Leonardo Mussatto

./ 2021

Play For The Future

A collaborative tabletop prototype about energy, resource trade-offs and long-term planning

Details

Tools
  • Blender
  • Unreal Engine
Team

Leonardo Mussatto

./ introduction

Play For The Future is a prototype multiplayer tabletop game and installation that probes how games can simplify complex socio-technical issues to support reflection and shared decision-making. Sparked by a personal interest in cooperative and resource-management games, and a curiosity about XR, the project investigates how a social, turn-based tabletop game can help visitors explore trade-offs in energy solution and the long-term effects of collective choices; it was developed as a prototype during lockdown and was not publicly exhibited or formally play tested.

Designed as a liminal museum foyer or communal-space experience, the prototype aims to be approachable for passers-by yet rich enough for sustained play: players take role-specific responsibilities (e.g., energy, infrastructure) while sharing resources and collectively steering global indicators like happiness and pollution. The playable prototype demonstrates core mechanics and interaction patterns; it is intended as an exploratory proof-of-concept rather than a finished game.

Objectives

  • Clarify complexity through play

    Provide a simplified model of energy solutions and resource dynamics that invites critical thinking

  • Support collaborative decision-making

    Design role differentiation and shared resources so players must communicate and plan collectively

  • Design for public, drop-in engagement

    Allow players to play for any length of time and join/leave without breaking the experience

Image Gallery

./ development

The Prototype

  • Form factor

    a circular tabletop projection with six player stations and a central dashboard

  • Roles

    Energy, Production and Infrastructure are partially implemented; other roles (Policy, Research, Urban) were planned but remain conceptual

  • Core gameplay

    turn-based actions allow players to build, upgrade or destroy tiles on a hexagonal grid; each action has costs and consequences that influence the shared global metrics. Sessions can run indefinitely - the prototype starts the system in a declining state (decreasing happiness, rising pollution) to foreground the need for coordinated choices, but players are ultimately free to choose their own objectives

  • Menu Widgets

    build/action widgets offer options based on consolidated and experimental solutions, their benefits and drawbacks rebalanced for the game; ideally, these widgets should also provide complementary real-life data on and links to sources to become learning opportunities

  • Input hardware

    development and testing used generic Xbox-compatible gamepads; Arduino/Raspberry Pi based physical controllers customized to fit each role were part of the design plan but not prototyped

  • Tools

    3d tiles were created in Blender using simple shapes and materials; Unreal Engine 4 with the HexGrid plugin handled gameplay logic - turns, action validation, shared resource accounting - and widgets

Image Gallery

Image Gallery

Image Gallery

./ outcome

Limitations & Trade-offs

This was a solo project produced during the Media Explorations - Interactive Media module at the University of Westminster. The module introduced me to the discussion around tabletop interfaces, interactive installations, and user interfaces and the prototype allowed me to explore the use of Blender and Unreal Engine for a tabletop installation. This lead me to prioritize core mechanics and social dynamics rather than full content and visual polish.

  • What should be improved
    • No formal playtesting or public exhibition took place. This limits any claim about player behaviour or learning outcomes.
    • The prototype lacks research trees, tooltips, and a polished onboarding flow — all crucial to introduce newcomers into meaningful play.
    • The central dashboard and UI remain rough and need clearer, rapidly interpretable visualisations to reduce cognitive load for casual players.
    • Visual legibility from a top-down view reduced the usefulness of 3d tiles; it could be interesting to explore the implementation of Trompe l’Oeil or pepper-ghost techniques.
    • While being clearly recognisable, hand crafted tiles provide limited variation. Procedural generation could improve visual variety and in turn appeal - relevant for an installation meant to grab the attention of passers-by.
  • What worked
    • Prototyping quickly in Unreal allowed testing of turn and action-cost logic without fully implementing all assets.
    • Keeping the prototype modest (few roles, simple tiles) helped reveal which interactions matter most.
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