Re-thinking the Environment Through Games. Designing Location Based Mobile Games in Higher Education For Environmental Awareness

The scientific aim of this contribution is to explore the topic of Location Based Mobile Game (LBMG) design in higher education as a way to raise environmental awareness, giving further research a push. The cross- national cooperation of Germany and Italy pays respect to the international occurrences of urban and hybrid games and their large applicability in the field of social innovation. This paper shows the design process on the ground of two workshops operated on a binational basis, presenting an overview of the tools used to design games, and some of the results collected. Its primary contributions consist in (1) an analysis of the game design process as a learning experience, and in (2) the assessment of the LBMGs designed, answering to a current need of experience assessment and comprehension, both from game design and research perspectives.