New Insights into Serious Game Design: From Foodscape to ZirkuLAr, alles klar!
The research group Geography of Food reflects on the design of the serious game Foodscape in a new publication and directly applies these insights to the development of the new game ZirkuLAr, alles klar!.
Serious games can be powerful learning tools for conveying complex sustainability topics in a playful way. In the current issue of the journal GAIA – Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society (34/3, 2025), Dr. Alice H. Aubert, together with colleagues from ZHAW and ZHdK, published the article “Balancing Reality, Meaning, and Play: The case of a digital game about the Swiss food system.” The team reflects on the interdisciplinary development process of the digital learning game Foodscape, which has been used in Swiss classrooms since its launch in 2021.
The analysis highlights how essential it is to balance reality, meaning, and play—and to place user needs at the center of the design process. This user-centered mindset also shapes the current serious game project ZirkuLAr, alles klar!, which focuses on sustainable agriculture which closes natural cycles while limiting the use of limited resources and avoiding waste.
In September 2025, ZirkuLAr, alles klar! was tested with students at Strickhof Lindau. The research team is currently producing accompanying videos featuring farmers who apply circularity principles on their farms. These videos aim to strengthen the transfer from the game to the real world. The project is supported by the Fondation Sur-la-Croix and the Leopold Bachmann Stiftung.
Through these activities, the Geography of Food team contributes to making education for sustainable agri-food systems tangible – playful, practice-oriented, and grounded in scientific evidence.
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