The design of the Save Energy serious game, Green My Place, as it stands after 6 months. With thanks to Chris Bateman, Mahtava Oy, Lumenatra and Leyla Nasibova.

1. Green My Place!
A ”serious game”
MSO/MMO-concept to
demonstrate behaviour
transformation in energy
awareness
CKIR-HSE, Mahtava Development Oy
V0.7

2. CHAPTER I
 Meta-game instantiation: snapshot

3. Green My Building!
 A Game Concept aimed at achieving behaviour
transformation through energy awareness.
 Multiplayer game played with a www-browser in 5
different building locations during ~1 year.
 Players play simple, fast eco-action based games to win
tools/trophys to upgrade their Pilot Building and make it
the best among the 5 buildings.

4. The Story
Europe is in danger! Dr. Waste has Europe in his grip, keeping people in the dark
about smart energy-use. While people are forced to use huge amounts of
unnecessary, unclean energy, Dr. Waste burns oil and coal and cuts down forests
to feed his profits. This is going to cause big environmental problems...
You want it better! By saving energy within the whole EU area, Dr. Waste can be
defeated. Take back the money from wasted energy and invest it into greening
up the place! Sustainable energy, like water, solar and wind power, plus efficient
behaviour will make Dr. Waste a thing of the past.
You and your friends in Luleå, Manchester, Helsinki, Lisboa and Leiden
have a common goal: Greener Europe. Fight for it and make the Europe a
more beautiful, sustainable place. And remember: if you are the most effective
one, you and your country will be counted as leaders in the fight to go green.

5. How it integrates to real life?
 Real world energy saving has an effect in the game
 The game is seen on a daily basis, to remind the people about
the project and to show the scores
 Special events, screen savers and other real world actions
remind the people about the game and energy saving overall
 Mini-games engage the people, motivate them to find out about
energy efficiency, and some games give ideas for energy saving
 Customizing the games for each building makes a mental
connection between the real world and the game ideas

6. Two levels of play
Minigames
 Brief single-player, one-session, 1...5 minutes / gameplay
 Always related to energy use
 Can be educational or simply serve to engage players
 For engagment-only games, the education comes from further info
Metagame/Framework/MMO/MSO
 On-going for the whole (academic) year 2010-2011
 World and Buildings that contain the minigames
 Gives context, story, place and meaning
 Demonstrates the results of the player involvement and pilot
efficiency progress:
 buildings get improved or decrepit
A TECHNICAL ANNEX DESCRIBES THE GAME’S ARCHITECTURE

7. Competition and Collaboration
COMPETE COLLABORATE
 Each other in minigames‟ high-  Collaborate to gain score for
score lists (in buildings) the pilot building by playing
PLAYERS minigames (can play for
 Each other in a minigame by others’ buildings too!)
challenging somebody else
 Buildings compete each  Buildings/cities collaborate
other by total together to lower the total
GROUPS score/achievements earned energy consumption as
by a building as visualized in visualized in front page
the frontpage (e.g. ”Luleå is
greener than Helsinki”)

8. Structured Incentives: Scoring
Personal level
 Each player has her own game-play and score records for each game
 These scores can be compared and ranked to make top-lists and compare with other players
Building level
 Basic unit is kWh
 Basic level is estimated consumption (use history and trends)
 Scores from different games can be compared to similar scores from other buildings
 Combined scores from games gain achievements which have an effect on building consumption
 The total score is calculated from estimates, compared to real consumption, which is modified with the
achievements
Europe level
 Buildings can be compared together
 There is a common enemy, against which all of the buildings are fighting together
 The better the buildings do, the greener Europe gets
A TECHNICAL ANNEX DESCRIBES THE SCORING

9. Structured Incentives: Achievements
Players win achievements in minigames/quizzes, and they
are placed on buildings. Different minigames yield different
achievements.
Achievements are energy saving and "green" symbols:
 Clean Air
 Solar panels
 Plants & trees
 „Smart‟ Electrical Equipment
 Wind turbines

10. Structured Incentives: Achievements
Each model can be achieved by playing a game that corresponds to the functionality
of the equipment, e.g. energy-saving lights can be achieved by playing the „Lights Off‟ game.
Each equipment has levels, which can be achieved by playing the games even more.
Higher level equipment cause more bonus to the score. Each level also has its own graphics.
The achieved equipment will be seen at least at the building view, and also maybe on
the map of Europe (needs prototyping).
There should also be an indicator to show that there are achievements that have not
yet been gained. These indicators should tell the criteria for the achievement, e.g. "Play 30
rounds of Lights off game to gain the Light timer. The light timer gives you 2% bonus to your
score". The percentage of bonus gained does not need to have any real-life based value. It is
purely a game-play element. But if wanted, there could be some "information box" about the
equipment, giving some real-world based info.

11. Getting out of the virtual
 Screens in building lobbies showing visualization of the game
 Map and buildings (entry view front-page)
 Pilot buildings pages
 Energy use visualisations
 Player social interaction – challenges, achievements, etc
 Special events with in-game and out-game advertising (Find
the lowpoint-day...)
 Screenshot.exe to be installed, with game reminders

12. Chapter II
 Schedule of meta-game: Greening the Place

13. Timeline
 Behaviour change needs time
 Game design aims to be engaging for 12+ months
 Beta-test period required – 3 months
 testing social tools, user feedback
 Full release period – 9 months
 Centred on mid-winter
 Leaving 3 months for reporting
Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
Beta-test Full release period Reporting

14. Scheduled Events
 One event per week to catch attention
 Special scoring bonuses for selected mini-games
 Quizzes to test energy-efficiency (EE) knowledge
 Pilot-specific events run by „green champions‟
 Thus point-of-interaction for player is mutable
 Any relevant kind of activity can be slotted in
 Quizzes, games & local events are equivalent, but each should have a
different effect on participants: we may predict that games are the
most engaging, quizzes give best educational value, etc

15. Schedule
 Repetition & predictability makes conformity & behaviour
change easy
 2 weeks of games, 1 week for quiz & 1 week for special event
 Repeat pattern every month
 Advertise the schedule and highlight the weekly event on the site and
across all other available media
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 ...
Quiz on EE Electrickery Lecture in AirConTroll Quiz on EE EnergyDash EE challenge ReNewer
knowledge play bonus pilot on EE play bonus knowledge Play bonus play bonus

16. Chapter III
 An end-to-end instance of play

17. Entry Point View
 Stylistic map of Europe with the buildings at
their locations
 Overall score reflected in each building‟s
environment: greyness vs cheeriness
 Player activity shows as achievement icons
around the building
 Oil pipelines cluster & join to each building
 The less energy is used, the smaller the cluster
& greener the type
 The more energy in building used, more it
detoriates visually
 Clicking on a building leads to pilot view
A TECHNICAL ANNEX DESCRIBES THE GRAPHICAL LAYOUT

19. Pilot View
 Show tabs with pilot's statistics in categories
 Achievements (list of what is visible: Flags,
Flowers)
 Show top supporter scores, including
"Green Hero of the week“
 Overview of ”educational scores”: which
appliances were least well known in this
city
 Show overall score and comparison to
other buildings
 Show building detoriate, if bad score
 Show building improve, if good score
 Show current scoring events in schedule
 Clicking on games list leads to game view

21. Game Choice View
 If player not logged in: ask for username & password or
"play as a guest" – button (this is where you log in!)
Window
Watcher Lights Out
 Guest gamers contribute to house's score with some
multiplier
Air
Electricker
For registered users, the game view shows "real-time"
ConTroll
 y
rankings of the building, 3 best and 2 better and 2 worse
of the players
 Game view shows weekly scores of each building below
each others. Player's score is added to own building
score after game over
 Player can send a challenge to any other player = score
and optional message.
 Games visually „localized‟ so they remind of player's own
building

22. Energy Dash Window Watcher Lights Out
ReNewer Air ConTroll Electrickery

23. Game Play
 Chosen mini-game appears against background
of pilot
 Graphics relate game directly to pilot building
 Oil pipe „filling‟ the game panel, coming from pilot
building background image

25. Debrief/Information View
 Shown when player completes game
Further Information
 Relates to thematic content of game, and to
relevant pilot building Your Work Place Reading Materials
Saving Energy
 Visualisation of current pilot energy-efficiency ...
Saving Water
status, with opportunity to „go deeper‟ & see full ...
data sets Carbon Calculators
...
 Breakdown of player‟s effect on pilot status Info on Lights
...
 Suggested actions (visual to be completed)
 Links to relevant external sites and tools –
anything to do with energy area covered in
game, or with the pilot itself (local events etc)
 All info displayed is contextual and changes each
time and for each pilot

26. Further Information
Further Information
Reading Materials
Your Work Place: Now
Saving electricity
Do you know why it's so important to save electricity at your house? It's because electric
companies often produce electricity by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural
gas. The burning of fossil fuels contributes to global warming and pollutes the air.
Saving water
1. Water-saving technology for the home includes:
2. Low-flow shower heads (sometimes called energy-efficient shower heads as they
also use less energy, due to less water being heated)
3. Low-flush toilets, composting toilets and waterless urinals, have a dramatic impact
in the developed world, as conventional Western toilets use large volumes of water.
Even saline water (sea water) can be used for flushing.
4. Faucet aerators, which break water flow into fine droplets to maintain "wetting
effectiveness" while using less water. As a bonus, they reduce splashing while
washing hands and dishes.
5. Waterless car wash
6. Rainwater harvesting
7. Infrared or foot operated faucets can save water by using short bursts of water for
rinsing in the kitchen or bathroom.
Carbon Calculators
(visual to be completed)

27. Chapter IV
 Extra views, miscellaneous

28. Player View
 Player goes here to see own
statistics
 Games tried, number of tries
 Scores on games
 Rank
 Social interactions: messages
 Account information
 Some editable (personal/sensitive)
 Some not (records must be
maintained for data mining player
behaviours)

30. Other Buildings

31. Thank you
ben.cowley@hse.fi | +358403538339