Past Projects

Future Projects

There are currently no new projects listed.

Past & Present Projects

UBG have run many different innovative workshops over the years. Many of our workshops are annual events and just get better each year.

Game Playing Workshops

Game Design Projects

Young People's Consultation Projects

Project Partners with Universal Board Games

Game Playing Workshops

Hackney Museum Games Club

2004-2007 ongoing

UBG run a weekly games club in Hackney Museum for Pupils from Hackney Free and Parochial School. Mem and Vicky facilitate playing games from around the world with groups of 10-15 young people. These sessions are great fun and the young people have high level game playing skills.

Hackney Estates Games Clubs

2006-2007 September

UBG were commissioned by BRAINPLAY and Hackney Play Association to initiate games clubs on newly established Estate based youth clubs in hackney. UBG facilitated game playing sessions at 6 youth clubs across hackney with young people aged 8-18. By the end of the project each club had their own set of games and a core group of keen game players.

Islington Children's Parliament Weekends

2002-2007 annual

UBG are invited to facilitate game playing throughout the weekend Residential, providing a social fun way for groups to get to know each other. In recent years our design projects have also become part of the workshop programme for example this year we played Dodge That Bully and Transition Rollercoaster.

Islington Summer University

2002-2007 annual

UBG have facilitated game playing and design workshops for summer Uni for the last 5 years. The workshops focus on learning lots of new games from around the world and incorporating the new ideas into your own game design. Many young people later use the experience to inform their CDT board game design in secondary school. The summer Uni workshops are fun and attract a lot of very talented game players.

Hackney and Tower Hamlets Playday

2004-2007 annual

UBG are commissioned by Hackney Play association to facilitate a game playing workshop as part of Playday. The games always attract huge numbers of young people, parents and carers. Playday is always a fun day with lots of positive feedback from everyone who are glad to see so many different games being played by so many different people.

Gillett Square Games Day

2007 hopefully annual

UBG were invited by Gillett Squared to facilitate game playing from around the world for the general public in Gillett Square. The event was a great success with hundreds of people turning up to play games and make new friends. The age range was from 5- 65. UBG and Gillett Squared hope to make these public workshops a regular feature in the square.

Family Learning at St Matthias School

2007 June- July

UBG facilitated a series of game playing workshops for parents at the school. We used lots of traditional games from around the world, encouraging parents to take games home and play with their family. By the last workshop the parents were facilitating game playing with groups of children at the school. These workshops were very successful and we are definitely going to facilitate more parents? workshops in the future.

Game Design Workshops

Transition Rollercoaster

2007

A game about the emotional rollercoaster for young people in transition from Primary to Secondary School. Made by young people and mentors at CityZEN and UBG. We work with the ideas of the young people and lead them through the design process to create a fun and useful game that lets young people explore their fears and worries about changing schools.

Transition Rollercoaster is for sale through Universal Board Games or CityZEN.

Dodge That Bully

2007

A game designed by young people at Barnard adventure playground and UBG.

UBG worked with young people to design a young people friendly questionnaire to interview their peers about their experience of bullying. The results from the interviews are all in the game which explores ways to prevent and avoid being bullied. The game has a voting system that gives all the players a chance to have their say about the most effective ways to deal with bullies.

A Slice of the Cake

2006

A budgeting game design by UBG. The game was designed to consult young people how they would spend the councils budget. Players take turns to be the big chief moving around the board and persuading players to invest in the service they land on. UBG played the game with 15 different groups across the borough and collated the results into a report. The game works really well as a discussion tool and can be adapted to different budgets for different groups.

Hyperfactive

2005

This is one of the most productive projects we have ever done

Marcus, teacher, Paradise PRU.

A drugs awareness game designed with young people at Paradise PRU and Venus Project. The game was made over half a term, working with the young people to decide on gameplay and graphic style. They then tested the mock ups until we were all happy with the final game. The game has question and answers about all the facts around drugs awareness for younger people. By playing the game young people learn and retain many useful facts and have fun.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Arsenal Emirates Stadium Regeneration game.

Very impressive game, very clever and the young people are very bright

Ken Friar, Arsenal FC.

Consultation with young people about the future of the Emirates stadium podium and Eden Grove public spaces.

Throughout July, August and September 2005 Universal Board Games consulted with 166 young people across Islington about the new Arsenal stadium podium and Eden Grove public spaces. The purpose of this consultation was to establish their views on what the podium and Eden grove public spaces could be used for from a young person's perspective and any concerns that might arise about the use or misuse of this space.

Universal board games worked with groups of young people by playing board games as a tool to help focus their attention, make it fun and get them communicating with each other. We then discussed the themes with the young people using one to one group discussions and questionnaires. This formed the basis to begin to create a game from their ideas and input. The results of this consultation were creatively presented in the form of a board game. This new game was then used as a consultation tool for young people to play on other sites and in the Arsenal Boardroom with the key decision makers.

The Museum Mysteries

2004

A really important part of the success of the project is the enthusiasm of Mem and Vicky from UBG.

Rhiannon Crackett, Hackney Museum Games Club.

UBG worked with young people at the Museum Games Club to design a game about the history of hackney and incorporating artefacts from the museum. The group designed a really fun game where players travel through time trying to find the stolen artefact. Playing the museum game is an excellent way to learn the key facts and dates in the history of Hackney for young people and adults.

Young People's Consultation Projects

Islington Summer Uni Game

2007

Universal Board Games (UBG) were commissioned by Islington Summer University (ISU) to design a board game that consults children and young people on the following:

  • Content and balance of 2006 ISU programme
    This included what they would like to sign up for. What they felt could be left out of the programme and what they would like to see included in the 2007 programme
  • The Enrolment process
  • Publicity and Marketing
  • Venues
  • Accreditation
  • 10 years anniversary celebratory ideas.
  • Summer University expanded to Easter Holidays and half term breaks

UBG visited 6 sites across Islington including secondary schools, project 16, youth offending team and other hard to reach groups in the age bracket of 10-19 and focusing more on the 14-19 age groups.

UBG designed and created a board game using the 2006 summer course content programme information and enrolment process. Once the game was completed and printed the next stage was to test it with ISU manager and design an evaluation questionnaire to help collect more specific information from the groups.

The Summer Uni Game was designed to give young people a chance to look at and think about all the courses on offer, not just their preferred areas of interest. UBG collated the results into a report which was used to plan future summer Uni's.

A Slice of the Cake, Budget game

2006

Throughout September, October and November 2005 Universal Board Games (UBG) consulted with a variety of young people of all ages, cultural backgrounds and gender across the borough of Islington. UBG developed a budget consultation board game aimed at young people, so they could understand the dilemmas and decisions involved in planning a budget. UBG consulted with young people at a Breakfast club, Youth groups, Adventure Playgrounds, Pupil Referral Unit, Children's Active Involvement Service (CAIS) and Schools.

The response of the young people towards the whole budget consultation game was extremely positive. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the game evoked a lot of meaningful discussion and decision-making. The young people were keen to express their views and prioritise the council's services.

UBG have created a generic budget board game that can be used in a number of situations and adapted to be played interactively on the council?s website. The staff at the various centres also felt that they could adapt the game to help with their own local budget dilemmas.

Hands Off, Waterside Adventure Playground rebuild

2006

Universal Board Games were commissioned by Islington Children's Services to consult with children and young people on a variety of issues surrounding the future of Waterside Adventure Playground and Youth Club.

UBG designed two questionnaires: One for the play age group 5-14 and one for the youth age group 14-21; to gather their views and feelings on a range of issues and decisions that will affect them. However, before conducting the face to face questionnaires we met with the children, young people and staff at Waterside, over February and March, to explain the project, play games and engage them in some arts/crafts activities. This helped to gain their trust, co-operation and honest responses to the questionnaires. This method enabled Universal Board Games to clarify any questions, uncover new ideas and engage in a full and frank range of responses.

The information was compiled into a report which was presented to the developers and has helped the playground to retain its original site and was used to negotiate a new improved building as part of the regeneration of Packington Estate. More importantly it demonstrated to the housing trust the need for quality play provision in the 21st century.