ClairCity Skylines




A serious game about air quality, carbon and health.


Earlier posts have taken as their subjects Gamification and Motivation and Gamification and domestic energy consumption. This post looks at a particular game, ClairCity Skylines and its context, as described in

ClairCity Project: citizen-led scenarios to improve air quality in European cities.

by Enda Hayes et al. (2018), Air Pollution XXVI pp. 233 – 241. Open access:


The ClairCity Project is concerned with air pollution particularly in major cities; Bristol, Amsterdam, Ljubljana, Sosnowiec, Aveiro and Liguria (Genova) are piloting it. The project aims to create a “major shift in public understanding towards the causes of poor air quality, inviting citizens to give their opinions on air pollution and carbon reduction policies to shape the cities of the future.”
The game ClairCity Skylines is one of the means used to promote citizen engagement, and it is thus felt to be relevant to Community Energy, the topic of this blog.

The Skylines Game allows the players ‘to augment a stylised “living city” ’ resembling one of the pilot cities in the project. Players take the role of Major of ClairCity, and make decisions about low carbon, clean air policies and the ways in which they interact with other important issues. Players are retained through offering “the unique opportunity to replay and try-out alternative strategies and behaviours”, and are forced to question “their pre-conceived notions and the emotional reality of their envisaged future”.

The game has a policy library based on sources including existing databases of city solutions. Ideas are scored for short and long term impacts on climate/carbon, air quality/health, citizen satisfaction/happiness and city economy. Players promote ideas to policies “with the aim to improve air quality, carbon and health in the city while maintaining citizen satisfaction and the city economy.” Policies are categorised in such terms as transport, energy, industry, waste, and agriculture; regulatory, financial incentive, technological improvement, information provision; and the responsible authority.

Methods of promoting the game (in Bristol) have included “commuter pop-ups in train and bus stations … social media … local networks and community groups … events … such as walking and running festivals, science centre days … and local media news”.

Interim results are presented and analysed, and have allowed some main areas of concern to be identified in Bristol. A discussion follows, and it is concluded that “By putting people at the heart of both the problems and the solutions, the research has stimulated the public engagement necessary to tackle our challenging emissions problems through the development of a range of citizen-led future scenario and policy packages.”

The game can be downloaded in iOS and Android versions at:

A power point presentation on the project is available at

A YouTube presentation can be seen at:



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