Board games are for everybody
Do you like board games? Board game designer Ariel Marcy does. She’s a biologist using gamification methods to create educational board games that are fun for kids and adults.
Using her knowledge of the evolutionary system, Ariel Marcy enjoys creating fun games that all can play. She has two games in production. The latest is Go Extinct! Megafauna, which highlights Australian megafauna (think giant wombat-like creatures such as the diprotodon). And her first board game in production ( since Go Extinct! Classic ) is Go Extinct! Stardust Edition, which features carnivorous creatures from all over the world.
Go Extinct! Megafauna was created in collaboration with CABAH (The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage) and Flinders University and was launched in August of 2022 at National Science Week. The board game is a non-profit venture, and it is sent to schools all over Australia. Parents and teachers can express interest via the website, to receive copies for their school. You can also print out your own version of the game which you can customize to your liking.
Board games weren’t always the plan
Marcy started working on the original Go Extinct! (which she calls Go Extinct! Classic) a year after completing her honors thesis on gophers. ‘I graduated from University knowing I liked three things: science, teaching and graphic design. So board game design is a very juicy way to combine those three things’, she said.
Marcy moved to Australia from Vermont, USA, to study a PhD at the University of Queensland. Her PhD advisor, Vera Weisbecker, came up with the idea of using Marcy’s game and creating one about Australian animals. ‘She (Weisbecker) is now at both CABAH and and Flinders University, so she really brought those two institutions together. She was the glue of this project.’ A year ago, Marcy moved to Canberra to work at CSIRO as the Children’s Science Content Specialist.
Creating board games is a long-term effort
Each of her board games have taken around a year to produce. ‘It depends on how much effort and time I can invest.’ Marcy comes up with game ideas in different ways. “Sometimes I have a topic in mind that I’d like to teach. Sometimes it just occurs to me that a game would be a great way to teach something. That’s how Go Extinct! came about. I was teaching evolutionary trees at Stanford University as a course associate. They were highly motivated students but had trouble understanding the evolutionary tree. Linear formats, like lectures, books and homework aren’t always the most effective. Whereas games allow for iteration and repetition. Games make repetition fun. You can repeatedly think about the evolutionary tree without it getting old.’
“Games make repetition fun”
Marcy usually makes the games on paper first. ‘I cut out cards, draw things on them. Or I just buy a deck of normal playing cards and deface them with sticky notes’, she chuckled. ‘After the paper prototypes are starting to be successful and interactive, I invest time to make it digital. I made all the cards on Illustrator, and got the images from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which is great because it’s public domain. Playtesting with kids is the best because they have no filter and will tell you exactly what they think. It’s super valuable’.
“Playtesting with kids is the best because they have no filter and will tell you exactly what they think”
Learn through doing
Marcy encourages people to get involved and find groups that are involved in science outreach. She believes that learning through doing is the best way to get into biology. ‘Citizen science projects are really accessible as well. They often involve getting into nature and looking for animals and/or plants. And it’s a really wonderful way to get involved with the scientific process, which has a lot to do with research, gathering data and writing up results. The more that you can get involved with that, the better.’‘I hope that no matter what their creative interests are, that they find time to indulge in that, and express their creativity in the way they want to,’ she said.”
Each card includes the common English name, the scientific name and an Indigenous name. The images show the representing animal next to a cockatoo for scale.
Ariel Marcy owns her own board game company, STEAM Galaxy Studios. She strives to make a game which pertains to each letter of STEAM. Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. In addition to Go Extinct! Stardust Edition and Go Extinct! Megafauna, she has several others that she is prototyping. Her mission is to increase the diversity of kids – especially girls and youth of colour – flourishing in STEM.
Each of Marcy’s boardgames, including her prototypes
