CRAFT-MY-STREET Project is an SFI OurTech Challenge project that aims to bridge the worlds of gaming, learning and participatory decision-making processes for climate action. The project’s goal is to amplify young people's voices in society by providing playful experiences. Which is essential for addressing pressing societal challenges, including climate change and sustainability.

The project will drive capacity building and knowledge transfer, addressing crucial societal issues such as climate change and sustainability. Additionally, it will promote digital transformation in the public sector by using data and digital technologies in emerging media popular among young people. Our solution is a web-based platform which uses gamified participatory processes as a communication and feedback channel between the public sector and young citizens.

The solution

Our solution centres around the development of a Playable Participatory Planning System (P-PPS). Craft-my-street platform will become a user-friendly web-based tool for educators and local authorities that allows for the creation of site-specific Minecraft virtual spaces. Minecraft has been selected due its popularity and scalability when involving schools in the process of engaging with young citizens. A big strength of this tool is that it leverages existing open-source and official geospatial data. This means it's not just a tool; it changes how we approach learning and engagement.

Our Stakeholder Engagement

Here you can view our stakeholder engagment to date.

Craft-my-Street (CMS) Pilots

How does CMS work?

The Craft-My-Street game-based approach aims to engage young people in decision-making processes using a combination of digital and analogue games. A game world generator called Terra Tinker allows for the creation of site-specific Minecraft worlds based on real-world data, encouraging young people to address local challenges. The Hybrid Game Approach combines Minecraft and analogue games to provide a balanced learning experience, while the Gameplay Analytics component helps LAs analyse consultation outcomes in a data-driven manner.

CMS Pilots

The CMS team has tested this game-based approach with primary and post-primary schools, conducting in-class activities that involve playing both analogue and digital games. A total of 210 children and young people played in 8 site-specific Minecraft worlds. Other successful pilots have been developed as part of the project’s activities, such as the NBScraft that was organised during the Dublin Climate Action Week 2024 in collaboration with Fingal County Council (FCC). The ideas shared by the children will support the development of the Swords Local Area Plan.

Pilot structure

Local authorities in Ireland are making active efforts to ensure their plans are inclusive and representative, integrating community input since the early stage of the process. The CMS team is keen to collaborate with them in exploring new opportunities to test our approach and tools to engage children and young people in upcoming public consultation processes. Each pilot project will be developed in close collaboration with the local authority overseeing the consultation. These projects will not only gather data relevant to the process, but also contribute to refining and enhancing the individual components of CMS currently available for testing.

The pilot will be implemented in four phases over a period between 3 to 6 months.

Workshop preparation

The CMS team will collaborate closely with the local authority to identify a spatial challenge and engage local communities for the age-specific consultation process. This will include selecting schools, community centers, and libraries to host the activities. The following resources will support this phase:

a. Capacity-Building: Training and resources for local authorities officers and teachers are available to help in the game creation using the CMS game design framework and facilitation of the game-based approach. b. Hybrid Game Approach design: Ready-to-use analogue games are available on our website (craftmystreet.com) to bridge from real to virtual worlds in Minecraft through collaborative gameplay. New games can be developed for ad-hoc complex spatial challenges. c. Online game world generator: A beta version of Terra Tinker platform has been launched to create custom Minecraft worlds of the focus area using open geospatial data.

‘Space & Voice” Workshops

hildren will play together using analog games and custom Minecraft words. These activities are expected to increase civic participation among young people, enhance climate literacy and gather their perspectives on the specific spatial challenge;

Data analysis

The Gameplay Analytics will provide the means for local authorities to review and debrief gameplay sessions in a robust and data driven way. Custom server plugins are used to monitor participant actions while they are playing Minecraft. This data is collected, logged and displayed using various data visualisation techniques, such as heat maps, network diagrams, and temporal-spatial analyses, to represent player behaviour and environmental impacts.

Audience & Influence events

Children will present their ideas and visions to their local communities. These events will facilitate dialogue and feedback between the children, parents, community members, and local authorities representatives, showcasing the potential of a game-based approach for participatory urban planning and youth engagement.

As part of the project, we conducted a number of workshops with stakeholders (teachers, local authorities, researchers etc.) to showcase, educate and gather feedback to help us design our platform (P-PPS). A timeline of the workshops is provided below.

Workshops Timeline

Workshop 1, 2 & 3 - Gameplay design

Workshop 4 & 5 - Sense-making

Workshop 6 & 7 - Resources

Workshop 8 - Pilot Testing

Analog Games

Craft My Coast

Carbon Neutrality

Happy Village

Craft My Shore Game

Craft My Shore is a turn-based strategy game where you’re tasked with protecting the city from the encroaching sea.

• Each turn you have 6 movement tokens. Buildings (red) cost 6 to move, terrain cost 2 (yellow), and vegetation (green) cost 1.
• Your task is to protect the buildings from the approaching sea.
• Every turn the sea will progress towards the city. Over time this rate will increase with more and more water threatening the city.
• At the end, you can review each turn, and download your game's end state. We’d love to see these. Upload them below with your feedback.

We’d love to hear what you think. Fill out your feedback here.

Craft-my-Game Prototype

We are currently developing the 'Craft My Game' approach, where users will be able to create custom games using a simplified criteria selection framework. A current prototype of the 'Craft my Game' tool is now avaiable for use.

Alternative Link!

Craft-my-Street Server - Coming soon!

We are mapping Dublin with Minecraft In the server players will have the chance to participate in a collaborative reconstruction of Dublin in the game. The main question we are trying to answer is 'how your city could be better?'

Stay tunned!

This server has been created using OpenStreetMap data and Arnis

The project is funded with the financial support of the EU Commission Recovery and Resilience Facility under the Science Foundation Ireland OurTech Challenge Grant Number 22/NCF/OT/11150