“We wanted to give citizens a voice in the climate emergency,” explains Jane Yau, from Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education. “The aim was to create a communication channel between citizens and policymakers through games.”

GREAT brought together academic researchers, game companies and policy-focused partners from all over Europe to test whether gaming could offer new ways to take part in climate discussions.

Meeting people where they play

Rather than asking people to come to policymakers, GREAT found a way to reach them on their own terms. Working with commercial partner PlanetPlay and more than 30 game studios, the project embedded short climate-related surveys inside popular mobile games including Fishing Clash, Pac-Man and Subway Surfers.

As a platform, games offered a way to connect with overlooked audiences, reaching around 130 million players worldwide. More than 1.2 million people engaged with the surveys, with over 200 000 completing them in full.

“We showed that this communication channel is possible,” says Yau. “One study alone reached more than a million people, with responses from almost every country in the world.”

Key to the project’s success was meeting people in a familiar environment. Instead of asking users to fill out lengthy consultations, GREAT used short, accessible multiple-choice questions designed to slide naturally into the gaming experience. The questions focused on climate priorities and public attitudes, from green energy to electric vehicles and the role games themselves could play in tackling climate change.

The collaboration offered something for game developers too. Studios gained insight into what mattered to their players, which could help shape future game design and engagement strategies. Some even adapted the survey so it felt like an immersive part of the game itself.

More than quick clicks

GREAT also tested more in-depth game-based formats. Alongside the short surveys, the project developed collaborative ‘dilemma games’ with Danish partner Serious Games Interactive, designed to explore environmental questions in more detail.

These workshop-style sessions, which typically ran for around an hour, were tailored to each case study and designed to generate deeper discussion and qualitative feedback.

In Austria, secondary school students played a game about green careers, and what might encourage them to choose this path. In Cyprus, participants explored the potential of green rooftops to cool cities and make better use of urban space. In the United Kingdom, a similar case study looked at water use and conservation.

The sessions gave researchers and policymakers a different kind of insight. While the mass surveys showed what large numbers of people thought, these in-depth games helped explore why they thought it.

Joining the climate conversation

The GREAT project demonstrates that video games can be more than entertainment: they can create an open channel between the public and decision makers.

That alone doesn’t mean the challenge is solved. While Yau and her colleagues showed that large-scale engagement through games is possible, turning that input into policy still needs stronger links with institutions.

“In order for this to have a stronger societal impact, we would need policymakers much more closely involved,” adds Yau.

To help achieve this, the project also produced policy briefs, case study reports, scientific publications and other practical resources aimed at policymakers and industry. The GREAT consortium presented its work at major international forums including UN Climate Week NYC, the World Economic Forum, and policy events in Brussels.

While GREAT focused on climate policy, the same approach could also be used to engage people in other kinds of public conversations on social issues. For a project built around an unconventional idea, the results put GREAT on the leaderboard: millions reached, hundreds of thousands of responses, and a new way to bring more voices into public debate.