Hello, we are project team CivRep, and we are developing a multiplayer civic learning roleplaying game as part of a larger project called CivWiz.
What is CivWiz about?
To help us start off this semester, let’s talk a bit about our parent project CivWiz. CivWiz is a civic learning game currently being developed at the University of Pittsburgh by collaborators from the School of Education, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Honors College, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the Office of PittServes. The game is designed to support Pitt educators and undergraduate students across academics disciplines to expand their civic knowledge, and cultural competency. The proposed civic learning game includes three modules; word scramble, trivia, and role play. The modules are designed to increase students’ basic knowledge of historic and modern understandings of democratic principles and values, capacities to engage with diverse perspectives and people, and commitment to collective civic problem solving, anti-racism, and equity.
Our client, Ron Idoko, Diversity and Multi-Cultural Program Manager at UPitt, has already begun working on CivWiz, with playtests having been done during January 2020, and the word scramble and trivia modules already being in development in collaboration with an app-dev team.
Mocked Trivia Module 
Mocked Word Scramble Module
Mock images from the ongoing CivWiz project, provided by our client.
Prior Work on the Role-Playing Module
One thing our client discovered during the playtests was that the roleplaying module was by far the most popular and well-received. Playtesters described the roleplaying module as very engaging, with the inter-player discussions being highlighted as very fun and thought-provoking. However, the playtests were held in-person before the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, and translating the roleplaying module into a virtual experience has proven to be a bit tricky.
What is CivRep about?
This is where our team, CivRep, comes in. Our goal is to create a prototype of the roleplaying module that can then be used by the CivWiz team to help guide the development of the roleplaying activity in the CivWiz application.
To this end, our team kicked off week one by commencing some research on relevant topics such as:
1. The Transformational Framework
CivWiz, and as an extension, CivRep, are transformational experiences trying to make a positive impact on our guests. We began studying the Transformational Framework to see how it could help us achieve this goal.
2. Examples of Transformational Games
We also began to look for other transformational games that we could perhaps learn lessons from to help guide our design.
https://worldpeacegame.org/the-game/ 
3. Tech
Our client has made it clear that CivWiz is a mobile application, and that it would be preferable if CivRep is also developed for a mobile platform. Since we knew that the player to player interaction was the most engaging part of the roleplaying module, we have begun looking into ways we could successfully recreate that experience in a virtual environment.
Tech Considerations
4. Role Playing Games
Lastly, we have begun studying other roleplaying games to help learn what makes them special. Some questions we have are:
What makes roleplaying games compelling?
What do roleplaying games do well?
What do they not do well?
For the coming week, we are planning on:
1. Recreate the roleplaying module playtest
Our team is lucky enough to have received the materials needed to recreate the playtest which took place in 2020. One of our top priorities is to go through the materials, gain an understanding of how the game works, and playtest it. We believe that playing the actual game will provide much needed information and perspective that can help our team really get started with this project.
2. Start applying the Transformational Framework to CivWiz based on the playtest
After playtesting the game, we plan on seeing how it currently fits with Transformational Framework. By doing so, we can gain insight on what the current design is successful at, and what it currently lacks that we can maybe improve on.
3. Reach out to the CivWiz developers
Our project is fortunate in that we have a substantial amount of prior work that we can study. We have reached out to the people who worked on these previous iterations of the roleplaying module so that we can hopefully talk about the design of the game with them.
4. Compile a list of questions for our Client
Our first meeting with our client went very well (at least that’s what we thought), and our team was able to get a good overview of what CivWiz is, what it currently looks like, and what it hopes to achieve. For the next meeting, we would like to dig a bit deeper. For example, what are some of the barriers the CivWiz team has run into? What are the high level purposes that are driving the transformation? What is the transformation the game is trying to achieve? Luckily, our client is a Subject Matter Expert who is not only knowledgeable, but also passionate about the topic. In order to make the meeting fruitful for both parties, we have begun to compile a large list of questions.
Thank you for reading!