Game.UP
TUM research on gamified urban-planning participation. Three-phase methodology, prototype tested on-location with members of the public. The 'avatar' element was empirically shown to affect perceived task meaning, perceived competence, and social relatedness. First empirical evidence linking specific game elements to civic-participation motivation.
Used in district-vs-district planning consultations in Munich: each Stadtteil ran its own session with leaderboards on proposal richness, attendance, and quality scores. Outputs are compared across districts to allocate planning attention.
Within each district session, players cooperate as avatars on a shared 3D scenography, collectively annotating issues and proposals. The paper documents how avatar-mediated collaboration raises 'social relatedness' scores during in-area workshops.
Peer-reviewed (IJHCI / Taylor & Francis) German example with measurable motivational deltas. Demonstrates that gamification scaffolds INTRA-area co-design even when the headline framing is inter-area comparison. Useful citation for BelongHub when talking to planners.
Others in the same family
Chronica Mobilis
Serious pervasive game in Barcelona Raval (a gentrifying immigrant neighborhood) where teams of players move through real streets engaging with situated audio/visual storytelling about gentrification and immigration. Documented in Springer's 'Authoring a Serious Pervasive Game for Reflecting upon Urban Spaces' (2018) and cited in JMIR Serious Games 2023 systematic review.
Wiener Klimateam (Vienna Climate Team)
City of Vienna participatory program where residents in specific districts (Bezirke) submit climate-protection ideas; municipal climate councils review and fund the best. Operates on a rotating district cycle with €6M+ budgeted in 2024. Each Bezirk has its own cohort and outputs.
Polco Comparison Groups / Track dashboard
Polco is a civic engagement and benchmarking platform for local governments. The Track dashboard lets a city/school district pick up to 9 peer jurisdictions and compare side-by-side on community survey results (NCS), financial health, demographics, and policy outcomes. School-district dashboards filter survey data by neighbourhood, race, gender, age. Layered onto Polco's survey/budget-simulation engagement tools.
ioby (in our backyards) - civic crowdfunding with city match funds
Civic crowdfunding platform combined with grassroots coaching. Local 'Leaders' propose neighbourhood projects (community gardens, murals, after-school programs). City partners offer 'Match Funds' (e.g. One Northside Crowdfunding Challenge in Pittsburgh, Lorain County Match Fund) where neighbourhoods compete for matching capital pools. Average donation $35, $21M+ raised, most donors live within 2 miles of the project.
Decidim process-groups + Barcelona/Helsinki/NYC participatory budgeting district tiers
Decidim's 'process groups' feature is explicitly designed for grouping parallel participatory budgets per district/neighbourhood. NYC's PB ran in 30 of 51 council districts in 2021-22, each with at least $1M to spend, residents drop pins on a map to pitch ideas. Helsinki's OmaStadi splits city budget by area (Itäinen, Eteläinen, Pohjoinen, etc.) with separate ideation, deliberation and vote per area.
Plant Your Street! (geogame)
Location-based geogame by Alenka Poplin (Iowa State / now Cornell) where neighbourhood residents play tree-selection and tree-placement scenarios over their actual block. Part of a broader Geogames research agenda (Poplin 2012/2018/2025) including Climate Geogames for urban heritage sustainability. Validated through workshops in Ames, Iowa.