Boardgames Commercialisation
• Phase 1 •• Phase 2 ••• Phase 3
The problem: there is a limited awareness and understanding of how to commercialise board games based on social sciences research.
Many researchers in SocSci are already producing successful, engaging resources for game-based learning, but hit a roadblock when it comes to the challenge of disseminating their product beyond their own institution and generating income. Educational board games based on research are overwhelmingly STEM oriented, likely due to clear avenues to market.
In SocSci, these avenues are less well-known, and any social sciences game that does get commercialised is likely by accident rather than by design.
The solution: the development of resources and tools for game-based learning in the social sciences, using real world commercialisation experience, as a case study.
The Educational Games team devised a two-phase plan to increase awareness and understanding of how to commercialise academic/university-generated games based on social sciences research.
- Phase I – support the commercialisation of Brave New World (BNW), a game based on law and human rights research from Manchester and Nottingham Trent University. Learnings from this process were then used to inform and develop resources for Phase II.
- Phase II – the development of an Ed Tech Games Hub that will provide space for a community to engage with resources and tools specifically designed to inform academics, professional services, and industry on the process of the commercialisation of board games based on social sciences research.
What’s next?
The Board Games team has noted key areas for next steps:
• The team are continuing to deliver workshops to get social scientists thinking about how they can bring their research to wider audiences.
• Populate the virtual Hub (available via the Aspect members Platform) with resources and tools to help academics commercialise their research into game-based learning opportunities.
• The post associated with facilitating the labs has switched over to Glasgow. The Game Hub coordinator is working on sustainability of the Hub and assessing other academic games.
How can Aspect members get involved?
Aspect members can sign up to the Games Hub platform through the the Aspect members Platform under “Communities”.
The ASPECT Games Hub Pathway
We at the ASPECT Games Hub are delighted to share the central output of Phase 3 of the Games Hub project: the Games Development and Commercialisation Pathway.
Festival of Social Sciences 2022
Video featuring insightful facts about the annual Festival of Social Sciences.
Let’s talk about games
On Saturday the 22nd October 2022 at the Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow, the KE & impact team of the COSS, University of Glasgow, held an event tilted Let’s talk about games within the Festival of Social Science (FoSS) funded by the ESRC.
Ludic Labs
Discover how Ludic Labs is supporting the production of educational games generated by social science research.
Commercialising social sciences based educational games
University of Manchester’s Gavin Davies gives an overview of this Aspect funded project