GCS4 Case Study Rooftop Revolution Cyprus

This report is an overview of the case study ‘Rooftop Revolution’ (GCS4). ‘Rooftop

Revolution’ is the fourth case study in the EU Horizon-funded project GREAT – Games

Realising Effective and Affective Transformation (https://www.greatproject.gg/). The case

study centres around a co-designed serious game developed to be utilized as a facilitation tool

between citizens and policy makers. Through learning and role-play scenarios, target groups

were able to: voice their attitudes towards climate policies; gain valuable insights into specific

initiatives; and enhance their acceptance of green infrastructure and sustainable urban planning.

‘Rooftop Revolution’ was implemented from October 2023 until December 2024 in Cyprus.

The case study was led by an academic partner in the GREAT project, Frederick University and

was sponsored by Urban Gorillas, an NGO active in urban regeneration and community

engagement in transformations of public spaces. The study began as a pilot and was extended

to a full case due to the strong interest from the case study sponsor. The case study engaged

policy makers, architects, urban planners, design students, property owners and residents in a

participatory process on the topic of greening privately multi-owned rooftops. The focus of the

case study is a co-designed serious game developed in collaboration with Serious Games

Interactive (SGI) partner in the GREAT project.

A series of 7 face to face serious dilemma games took place during the case study including 97

participants. The game was split into two parts: In part 1 players played themselves; and during

part 2 they engaged in role-play. Participants explored: Benefits & Opportunities; Challenges

& Barriers; Incentive Schemes and Fairness of Incentives. In-game data was collected via:

participant voting and ranking; free text input; and word clouds, as well as voice recordings of

the participants' discussions. Game play was further evaluated through participant debriefs,

focus groups, expert interviews and feedback forms.

Results show that this innovative method of consultation allowed for the exchange of diverse

opinions and constructive disagreements, enhancing realism in discussions and overall,

participants positively evaluated their participation as they felt that the game sessions allowed

for personal learning and perspective-taking. The usefulness of the GREAT methodology was

confirmed by a request of a follow-up project by a local municipality, as well as the interest and

request of urban design educators to utilise the serious dilemma game within their educational

initiative.

Findings suggest that serious games can be a powerful tool for urban planning consultation as

well as other policy areas related to climate change initiatives and policy areas, providing an

interactive and engaging platform for policy discussion and community-driven solutions. The

study underscores the potential of game-based learning in environmental policy development.

Conclusions of the case study and its success suggest that future research should explore scaling

the methodology, adapting it for different urban challenges, and further evaluating its long-term

impact on stakeholder decision-making and policy adoption.