Alberta Environment wanted to create an educational board game that could be used in Alberta schools and in communities to create awareness around the issues of watershed management with particular emphasis on maintaining a safe, secure drinking water supply; a healthy aquatic ecosystem; and, a reliable, quality water supplies for a sustainable economy.

The game board, or playing field is a pristine landscape that depicts the attributes of a variety of ecological systems that may be found within a typical Alberta watershed and compressed into the span of a board, or interactive interface. The landscape presents rivers, streams, lakes and all the attendant landforms and geological conditions that may influence the surface and subsurface migration of water. The game’s play mechanism is similar to game products like Genga, in which the playing field is subjected to an ever increasing load by the actions of each player at each turn. As the load increases, the playing field exhibits weaknesses, thus elevating the tension and risk of play at each progressive turn. Player’s place “Human Activities” tiles at strategic locations with the intention of developing the land base responsibly and building progressive tax revenues, while striking a tenuous balance with available water resources. The game ends when development reaches a threshold with regards to land base and water use, and the winner emerges as the player with the highest tax base and the most water remaining in reserve.

The Watershed Game is a game of strategy that forces players to consider both their personal objectives and those of the collective good, as they near a threshold that may threaten the health of the watershed.

Watershed Creative undertook an independent study of stories of leadership development. The objective of the study was to provide the context for the design of complex and realistic simulations based on the experiences of others who have achieved so much as leaders.

The process of capturing the essence of leadership was an inspiring exercise of interviewing 21 extraordinary people in business, non-profit and government organizations. Without exception, the people interviewed equated challenge with opportunity. This demonstrates the role of adversity in shaping a leader’s character and it recognizes that people and organizations need to experience a little grief to grow wise. These people built their capacity to overcome challenge, which is the key to self-knowledge and the foundation of great leadership and a fulfilling life.

Simulation scenarios were design to prompt participants to consider different patterns of behavior to achieve more desirable results. The scenarios were based on themes captured from the interviews. Some of the themes are described below.

Theme 1 - Challenges revealed during the interviews demonstrated the importance of standing firm on principles of truth and doing the right thing despite inherent career risks. Regardless of outcomes, the benefit of establishing personal integrity far exceeds the short-term gain of conforming to the will of another. It was implied that if one sticks to solid principles, solid people and organizations would follow.

Theme 2 - Many examples were given throughout the interviews that dealt with the pit falls of mis-alignment between the CEO and the board, the CEO and the executive team, or the executive team and the rest of the organization. The interviewees struggled to find value from these experiences because they are often associated with a sad waste of potential and bitter departures. However, the life lessons were deemed profoundly valuable.

Theme 3 - Several stories involved bad business decisions that were based on perceived personal obligation to a few, rather than considering the security of the whole. Consequently, the maturity of a leader inevitably involves learning to replace a predominantly self-serving view of the organization with one that serves the whole. The perspective of ‘protecting one’s own’ makes way for an appreciation of being a part of something greater than ourselves.

Watershed Creative was retained to design a series of simulations intended to help shed light on and improve a selection of internal communication issues within the organization.

The scenarios were designed based on past experiences of employees as a means of capturing and leveraging collective corporate history, discovering what the organization does very well and distributing that knowledge through simulations of the work of the participants.

We designed the scenarios based on the personal insights, business knowledge, and technical circumstances that gave rise to desired, replicable behaviors and demonstrated excellence unique to the organization. Our objective was to facilitate experiences designed to exert real time pressure on each participant based on specific motivational triggers identified during interviews with participants. By pushing the right motivational ‘buttons’ and facilitating a pressured decision making environment, we direct circumstances that prompt participants to leave their ‘comfort zone’ and discover new depth in their role and their enhanced ability to perform it collaboratively. The following are three of the themes that would be recreated in the scenarios.

1. Adjusting Focus - Scenarios were designed to inculcate the importance of paying attention to the medium and long-term strategies rather than just being focused on individual projects, which was the organizations obsession.2
2. Fear of Change – Too many years giving the same level of service to the same clients in an environment that encourages internal competition can suppress knowledge sharing and collaboration. To make the organization less vulnerable to market shifts, scenarios were designed to develop in managers an appreciation for collaboration and risk taking.
3. Integrating Mindsets – The challenge; integrating groups whose mindsets repel each other due to perceived conflict in values; one that honors scientific rigor verses one that values production efficiency. Scenarios were designed to give managers the experience of how integration can work to strengthen both sets of values.

Watershed Creative was retained to design a staff development training simulation in the field of public consultation. The objective was to develop an appreciation for the connection between office-based decisions and the distant impacts in the communities in which the organization operates that may be felt up to a year after the decisions were made.

The exercise was a game-based simulation that permits individuals and teams to make decisions in the pursuit of a lucrative gas exploration play. The series of decisions made in the evaluation of a prospect as it advances from a concept through to drilling completion have impacts on the community that translate to consequences for the organization. The consequences resulting from decisions are revealed at the end of the exercise, which determines if the production well is successfully completed or if the company’s well license is revoked.

The scenarios were designed based on past experiences of notable company employees as a means of capturing and leveraging collective corporate history. The following are the themes gathered during the experience capture process.

1. The public’s view of the company reflects a culmination of experiences over a long period of time that have to be understood and respected in order to reverse damage.
2. Rapport and mutual empathy can be established if individual motivations are understood and respected. Situation reversal exercises that expose double standards in a professionally relevant context allowed for the examination of internal mental models that have not served the company’s interests.
3. There are always two sets of negotiations that must be entered into: one set with the public and the other within the organization to communicate and justify field decisions.
4. Reflecting the company’s interests and getting respect from the community requires individuals to be clear about their own principles and values, and how they reconcile with those of the company. This requires the development of vision and self-awareness.

The Geoscience Department in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary retained Watershed Creative to develop a Virtual Field Work Project that would augment the first year Geology 201 course lab. The Virtual Field Work Project introduces real life applications into the labs so that existing materials and specimens currently in use can be linked directly to an authentic professional experience - applying new knowledge as a field geologist. To achieve this, the Virtual Field Work Project was designed to connect every lab of the course to the context of the field trip that occurs in the first week.

The Virtual Field Work Project incorporates online interactive display and functionality, real geological settings and data, video demonstration, field photography that corresponds with hands-on lab specimens, illustration and an in-depth story line that uses narrative to thread curriculum and authentic professional experiences together in an engaging way.

This pilot project is an exploration into how we might enhance the Geology 201 course to improve the transfer of knowledge from first year to second year courses, and to provide an exciting, innovative learning experience that attracts and retains the best students to the Geoscience program. The Virtual Field Work Project is iterative, so its completion will be based on solid positive measured results collected during the fall 2008 semester implementation in order to evaluate its effectiveness and viability for expansion.

FoulplayTM is a is a game of strategy in which players build their business empire by resolving environmental liabilities. The challenge is selecting the best solution to environmental liabilities in order to gain environmental credits, reduce business taxes and acquire the businesses being investigated. Players must be cagey to win, as they debate and negotiate the buying and selling of solutions to create sustainable industry.

The game board is made up of a full spectrum of businesses that may be acquired if you select the right solution to resolve the Liability Card you pick up at the start of your turn. The challenge is selecting a solution from those offered by opponents before you know for sure that it is correct. You must bring your knowledge to bare, distinguish between good science and bad science as presented by other players, and then make your choice. The winner is the player who has the most businesses at the end of the game – in other words, the player who correctly resolves the most environmental problems in the game.

FoulplayTM presents 132 environmental issues associated with 33 businesses in six sectors: Food Production, Wood Production, Mixed Industrial, Transportation, Services and Recreational. Classroom testing has been undertaken in Grades 10 and 11, with very promising results that attracted the attention of provincial governments that are currently looking to develop versions of the game for school outreach programs. Card content and board configuration is easily adapted to fit specific science subjects, as well as Social Studies, Career and Technology Studies and Environmental Studies curriculum.

FoulplayTM Interactive is a role-playing console game for XBLA, Wii and PC. As a narrative, episodic structured online game, each chapter introduces forensic challenges players tackle as they explore an extraordinary futuristic city.

It’s the year 2030 in the city of San Gameon and something is about to change, and it will be enacted by a small group of unlikely prophets and warriors. Intensive industrialization and population growth threatens to expose San Gameon to an overdose of all that human kind can perpetrate; corruption, organized crime and questionable business practices all contribute to a sense of place that few can speak to with pride. The citizenry of San Gameon is a Mulligan’s stew of the strange and transient, but the essence of the city has been described as a dark and lingering life force.

FoulplayTM Interactive is the story of everyday teens who encounter a trail of mysterious communications found in unexpected places; signs, billboards, and even through the mobile technologies they use. It’s not known if everyone sees the signs except them. What they interpret is a warning: the pulse of their community is weakening, degrading from the irresponsible actions of a generation before them. Who or what is delivering these messages? The clock is ticking... do you act or ignore the signs?

The objective behind the creation of FoulplayTM Interactive is; to produce an exciting gaming experience that compels teens to consider their actions as they discover their relationship to the world; and, to prompt teens to apply the science content taught in school to succeed in an authentic professional role that has been catapulted into an extraordinary futuristic world.