Reading time 1 min
Board games for agriculture and landscape
This new open‑access handbook offers a practical, step‑by‑step method for designing serious board games that address agricultural or landscape issues, from core concepts to testing and dissemination. Drawing on decades of collective field experience, it is aimed at advisers, facilitators, teachers, citizen groups, local authorities, NGOs, students and researchers. The full digital version can be downloaded for free
Published on 21 July 2026
There is currently a marked increase in the development of board games related to agriculture and landscape, both in France and worldwide. Too often, however, this enthusiasm leads to isolated initiatives based on trial and error, with varied success that can prove challenging for beginners.
This guide draws on years of collective experience to support the design, facilitation and evaluation of new games in agriculture and land management. The social environment is central to this approach, serving as the driving force behind the gameplay, the resulting learning, and the shifts in attitudes and actions.
The authors provide a highly operational, step-by-step methodical approach for building a game from an initial agricultural or landscape issue, moving from theoretical concepts to evaluation of the final product. Each chapter features a detailed case study to illustrate the design process. Built on decades of expertise, this formalised methodology is designed to be a practical field tool for novice designers everywhere.
BOOK COORDINATORS
- Sylvain Dernat has a doctorate in educational science and is a social science engineer at INRAE’s Territoires research unit. He specialises in supporting farming groups in the agro-ecological transition. He is also responsible for the Gamae scientific and technical platform, which develops and evaluates serious games on agri-environmental and food issues in local areas.
- Yves Michelin is Professor Emeritus at VetAgro Sup and a researcher at Territoires research unit. His work focuses on the interactions between agricultural practices landscapes, and the environment. For over twenty-five years, he has developed a number of serious games to facilitate dialogue between stakeholders in the field and train agronomy and geography students in systemic analysis and conflict management.
- Nolwenn Blache is an agricultural engineer and doctoral student in health ecology at VetAgro Sup. Her work focuses on analysing the links between forest dynamics and vector-borne infectious diseases. She has participated in the development of several serious games combining human health, animal health and environmental health.
Play4Change Award 2026 - An International Boost for Serious Games, and for GAMAE
The GAMAE platform conducts research and offers expertise to those who wish to design, mobilise or evaluate games on agricultural, environmental, territorial or food-related themes.. It was honoured with the Play4Change Award 2026 in the category Game‑based Project as a Driver of Social Change. The prize is an international distinction that recognises games as catalysts for societal and environmental transformation. It is organised by the Game Science Research Center (GSRC) together with the Play – Festival del Gioco, PlayRes and the Game in Lab programme.
With this recognition, GAMAE is poised to become a reference point for serious‑game research and for driving the agro‑ecological transition at territorial and global scales. This distinction also creates fresh opportunities to expand the scope of the GAMAE game library, to coordinate international projects, and to disseminate the platform’s work more widely.