town that the students decided was famous for its pet frogs. These creative narrative decisions often led students to choose particular adaptations for their town to fit their narrative (such as a network of protected wetlands for the frogs), with some groups of students connecting much more strongly to the story than to the numbers shown on the cards. The town identity is also built through picking a town name, which is an easy and fun element that helps groups become comfortable with role playing. A thriving future must include creativity and fun, and this comes out in the stories that are encouraged by the Narrator through careful listening to initial creative ideas and referral to these elements as the game goes on, enabling students to own and develop their own town identities and stories of place.
Discussion
A key strength of The Heat Is On is its ability to move beyond the typical “doom and gloom” narratives that often dominate climate change discussions, instead emphasising how communities can mitigate and adapt in a changing climate. The Heat Is On responds to global recognition of the psychological impact of climate change on children and young people (Hickman et al., Reference Hickman, Marks, Pihkala, Clayton, Lewandowski, Mayall, Wray, Mellor and van Susteren2021; Jones & Lucas, Reference Jones and Lucas2023; Teo et al., Reference Teo, Gao, Brennan, Fava, Simmons, Baker, Zbukvic, Rickwood, Brown, Smith, Watson, Browne, Cotton, McGorry, Killackey, Freeburn and Filia2024) by disrupting a “discourse of doom” (Lucas et al., Reference Lucas, Earl-Jones, Mocatta, Beasy, Kelly and Pecl2024; Tucci et al., Reference Tucci, Mitchell and Goddard2007; Zummo, Reference Zummo2024) and immersing young people as players in collaborative decision-making to support community resilience. The game fosters adaptive thinking, demonstrating to young people how it is possible to influence change, rather than being passive recipients of distressing information (see Figure 6). This strengths-based approach is particularly important in the context of climate change education, where many teachers feel underprepared to manage the strong emotional responses the topic can evoke (Beasy et al., Reference Beasy, Jones, Kelly, Lucas, Mocatta, Pecl and Yildiz2023).
The Heat Is On introductory video. Filmed by Brad Harris, with illustrations by Rosie Murrell. Produced by Chloe Lucas https://youtu.be/28WHq4apeLE?feature=shared.
Despite the fact that effective adaptation requires collaboration to manage shared problems and negotiate trade-offs, most climate games are designed to be played by individuals, and few explore community-level adaptation (Sillanpää et al., Reference Sillanpää, Mauro, Hänninen, Illingworth and Hamza2024). The Heat Is On is unusual in being a collaborative tabletop/digital hybrid game played by a whole class. This point of difference has proved very effective in enabling students to role-play the kind of group decision-making processes that are increasingly important to promote resilience to climate hazards.
The decision to make Adaptania resemble Tasmania, where our engagement takes place, was made in order to help players draw parallels between their world and the game world. However, the differences to Tasmania are as important as the similarities, in that they give license to invent and play with new and creative ways of imagining familiar settings. Ideas to transform aspects of the environment, population and political system are encouraged through the game narrative. For example, whether Adaptania conforms to existing governmental and economic systems, or represents a transformation of these, is not defined within the basic game narrative.
Adaptanians do not live in an explicitly capitalist system, as is evidenced in our scoring system based on “effort” rather than money. However, we recognise that the assumptions that come of living in a capitalist society are hard to shake, and students often interpret this as an economic framework. Whether councils are making top-down decisions is also unspecified, and given all the actual residents of the game are represented on councils, this could equally be bottom-up. There is an opportunity to critique existing systems through the narrative developed between players and Narrator in the telling of the game, and a skilled narrator can draw on aspects of narrative introduced by players to coalesce many different game worlds. In a recent example, residents of the capital city decided to implement a communal urban farming initiative, while seeing off the biohazard threat of Godzilla. The opportunity to reflect on, and question existing systems is something we aim to develop further in the future.
Lessons learned from the co-design process
The co-design of The Heat Is On integrated multiple models to align with the game’s intended purpose. The initial design was undertaken by a diverse intergenerational team, who collaboratively shaped the game’s foundational mechanics, narrative, and learning goals, ensuring that the design was both scientifically robust and engaging. Later, children were involved in an informant co-design process, where they contributed to iterative refinements, such as game balance adjustments and visual enhancements. This approach highlights how co-design can operate at different levels within a single project, with expert-led development establishing core mechanics and student-led contributions refining usability and engagement. Further, the game itself enacts a form of narrative co-design, as students work together to create their town’s own unique narrative, with their creative roleplay influencing decisions that directly shape their gameplay experience. In this way, The Heat Is On seeks to provide a psychologically safe space for students to engage with climate adaptation while developing their decision-making capacities in scaffolded, student-led ways (Brown et al., Reference Brown, Collado, Evans and Loebach2023).
The involvement of children in the design of The Heat Is On aligns with existing research that emphasises the importance of participatory approaches in educational game development. Approaches such as informant design (Scaife et al., Reference Scaife, Rogers, Aldrich and Davies1997), narrative co-design (Uğraş et al., Reference Uğraş, Rızvanoğlu and Gülseçen2022), and cooperative inquiry (Druin, Reference Druin1999) highlight different ways young people can contribute to game-based learning. In this case, elements of informant design were intentionally used, with children contributing at key stages of development to maximise the relevance and impact of the game. This approach provided several benefits. First, it ensured that the game reflected children’s lived and place-based experiences, making it more relatable and engaging. Prior studies have shown that when young people contribute to game narratives and mechanics, they are more likely to see themselves reflected in the content, which enhances motivation and learning outcomes (De Jans et al., Reference De Jans, Van Geit, Cauberghe, Hudders and De Veirman2017). Second, participation in the design process strengthened children’s sense of agency, aligning with research that highlights co-design as a means of fostering empowerment in climate education. Finally, interdisciplinary collaboration between children, educators, and researchers enriched the learning experience, reinforcing findings that intergenerational and cross-disciplinary teams lead to more innovative and impactful educational tools (Fails et al., Reference Fails, Guha and Druin2013).
Limitations & future directions
Despite these benefits, the co-design process in this study also revealed limitations. While young people played an important role in shaping aspects of the game, their involvement was primarily structured around an informant design model rather than the more immersive approaches seen in cooperative inquiry or narrative co-design. Research has shown that deeper engagement — such as positioning young people as co-researchers or primary storytellers — can lead to more transformative learning experiences (Druin, Reference Druin2002; Uğraş et al., Reference Uğraş, Rızvanoğlu and Gülseçen2022). However, constraints related to time, resources, and institutional structures meant that young participants were involved at key moments rather than throughout the entire design process.
We also recognise that creative processes are key to thriving, now and into the future. Our game design team did not include any academics from the Arts, and future iterations might look to further explore creativity as an element of adaptation.
Current work is underway to evaluate the game‘s effectiveness in supporting young people’s adaptive capacity, addressing climate anxiety, and identifying where climate change may be negatively impacting mental health. While initial findings suggest promising outcomes, research to understand the short, medium and long-term impact are necessary to determine the games potential as an educational tool that supports developing adaptive capacity for a climate changed future.
Conclusion
The value of co-designed games in shifting climate discourse cannot be overstated. They provide an opportunity to transform passive learning into interactive experiences where students are not merely recipients of information but also contributors to shaping the narrative. By framing climate change not as an insurmountable problem, but as a challenge to which communities can consciously adapt, while retaining their values and protecting what is important to them, the game equips students to better manage their anxieties and develop a sense of control and empowerment. This shift in climate discourse is crucial, as research highlights the negative impacts on well-being of “doom and gloom” narratives (Jones & Lucas, Reference Jones and Lucas2023; Teo et al., Reference Teo, Gao, Brennan, Fava, Simmons, Baker, Zbukvic, Rickwood, Brown, Smith, Watson, Browne, Cotton, McGorry, Killackey, Freeburn and Filia2024).
For educators and policymakers, integrating interactive games like The Heat Is On into climate education can empower students with the skills to make informed decisions and adopt an action-focused mindset. The Heat Is On also highlights how school-community partnerships can support teachers in delivering engaging and impactful learning experiences. The involvement of the Curious Climate Schools team demonstrates how external expertise can complement classroom teaching, reducing the burden on educators while enriching student learning. As the education landscape continues to change and the need for innovative approaches grows, fostering stronger collaborations like this will be essential. Expanding these partnerships will ensure that young people — the ultimate beneficiaries of The Heat Is On — gain the knowledge and agency to navigate a changing world.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the Palawa people of Lutruwita/Tasmania as the original owners and cultural custodians of the lands on which the research took place. The authors would also like to acknowledge and thank the rest of the Curious Climate Schools Team, including Gretta Pecl, Rachel Kelly and Gabi Mocatta, and the many young players of The Heat Is On who provided ideas to develop and improve the game.
Financial Support
The authors acknowledge financial support from the University of Tasmania School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences, and the City of Hobart Youth Climate Action Fund, for the development of The Heat Is On game, and the Tasmanian Government Climate Change Office for financial support to facilitate The Heat Is On in Tasmanian schools. Chloe Lucas acknowledges financial support from the Australian Research Council for the DECRA project “Futures in Play” (DE250100589).
Ethical standard
All co-authors of the article have contributed to the conceptual, methodological, and empirical processes and outcomes described. This adheres to ethical protocols for authorship and intellectual contribution to research at the University of Tasmania.
Author Biographies
Dr Chloe H. Lucas is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography in the School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences at the University of Tasmania. She is a 2025 Australian Research Council DECRA fellow whose research explores climate change communication and education. She leads the award-winning Curious Climate Schools programme.
Dr Kim Beasy is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Tasmania. She leads the Youth Voices in Deliberative Democracy project, funded by the Spencer Foundation, which explores building adaptive capacity for climate-changed futures in education. Her research focuses on sustainability, social justice, and participatory education.
Charlotte A. Earl-Jones is a Research Assistant in the School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences at the University of Tasmania. She is a 2021 Future Leaders Scholar and her research focuses on youth, intergenerational relationships, and emotional responses to climate change.
Dr Nicholas Earl-Jones is a meteorology and climatology Lecturer in the School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences at the University of Tasmania. His research focuses on observational climatology, fire analysis, wind dynamics, and the impacts of climate variability on environmental and societal systems.
Isabella Conroy is a third year undergraduate geography student at Newcastle University in the UK. Her academic focus includes climate change, environmental management and exploring integrative approaches to sustainable development. She plans to pursue a masters degree to further specialise in these areas.
Andrea Hay is a PhD candidate in the School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences at the University of Tasmania. Her research focuses on the validation of satellite measurements of the ocean, and she is actively involved in science communication and outreach activities.
Jieming Hu is a graduate of the University of Tasmania’s School of Information and Communication Technology, specialising in web and software development. Currently a Data and Application Developer at Forico, Tasmania’s largest private forestry company, he has expertise in software development and data engineering.
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