Games can be  fun and powerful tools for exploring possible futures.  A great way to get started with game design is to remix an existing game. The goal of this jam is to encourage folks to create new foresight games that are intended to be remixed.

What counts as a foresight game?

We take an expansive view of both foresight and game. If it involves exploring the future or grappling with emerging trends, on a scale from personal to global, then it counts. If it's gameful in some way, even if it's otherwise very similar to a non-game workshop then we're still interested!

Foresight games can be analog or digital, facilitated or not, single player or hundreds of player, and last as short as a few minutes or as long as a few days. It's a huge design space! Here is an incomplete list of published foresight games to get a sense of what other designers have made.

About remixable games

This jam is inspired, in part, by the wealth of remixable games in the indie tabletop and larp design space. In those scenes, there are many games that are easy to start altering, quick to read and run, and where their designer has explicitly welcomed other designers remixing their game. This has become a highly accessible way for folks to get started with game design by reducing the difficulty of making their first game.

For some examples of remixable games from the indie scene, check out: Lasers and Feelings, For the Queen, and Firebrands. In the applied games world, the foresight game The Thing From the Future has been remixed numerous times and the election exploration game FutureCast was designed to be easy to remix and includes a guide on customizing it.

Some aspects that make a game more remixable:

• A small core set of mechanics that can be applicable in a variety of contexts
• Specific aspects of the game that are well suited for adapting to a different topic or theme
• Guidance by the designer on how one might tweak the game, sometimes in the form of an SRD (Systems Reference Document)
• Publicly shared design files (Google Docs, Adobe or Affinity Publisher, etc) to make it easy for other designers to get started
• A clear license that permits others to remix the game (see the Licenses section below) 

Think about how your designs might align with these aspects. How might you make your game easier to remix?

Specific Use Cases / Potential attributes

Foresight games can be suited for a variety of goals and contexts. Games that try to accomplish a specific goal are likely to be more effective than games that try to do everything well. It's often helpful to start with a clear goal and then work backwards from there, to figure out what type of design makes sense.

Some potential aims:

• Brainstorming possible consequences for an emerging technology or trend
• Generate worldbuilding details for future scenarios
• Imagine how a person (maybe the player) or an organization might navigate through a series of major future disruptions
• Test how a strategic plan might succeed or fail in a different scenarios
• Understand possible threats and opportunities tied to an upcoming event, scenario, or trend
• Develop intuition and familiarity with complex systems that might shape one's future

Licenses

In order to encourage remixing, we ask that you publish your games under a permissive license that allows free use and remix. The Creative Commons licenses are a great fit, and we recommend using the CC-BY license so that other designers can confidently adapt your game.

Community Standards

Foresight Games community has a code of conduct – give it a read!

Some key points:

• No harassment of any sort
• No bigotry in your games – this means no racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, antisemitism, etc
• Please use content warnings when relevant
• Reach out if there are any issues: community@foresight.games

About the organizers

This jam is run by Randy Lubin and the Foresight Games community. We're a group of folks who are curious about foresight games and love discussing how and where they can have an impact. Come join us on our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/g8CkxYW6na

FAQ

Can I submit an existing game?

Yes, as long as seems to be a remixable foresight game. If you want to add some guidance about how to remix it, then even better!

Can I submit a remix of another designer's game?

Yes, if you have their permission to remix it and submit it to the jam or if the original game is already permissively licensed.