Games for Cities

Exploring the process of designing and playing games for collaborative decision-making.

Join us for an inspiring evening in collaboration with Play the City, where gaming is used as an integral problem-solving method. We’re bringing policy makers, market parties and citizens around the table. Through the “city-gaming” methodology, you’ll step into an immersive simulation where you take on roles, negotiate, strategise and collaborate to address real-world urban challenges. This session is a live game designed to spark new thinking, meaningful connections and actionable ideas. With Ekim Tan, founder of Game for Cities, leading the session, you’ll explore how playful engagement can reshape how cities are planned and experienced. Let’s play the city together and get a taste of co-creating the future of urban environment!

Together with Ekim Tan Director of ‘Games for Cities’, founder of ‘Play the City’

Ekim Tan is an architect from Istanbul based in Amsterdam. She obtained her doctoral degree at the Delft University of Technology with a focus on ‘ City gaming ‘, a method that refers to the specific implementation of serious games to city development questions. Later she published her book, Play the City: Games Informing Urban Development (2017) to provide a deeper understanding of our values, experiences, and intellectual attitude. In 2010, she founded Play the City , an Amsterdam and Istanbul-based city gaming practice that helps governments and market parties effectively collaborate with stakeholders. Ekim has also co-founded Games for Cities , an umbrella organization of game[like] practices worldwide. Play the City leads the way in applying games to complex, multiplayer city challenges.