“Change the Game, Change the Future” lets players choose one of 17 regions, from Western Africa and the Middle East to Southern Asia and the Andes. After selecting a region, players are asked to make interventions based on three policy domains: institution, infrastructure, and behavior. To make the most informed decisions, players can also seek advice from government ministers and experts, but they quickly learn that making decisions for the benefit of one region may lead to adverse effects halfway across the globe. At its core, the game’s message is clear: to meet the challenges of the future, governments, companies, and the public must all learn how to navigate multiple perspectives and consider what’s at stake in balancing the tradeoffs that must be made to strengthen global food systems.

“By bringing insights from state-of-the-art modelling into an app, we allow the players to understand the complexity of real life policy making in a simple but not simplistic way. It allows everyone to test a number of strategies, and learn that addressing both local and global challenges does not require waiting for a hypothetical or miracle solution, but a well designed policy agenda, with costs and benefits understood and accepted by most stakeholders.” said David Laborde, Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI.