Game designers are adept at creating future worlds, but our collective imagination seems to be stuck on escapist fantasies, dystopias, or re-skinning the present. This session focuses on an undergraduate course entitled “Speculative Futures: Games for a Different World” taught at UC Santa Cruz in which students imagine what happens to our world when major societal challenges are overcome and design games that belong in their speculative futures. This talk will demonstrate how starting with a desired future can lead to novel design avenues, ignites students’ political imagination, and results in a transformative classroom experience.

Takeaway

Attendees with come away with a framework and set of practices for applying speculative future thinking in their classrooms and creating the right environment for student success in this context.

Intended Audience

Instructors at undergraduate or graduate level who want to incorporate engagement with social issues in their curriculum, learn more about speculative fiction in a game design context, and students interested in a new design approach. No prior knowledge is required.