We are now selling copies of “The Impact Game”!

We have been delighted by the interest shown in our new board game, from staff at other universities within the UK and even further afield. Thank you to everyone who has already played it or contacted us about it.

By popular demand, we are pleased to announce that “The Impact Game” is now available for purchase! You can check it out on the Ivory Game Maker site at https://shop.ivory.co.uk/games/3075/the_impact_game (it’s under £50!). If you’ve already seen it covered in the Cranfield University logo, we are selling a unbranded version to increase its transferability and playability at other institutions.

Haven’t heard about it before?

There have been quite a few exciting library board games developed lately and we’re not ones to miss out on the fun! We’ve developed “The Impact Game” to help us teach doctoral students and research staff about open access, research data management, REF, and publishing. It’s a simple board game which covers all subject disciplines. You can use it at outreach events and even training sessions.

Questions in the game cover a wide range of issues encountered by academics and researchers.  You can get a flavour of the game and questions by visiting our Impact Game collection on figshare.

“Oh no, you forgot the data access statement in your manuscript and have to request a change. Skip a turn while you liaise with the publisher.”

“Great! You created an ORCID account and added your ID to your email signature. Go forward one space.”

Join in the fun and you could even win a prize!

Once you have played the game or perused the questions, we would love to hear from you! What else should we include in the game? Do you have ideas for new questions (whether open-ended or true/false style)? Or do you have an idea to improve gameplay?

For your chance of winning one of three £20 Amazon vouchers, submit a new question (or alternative idea) to add to our Impact Game! Submit via our competition entry form. The deadline for entries is end of November; in early December we’ll review them all and pick our top three to each win a £20 voucher. We’ll publish all the entries in our figshare collection (without name/email of submitters) and aim to add all viable suggestions to the next version of our game.

If you’re a member of our University and want to play the game, let us know!

We have several copies to play at either the Cranfield or Shrivenham sites and can either bring a game to you (or facilitate play at an event), or loan you a copy for use at your leisure. Just email your library and tell us (Kings Norton Library, MIRC, or Barrington Library).