This presentation describes how we produced a serious of games that enabled the citizens of San José, CA to directly prioritize key budget issues in a way that allowed their elected officials to act on the results.

1. Fixing Broke(n) Governments
Through Serious Games
Luke Hohmann
Founder and CEO
The Innovation Games® Company
Twitter: #innovgames

2. What I promised In My Session Description
• What is the latest in serious games and what kinds of public
problems are they solving?
• Why are games a particularly good tool for budgeting? What
leverage do they offer over other alternative budgeting
approaches like deliberative democracy, participatory
budgeting, or majority voting through polls?
• How can serious budget games be scaled up? What are the
challenges we face in expanding play to thousands or millions?
• How do we interpret the results of budget games and how can
elected officials act on these results?
• How do we measure the impact of budget games? What are
their long term effects on civic engagement and the financial
sustainability of communities?

3. Can these citizens…

4. Fix this crisis?
And restore
these dreams?

5. Through Games?

6. Games Solve Problems Through Play
Jane McGonigal
“Games have
four
elements…”
Arbitrary Constraints
Voluntary
Participation
Interaction Rules
6

7. Serious Games are Designed To
Solve “Serious” Problems
• Advergames: Get you to buy stuff.
• Edutainment: Get you to learn stuff and have fun.
• Newsgames: Journalistic games motivated by
current events.
• Simulations: Learn / explore.
• Exergaming: Get to you to be healthy.
• Innovation Games®: Serious games for strategy,
market research, portfolio mgmt.
And even more…

8. What Are Innovation Games®
Innovation Games® are purpose-driven
games that solve a wide range of product
strategy and management problems
across the market lifecycle.
They are played:
•with customers & internal stakeholders
•In small groups of 5 to 8 people
•online or in-person
•in single or multi-game formats
Some of our
many games..

9. Market Insights
Prioritize
Prioritize Features
Project Determine
Portfolios Strategic
Account
Manage Priorities
NPD Strategic
Roadmaps
Strategic
Planning
Identify Product
Enhancements
Determine Product
Prioritize Epics Interactions
Used and
Endorsed By:
9

10. What was the “real” problem?
Find w Prioriti
ays to… zation
- Raise Determ
taxes ine vote
- Cut p prioriti r
rogram es on k
- Increa s issues a ey
se nd act
efficien on them
cy .

11. Prioritization Games
20/20 Vision
Prioritize desired
benefits, values, goals.
Prune the Product Tree
Develop great roadmaps.
Buy a Feature
Use a virtual market to
prioritize features, projects, items.

12. • 12 to 20 items described in
terms of benefits and costs
• 5 to 8 players given
limited budget and buy what
they want
1. …
Buy a Feature 2.
3.
…
…
4. … The reasons
Produces these A list of items behind the
ranking.
Results ranked by your
players.
Feedback that shapes
and improves the
items.

13. Creating Budget Games From Buy a Feature
To get money to fund a Proposal…
Citizens must reach unanimous agreement on
reduction proposals or new taxes.
Click on the images to link to PDFs of these documents.
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14. 2011: Proposals Funded
Proposals Funded: By Table Table Table TableTable Table TableTable Table Table Table Table Table
# %
(total 12 tables) A B C D E F G H I J K L
Anti-graffiti 9 75% 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Branch Libraries 7 58% 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Children's Health Initiative 7 58% 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Christmas in the Park 2 17% 1 1
Citywide Traffic Safety Services 5 42% 1 1 1 1 1
Crossing Guards 1 8% 1
General Code Enforcement 10 83% 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
HNVF Community Based Orgs 2 17% 1 1
Holiday Parade 1 8% 1
Hub Community Centers 7 58% 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
MLK Library 3 25% 1 1 1
Park Rangers 5 42% 1 1 1 1 1
Park Restrooms 6 50% 1 1 1 1 1 1
Pavement Maintenance 10 83% 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Safe Schools Campus Initiative
(SSCI) 8 67% 1 1 1 1 1
San José citizens
1 1 1
San Jose Best CBO
Streetlights
8
7
67%
58%
1
1
1 1
1
1 1 chose1 Pavement
1
1 1 1
1
1 1
Strong Neighborhoods Initiative 8 67% 1 1 1 1 Maintence OVER
1 1 1 1
Total : 12 5 9 5 10 6 8 10 9 9 15 8
Libraries.
Yes, that’s radical.
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15. Producing a Game… Not Always Fun…
• Planning our 1st game took 3 months
• City staff were very enthusiastic, but it took time
and coaching to convert “Reduce police costs by
xx% to save $1.2M” to “Eliminate the Police
Helicopter Program to save $1.2M”
• Play testing was essential
• Developing branded
money was fun
• City provided space

16. Who Played?
San José residents,
Neighborhood Associations
Leaders and the Youth
Commission, carefully
balanced across the tables.
Subject Matter Experts
answered questions.
Who Facilitated?
More than 35 trained
facilitators contributed
>$125K in pro-bono
services.

17. Key Results?
• The City made many budget choices in alignment
with our games
– Reductions in Fire Department staffing
– Reductions in Police Department staffing
– Delays in libraries and elimination of services
– Funding of key proposals
• Citizens loved the process

18. Pushing The Boundaries in 2012
We tested new taxes
(“new revenues”)
We tested
Each table could add
“buy one or none”
ONE new funding
proposals
proposl.

19. 2012 Results Summary:
Cost-Savings and Revenue Generation
Reductions/Cost Savings Proposal Amount A B C D E F G H I J K # of Tables % of Tables
A. 1/4 cent sales tax $ 36,000,000 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 55%
B. Shift TOT Arts Funding to General Fund $ 2,100,000 1 1 9%
C. Shift TOT Convention Center Marketing Funding to General Fund $ 2,100,000 1 1 2 18%
D. Business Tax Adjustment $ 10,000,000 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 64%
E. Disposal Facility Tax $ 5,000,000 1 1 1 1 1 5 45%
F. Eliminate Compensation and Disability Retirement System
G. Workers Overtime for Fair Labor Standards Act $ 1,200,000 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 73%
Reform $ 2,000,000 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 64%
I. Reduce Staffing in Engine Companies from 4 to 3 $ 16,600,000 1 1 1 3 27%
J. Children's Health Initiative $ 1,000,000 0 0%
K. Close Park Restrooms $ 500,000 1 1 9%
L. Eliminate Park Ranger Program $ 500,000 0 0%
Parcel Tax
AA. $100 Parcel Tax $ 32,000,000 1 1 1 1 1 5 45%
BB. $200 Parcel Tax $ 64,000,000 1 1 2 18%
How many revenue-generating proposals did this table choose? 0 2 2 2 1 1 4 34 3 3
Revenue generating proposals are shown in this color.

20. 2012 Results Summary:
Funding Proposals Summary
Funding Proposal Price Purchase Count?
Results are sorted based on purchase
14. Gang Prevention Efforts
10. General Code Enforcement
8 tables funded
pavement
maintenance. 7
$2,900,000
$500,000
11
10
9. Restore Park Ranger Program $2,200,000 9
frequency
19. Neighborhood & School Traffic Safety
1. Hub Community Center
through a parcel tax, 1
through the sales tax.
$600,000
$900,000
9
8
2. Satellite & Neighborhood Community Centers $600,000 8
6. Open Bascom & Seven Trees Libraries $1,600,000 8
8 tables funded
7. Open Calabazas & Educational Park Branch Libraries $1,600,000 8
police field patrol.
5. MLK Library Services Restoration $500,000 7
11. Traffic Safety Improvements $1,500,000 7
3. Branch Library Hours 4-4.5 $1,700,000 6
8. Open Bascom Community Center $600,000 6
17. Pavement Maintenance: Maintain FAIR Neighborhood Streets $32,000,000 6
4. Branch Library Hours 4-5.5 $4,700,000 4
10 tables funded
12. Police Field Patrol: 40 positions $7,500,000 4
increasing branch
13. Police Field Patrol: 80 positions $15,000,000 4
library hours.
15. Temporary Fire Company Closures (Brown-outs) $5,400,000 4
16. Open South San José Police Substation $2,400,000 4
18. Pavement Maintenance: Improve from FAIR to GOOD Neighborhood Streets $64,000,000 2
Citizen Proposed Projects
W1. Medical Marijuana Improvement Program $2,500,000 1
W2. Bike Lanes/Table Proposal $900,000 1
W3. Elementary Public School in Meadowfair $2,000,000 1
W4. Boards and Commissions $250,000 1
W5. Spartan Keys Alleyways Repair $750,000 1

21. Analysis / Interpretation of Results
Also informed by the review of Facilitator and Observer Comments
• Gang prevention and other forms of “non-police” intervention to increase the
safety and “livability” of the city were top priorities.
• Participants demonstrated a strong desire to increase revenues (raise taxes) to
improve pavement conditions.
• Tables that enacted the sales tax spent significantly less money on funding
proposals than was available, with an average of $12,000,000 of unspent funds.
We interpret this as a clear signal that participants favor a prudent and measured
approach to budgeting and spending even when a proportionally large sum of
money is available.
• Participants generated five unique funding proposals that are detailed later in this
report.
• Participants expressed a strong desire for additional game-based sessions focused
on “growing” the City.
21

22. Why Are Budget Games
Better Than Budget Puzzles?
Dimension Budget Puzzles Budget Games
Producers Goals? Educate the public. Make budget cuts.
Players Goals? Explore and learn. Buy what you want.
How do you “win”? Balance the budget. N/A – You don’t “win”.
Nature of play? Solitary. Collaborative.
Impact of choices? None. “Being silly is OK”. Significant. “Being silly is NOT OK”.
In-person or online Online. In-person. (Future: online).
Biases? A tie. All techniques have inherent bias. See web site for details.

23. We Have Many Opportunities to Improve
• Improve preparation
– Distribute proposals in advance
– Solicit citizen-proposals in advance
• Use more technology
– During the event to scale
– Provide real-time results
• Create more opportunities to continue the
conversations
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24. Possible Follow-up Innovation Games®
Buy A Feature Online
Prune the
Product Tree
Prune the Product Tree
Product Box 24

25. Prune the Product Tree
• Draw a tree.
• Add current ideas from your
roadmap as leaves and apples.
• 5 to 8 stakeholders shape the
“growth” of your offering.
• Captures very rich information
about perceptions of the
future, timing of new concepts,
balance, and relationships
among ideas.
Understand the
evolution of your offering.

26. Community Growth Games (In Planning)
Prune the Community Buy a Feature Online
Product Tree leaders and Will be used to “fund”
Online city officials the projects.
To identify will shape Citizens will publicly
community ideas into commit their time to
service projects. projects. projects. “Funded”
projects will receive seed
money from the city.

27. Engaging Millions of Americans
• Our platforms work well for business. They need
enhancements to work for goverments.
• Enrollment and Authentication: Are you a registered
voter in the right jurisdiction?
• Anonymity: Can you participate in a game in a way that
preserves you free speech? (very hard)
• Coordinating Massive Numbers of Players: We need
improved designs for players, SMEs, facilitators.
• Minimizing bias: We need a “wikipedia” for the
content within the games to minimize bias.

28. What About Gamification?

29. What About Participatory Budgeting?
Participatory budgeting is a process of democratic
deliberation and decision-making, and a type of
participatory democracy, in which ordinary people
decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public
budget. Participatory budgeting allows citizens to
identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending
projects, and gives them the power to make real
decisions about how money is spent.
Thanks, Wikipedia

30. Can One Company Do This?
YES NO
• Global network of trained • We’re a bootstrapped
facilitators continue to grow startup. We can’t fund all
• Proven results in many non- the changes we need on our
profit endeavors own and (so far) funding
• City leaders are gaining organizations have rejected
our proposals
trust in us and “games”
To improve our chances for success we will be
creating a non-profit in 2012 to focus on increasing
civic engagement through games.

31. San Jose, CA Budget Games

32. Thank You
For more information or to get involved:
The Innovation Games® Company
480 San Antonio Rd. Ste 202
Mountain View, CA 94040
Luke Hohmann
lhohmann@innovationgames.com
Social media? lukehohmann
#innovgames
Innovation Through Understanding®

33. Why Innovation Games®?
• Game playing gives “permission”
to be fully creative
• Innovation Games® utilize multiple forms
of intelligence (verbal, visual, strategic) thereby
providing greater volumes of information
• Collaborative behavior & shared goals are fun
• Some games provide wonderful player artwork
that help spur the larger organization to action
• Collaborative play != consensus