We make research driven games, intensive workshops, and bespoke experiences to help people understand each other
Case Studies
Antidote’s workshop philosophy emphasizes co-design, play, and systems thinking.
Our workshops pay close attention to people and the systems that affect their lives. We and our partners identify contextually relevant goals and plan strategies to live on after the workshop ends. Based on past workshops, we built hyper-focused playful visualizations, a several thousand person conference game, and many projects in between.
Speculative Urban Design
The emergence of smart cities, climate change, and the internet of things creates an unpredictable urban landscape. During this month long session, we co-designed a city of the future with students at the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou.
2019 – Hangzhou, China
Systems Mapping & Play
Play and systems thinking gives policy makers and educators more effective methods to communicate complex information. This three day masterclass at the Civil Service College of Singapore explored advanced techniques for creating and facilitating playful interventions.
2018 – Civil Service College, Singapore
Co-Designing Climate Change Resilience
Climate change communication is not built from the perspective of the people most affected by it. This multi-year research effort co-designed new outreach methods with people across Indonesia and the Philippines.
2012-2014 – Partners for Resilience network
Project Highlights
Antidote’s work reframes complex systems from the standpoint of the individual. Our process maintains a focus on building with our players, not for them.
The projects below highlight some of the research and visualization tools we built in the past.
Please get in touch to discuss or obtain a copy of these projects.
Broken Cities
A competitive city-building game where players try to become the wealthiest land baron. Broken Cities frames the climate change debate about adaptation versus mitigation in the face of capitalist urban development.
2011, with the Nordic Council for Climate Change
Humans Vs Mosquitoes
HvM is a field game simulating vector growth and response strategies between humans and mosquitoes. It was designed to be played at UNFCCC COP17 in South Africa to build a conversation around dengue and malarial vectors. HvM laid the foundation of a field research project funded by the Kenya Red Cross to test new information dissemination strategies about Malaria and public health education.
2012, with START, Red Cross Climate Center, and Kenya Red Cross
Legacy Connect
Legacy Connect (now rebranded as ThatHelps) is a platform started by Mark Rockefeller to gamify giving to charities and uses social media to encourage citizen activism. Antidote created gamification strategy and engagement models based on user personas on the platform.
2014, for Legacy Connect LLC
Last Chance Diner
Last Chance Diner is a set matching & resource management style card game about running a diner and managing the food needs of its patrons. The game highlights the complexities involved in managing toxic substances in everyday life.
2016, developed for the University of Texas Health Science Center - Houston
Hire Ground
Hire Ground is a live action role playing experience creating a fictional space that would demonstrate the nature of social inequality to senior staff from the World Bank.
2011, for Rasmus Heltberg and played with the World Bank
Bitten!
A conference-wide alternate reality game designed for the 18th session of the United Nations Federation for Climate Change held in Doha, Qatar.
2012, for the United Nations Federation for Climate Change, COP18 in Doha
TenaCITY
TenaCITY is a communal game highlighting stereotypes around class divisions in an urban environment. The installation facilitates dialogue about everyday micro-aggressions and normalized bigotry.
2013, produced in the OF GAMES II residency at KHOJ International Artists Association
Baltimore Sings the Blues
A web-based interactive experience showcasing the social & economic hardship that communities struggle with in Baltimore. Building on Freddy Gray’s murder as the central catalyst for protest, Baltimore Signs the Blues was built in collaboration with photographer and Baltimore native Gabriella Demczuk, and photo editor Jen Tse.
2015, won the Technical Prize at the International Center for Photography - Hack The Photo hackathon
Saturate V.1
Saturate is a VR art installation about urbanism and acceleration.
2015, for “Interactive Actuators” hosted at the Daral Hokoomeh Project, Shiraz, Iran
Howzat Umpire?
Using cricket as a metaphor for colonialism, “Howzat Umpire?” challenges players to set up a game of cricket. Players are asked to build a team considering the deep cultural and historical traditions they do not understand.
2017, played at the Games for Change festival