I’m heading to the United Nations for a convening on games and the Sustainable Development Goals with Games for Change. My brief talk tomorrow will advocate for “Low-Tech Beyond Our Walls.”

My pitch is that all cities and towns should be able to make their own games for engagement in public space. The vision is grounded in our work with 50+ towns and cities over the past several years (see our Project EBOW: on Engaging Beyond Our Walls) at the Playful City Lab and the American University Game Center.

Especially with the global south, we should be prioritizing play that is locally made — and accessible on ordinary phones. The scale of multimedia messaging remains incredibly high, and low-tech games can be made for relatively cheap (see our recipe book!).

The connective power of such games is only growing, from ChatGPT to the Internet of Things. Their power is in storytelling, but also in higher-latency approaches to multimedia. We must reject a high-tech vision of games, which harms our imagination of play as more universal, and precludes many of the potential impacts. #LocallyPlayed #LocallyMade