Videogame for EDI

"Uncommon Ground" is a browser-based, cooperative strategy game developed under the GAMEHEARTS project, a Horizon Europe initiative (Grant Agreement No. 101132543) examining the economic, social, and cultural value of Europe's video game ecosystem. The document presents the game's design rationale, mechanics, and technical architecture, with the stated aim of building social, cognitive, and emotional competencies in young people through face-to-face play supported by digital feedback. Its design is explicitly grounded in the Positive Youth Development "5 Cs" framework (competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring), with task, voting, and store mechanics mapped to these dimensions as intended design logic rather than empirically validated outcomes.

Gameplay centers on five stranded alien characters who must share resources, complete task cards, and reach unanimous group decisions as they progress through three phases: Survive, Rebuild, and Escape. Phase advancement is gated by resource thresholds that rise from 15 to 20 to 25 units per resource, with the initial Phase 1 values calibrated during playtesting to allow roughly ten minutes of onboarding. The game was refined after a 13-participant workshop with players aged 18 to 26, whose feedback prompted a stronger emphasis on embodying the alien protagonists, and the five-player group size was chosen to balance participation with cohesion.

Technically, the game is implemented with PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and Ratchet WebSockets, and is hosted on Tampere University infrastructure. Access is temporarily restricted pending evaluation, with code available on GitLab. The document's stated next steps include co-design workshops with youth, youth workers, and developers to refine gameplay and narrative, followed by public release after the evaluation period. The document reports no outcome data or empirical findings; it functions primarily as a design and technical reference for a game whose effectiveness remains to be assessed.