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Campus Changer: A Serious Geogame for Transforming the Main Campus of the Warsaw University of Technology
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Abstract: The goal of the article was to develop a serious geogame that allows for the activation of the Warsaw University of Technology’s (WUT) academic community’s involvement in the participatory planning process for campus revitalization and development. The Campus Changer geogame is implemented as a PC‐based application that uses a detailed 3D model of the WUT campus and the players’ real‐time physical location. The geogame allows not only virtual exploration of a detailed, 3D model of the university campus but also raises awareness of the problems associated with the functioning of the members of the academic community in a jointly used space. The Campus Changer geogame, developed using the Unity engine with detailed WUT campus models (LoD [level of detail] 3), allows users to explore the campus and propose transformations. Guided by Genius Loci, the university’s guardian spirit, players encounter challenges and interact with diverse campus stakeholders, such as academic staff, students, and local residents. Player decisions reshape the campus instantly, with changes visible in the 3D virtual world. The Campus Changer geogame allows users to manipulate detailed geospatial data (a 3D model of the WUT campus and its connection to GIS tools) and can be used as a powerful geoparticipation tool. The results of GIS analyses conducted by the authors of the article using data collected based on the results of a multi‐player game provide insight into the opinions of different groups of the WUT academic community, who propose diverse changes in different parts of the campus. Compared to traditional planning consultations, the geogame facilitates the collection of input from a significantly broader and more diverse audience, fostering inclusive and participatory decision‐making. The most significant achievement of the project is the activation of the academic community and co‐creation planning for the modernization and development of the university.
Keywords: co‐creation; gamification; geogame; location‐based game; participatory democracy; serious game
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Vol 11 (2026): Geogames: The Future’s Language of Urban and Regional Planning (In Progress)
© Agnieszka Wendland, Kornel Samociuk, Anna Szalwa, Iker Bengoetxea Arruti, Urszula Szczepankowska-Bednarek, Jacek Wesołowski, Joanna Wnuk, Robert Olszewski. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.