Project commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to develop the terms of reference of a public international tender for the design, development and production of the 9th Arabia Felix serious game to promote peace in Yemen. Since the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) had already produced eight Arabia Felix serious games before, the organization wanted to avoid shortcomings and not optimal experiences from previous game productions. Therefore, the focuses of this project were project governance, player data protection and compliance with data protection laws, an efficient project controlling, backstopping and reporting, the proper measuring of the impact of the game and the overall project, and the design of the pedagogical message of the game.

The project consisted of a 12-day consultancy executed and completed in collaboration with the “Peace Process Support for Yemen (PPSY)” team of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), with a customer-centric focus and a research-based approach. The following are the tasks undertaken by civic playgrounds:

– Project scoping with the commissioning team: review of what has worked previously at some game projects developed by GIZ and identify what should be improved or even avoided.
– Writing of TORs for the upcoming Arabia Felix game, with a focus on compliance and project governance.
– Providing an extensive list of potential service providers for the development of the ninth Arabia Felix game.
– Elaboration of design documentation for the PPSY team and for the future service provider (user profile, persona and customer journey).
– Definitions on how to gather, process and treat user/player data according to GDPR standards and EU regulations on the upcoming Arabia Felix game.
– Structuring of a parental consent mechanism for underage players as part of the TORs.
– Definition of the profile and professional background of the service provider to develop the 9th Arabia Felix game: skills, education and areas of expertise.
– Estimation of the workload for the development of the ninth Arabia Felix game based on each of the team members or specializations requested to the service provider.
– Definition of documentation requirements for the service provider as well as review touchpoints and approvals to get from the PPSY team while developing the game. This is to ensure both the game as well as its development are controllable and verifiable and can be taken further by the PPSY to accomplish the desired goals (backstopping).
– Setup of the first potential pedagogical concept for the upcoming Arabia Felix game.
– Design of the gameplay architecture of the upcoming Arabia Felix game around behaviour change and user data collection.
– Proposing of KPIs and measuring methods to evaluate the impact of the upcoming Arabia Felix game.
– Facilitation of design skills to the PPSY team during the collaboration and ensuring they feel satisfied and proud with the consultancy outputs.