This document provides an overview of an educational board game about a research career. The game aims to blend real-world concepts like publishing, grants, and peer review with game mechanics. It is presented as taking place over three phases ("ages") representing different career stages. Players take turns taking actions like publishing papers, seeking grants, and conducting peer review to earn points and progress their career. The game is still in development, with plans to further test and refine it for classroom use.

1. Making a game relatable: blending
instructions and real-world
concepts
Fantin REICHLER
Mathilde PANES
.
LILAC Conference, Nottingham, April 24, 2019

2. Program of this hour
• About
• Storytelling: context
• Game instruction
• Let’s play !
• What’s next?
• Assess our game

3. About
• EPFL
• EPFL Library
• Teaching team
• Gamification

4. Disclaimer
• This is a mockup (not the final game)
• We’ve done a lot of test: this is a test too
• This is a simulation (we’ll give you some context + game instructions)

5. Once upon a time…
• You are a researcher !
• First step : being a PhD student…
Choice
Publication
Journal
Impact
Peer review
Open Access
Grant
APC

6. The Game : Rules
Goal
Get as many points as possible
Game materials we will use today:
 Publication cards
will bring you publication points
 Grant cards
Will bring you Money tokens & other bonuses
 Time tokens
 Money tokens (wooden)
 APC tokens

7. Money token
Gives 1 money unit
Time token
Gives 1 time unit
APC token
Cancels the money
cost ( ) on a
Open Access
publication card

8. Game set up
Player 1
• 6x Money tokens
• 6x Time tokens
Publication
pile
Grant
pile
Player 2
• 6x Money tokens
• 6x Time tokens
Player 3
• 6x Money tokens
• 6x Time tokens
Player 4
• 6x Money tokens
• 6x Time tokens
discard
pile
discard
pile

9. Publication card
Journal title
Publication points
Phase cost conditions
Money cost
Time cost
Infrastructure cost (since Phase 2)
Peer review test

10. OA* Publication card
Journal title
Publication points
Phase cost conditions
Money cost (cancelable with an APC token)
Time cost
Infrastructure cost (since Phase 2)
Peer review test
*OA = Open Access

11. Grant title
Approval test (1 chance)
Number of winable
APC token
Number of winable
Money token
Grant card
Time cost
Number of validated
Publications cards
required

12. Rounds, turns & action
A game is composed of 3 Rounds called Ages
They represent steps of your career
• Phase 1: PhD
• Phase 2: Post-doc
• Phase 3: Professor
Ages are composed of an unlimited number of player’s Turns
Turns are composed of 2 actions
Ex. Player A plays 2x actions> Player B plays 2x> Player 3 plays 2x
Then it starts again: Player A plays 2 action, etc.
until nobody can play anymore

13. AGE 1: PhD AGE 2: Post-doc AGE 3: Professor
∞ Turns ∞ Turns ∞ Turns
∞ 2x actions = ∞ 2x actions = ∞ 2x actions
Nobody can play anymore
=> Next phase
Nobody can play anymore
=> Next phase
Nobody can play anymore
=> End of the game
Today, we’ll only
play this first phase

14. Actions: buy a Publication card
Discard the required amount of tokens
Then place the card in front of you in
horizontal position
The publication card is not yet validated. It
needs to be peer-reviewed
⚠ If a publication card is unvalidated (still
in horizontal position) at the end of an
Age, discard this card

15. Actions: Do a Peer-review test
(publication card validation)
Roll 1 dice
If your dice result ≥ +, place the card in
vertical position.
Your publication is validated
If your dice result < +, let your card in
horizontal position.
Your publication still needs to be validated
to give you points.
⚠ You can do multiple Peer-review test on
the same publication card
⚠ You can have multiple unvalidated
Publication cards
X
X
Unvalidated card Validated card

16. Action: buy a Grant card
Discard the required amount of
time tokens
You need to possess the required number of
validated publications card (vertical
position)
Then put the card in front of you in
horizontal position
The card is not yet validated. It needs to
pass an Approval test
⚠ you can have multiple unvalidated Grant
cards
⚠ don’t discard the required amount of
validated publication cards. You just need to
possess them

17. Actions: Do an Approval test
(Grant card validation)
Roll 1 dice
If your dice result ≥ +, place the card in
vertical position.
Your grant is approved: you win the mentioned
amount of money and APC tokens
If your dice result < +, discard the Grant
card. Your application is rejected
⚠ You can do only 1 Approval test. If you fail it,
discard immediatly your card.
⚠ If a Grant card is unvalidated (still in
horizontal position) at the end of an Age,
discard this card
X
X

18. Actions in a nutshell
Buy a Publication card Validate a Publication card
(Peer-review test)
Buy a Grant card Validate a Grant card
(Approval test)
⚠ During your turn, you may play up to 2 actions amongst the above
⚠ You may play the same action twice in a row
⚠ If you cannot or do not want to play any action at all during your turn, you cannot play
in this Age anymore
⚠ If the last action you can play is a Peer-review test, you may play it and then you cannot
play in this Age anymore

19. Let’s play

20. Time is up!

21. AGE 1: PhD AGE 2: Post-doc AGE 3: Professor
∞ Turns ∞ Turns ∞ Turns
∞ 2x actions = ∞ 2x actions = ∞ 2x actions
Nobody can play anymore
=> Next phase
Nobody can play anymore
=> Next phase
Nobody can play anymore
=> End of the game
We played this one
What’s next ?

22. Actions in a nutshell
AGE 1
Buy a Publication card Validate a Publication card
(Peer-review test)
Buy a Grant card Validate a Grant card
(Approval test)
AGE
2+3
Buy an infrastructure Hire staff

23. A new type of card: Game-changer
New rules added
Represents potential
future(s)

24. Score calculation
1. Publication points
Add up all your publication points
2. Visibility score
Group your publication cards in pile of 3. For each complete 3-pile, roll 1 dice. Add up the
result(s)
3. Championships
The player with the most OA publication cards in their possession becomes OA Champion:
they gain 5 points
The player with the most Grant cards in their possession becomes the Grant Master: they gain
5 points
The player with most Staff tokens in their possession becomes Mentor: they gain 5 points

25. Scorecard

26. Future developments
• Test, test, test
• Create a definitive design
• Integrate it in a complete class (1 hour theory / 1 hour of game )
• Publication : commercial VS print to play

27. Please assess the game
• Fill the form
• Talk / write to us if you want to discuss more
Want to play the full game ?
Get in touch with if you want to play a full
game, we can organize something!

28. Acknowledgments
Other game developers :
Noémi COBOLET, Raphaël GROLIMUND, Caroline SALAMIN
Thanks to our game testers :
Elisa BANFI, Anthony HUNZIKER, Ivan ISTOMIN, Miriam PETRILLI,
Sitthida SAMATH, Francesco VARRATO, Manon VELASCO, Thomas VON
ALLMEN

29. Fantin REICHLER
Librarian
EPFL Library
Email: fantin.reichler@epfl.ch
Telephone: 0041 21 693 03 91
Mathilde Panes
Librarian / Teaching team
coordinator
EPFL Library
Email: mathilde.panes@epfl.ch
Telephone: 0041 21 693 22 49
Twitter: @railyards