Game Change—First Local Testing & Youth Engagement with Board Games in Lykeio Apostolou Louka Kolossiou
4 June 2026 – 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
The first local workshop of the Erasmus+ KA210YOU project GAMECHANGE – Innovative Board Games for Youth Engagement was successfully organized on 4 June 2026 at Lykeio Apostolou Louka Kolossiou, bringing together 21 young participants for a full day of creativity, learning, and collaboration. The workshop aimed to introduce young people to the educational value of board games and to engage them actively in the process of designing their own game prototypes through non-formal education methods.
Building on the knowledge and experience gained during the international training activity of the project, participants explored the fundamentals of game-based learning, teamwork, and creative problem-solving. Through interactive activities, brainstorming sessions, and practical design exercises, they developed their own board games while strengthening skills such as communication, critical thinking, decision-making, and cooperation.
The workshop provided a dynamic environment where young people could transform ideas into tangible educational tools, test their creations with their peers, and receive constructive feedback. By combining creativity with learning, the activity successfully demonstrated how board games can serve as powerful instruments for youth participation, engagement, and non-formal education, fully reflecting the objectives and innovative spirit of the GAMECHANGE project.
Starting at 9:00 am, youth worker Bobbie and Michalis began by going over their own experience during their time in the training in Cyprus that took place from 8 to 14 March 2026, at which time the games Save Petro! And Connected were developed. As the day had as much as 21 participants, the group was split into 4, for the participants to create 4 entire prototypes of games and play between them.
But before that, participants played through the entirety of both Save Petro! And Connected, to get a feel for how board games developed by participants operate.
Youth worker Bobbie went over the game design basics, including the core loop, difference between game goals and victory state, theme settings (and its importance, or lack thereof!), player interaction, turn structure and set of game rules.
After a short coffee and snack break, this was when participants were already inspired, and started developing their games, by brainstorming by answer basic facts about the game's design, item use and more aspects of the games design.
You may find a description of each game developed and play tested at the end of the page.With presentations of the first steps of the game, and advice given by Nikolas and Bobbie based on the factors, participants went all in to develop their games.
When, in the afternoon, the games prototypes were complete, youth worker Bobbie went over prototyping methods, where it was explained that while in the designers head the game may feel exciting, balanced, clear or fun, new players may struggle with certain aspects of the game, which is why testing is necessary. Participicants used the "guided playtest" method, meaning they directly interact with the players to play through the entirety of the game. Each game was played 3 times, with different persons from each team guiding the game. This ensured that all players had the opportunity to try out all prototypes.
Participants then had internal and external discussions about the game mechanics and how games can be improved. Notably, participants understood that any game needs changes, and it does not mean that the game is bad, but that players, almost always, perceive the games differently.
Participants also learned how games can be digitized, and even reprinted, using Canva, so long as the dimensions of each file is predefined, and what other materials are needed for games to be playable, including a full set of rules as well as quick start guide, both of which were not developed for this workshops.
With a debriefing session, this day also had a voting session, with the game "The island" winning.
The description of each of the games were as follows
Game 1 – The Island
The game takes place on an unnamed island with survivors split into two teams from a plane crash. Both teams are attempting to reach the boat on the other side of the island in order to escape the island. While all tiles have challenges, importantly, a certain tile in the middle has a dragon, who asks more complicated questions, and based on the answer, can reward or punish the player.
Game 2 – Around the World: Guess the word.
With as many as 120 questions based on art, sport, recent news, cinema, politics, and random topics, the board is a world map, with the pawns being airplanes. Participants are tasked with reaching from one side of the world to another, with questions based on the aforementioned categories
Game 3 – The mafia snake game.
With the game playing similiarly to snakes and ladders, this one comes with a twist. The game works as a metaphor for the modern desire of chasing followings online, and as such as a reputation (or fimi points.) Using concepts of money, cooperation, the police, work and even backstabbing, participants have to have 10 reputation points before reaching the end. The games uses a die, where 1 or 2 takes you back, while 3 and 4 makes you stay at the same tile, and only 5 or 6 moves forward
Game 4 - Treasure hunt
Based on the concept of 4 explores, who are ultimately searching for a treasure, with obsacles in the way. The game is pvp, and can be played for up to 4 players.
The game is based on trivia questions, which are either multiple choice or true or false. Diffirent diffulities alow you to move farther on the board. More specifically
- Easy questions move only 1 tile
- Medium questions move 2 tiles
- Hard questions move 3 tiles
Should a player have an ongoing streak, the can use the dice for certain buffs.
