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Run a research game
A scenario game designed with you. You get a written method, the findings and the data, for your funders, your executive or your journal.
Answer four quick questionsYour study is designed by our director, Dan Epstein, whose public health PhD studied decision making and game design. Dan co-authored a 2025 Safety Science paper on designing crisis exercises.
Is this for you?
- Your funders want evidence, and a workshop summary is not enough.
- You study a crisis that has not happened yet and need to watch people decide.
- You are finalising a policy and need to see how agencies would coordinate before it goes live. Choose this over a crisis-plan test when you need a written method and decision data, not a practice run.
What you get
- A game designed around your research question
- A written method and findings
- The data, yours to keep or publish
How it runs
Before
We agree the question, the method and who plays. You bring the decision makers, and we help match the tables to the real roles. Ethics approval is yours, and we work to your protocol.
On the day
The game runs with your players. Every table's decisions are logged each round with the time, plus a short survey before and after. Audio only if your ethics approval allows it.
After
A written method, the findings and the data. Yours to keep confidential, share with your executive or publish. Co-authorship only if you want it.
Built so you can publish
Run the same scenario across several sessions to compare. Decisions are logged per table, per round, with the time. Surveys before and after use instruments you choose. You get a de-identified spreadsheet with a codebook. Honest note: none of our game data has been through peer review yet.
Games we can build for you
- A volcanic winter and a food shortage (EAGx Melbourne, 2023)
- A new threat where three agencies each hold part of the answer
- A supply shock that tests a policy before it is needed
Price
From A$25,000, plus GST: one session, up to 30 players.
Each extra player beyond 30: A$250. Each further run of the same game: from A$5,500. A three-session study: from A$36,000.
Applying for a grant? We cost the study for your application.
Buying from government? The Long Game Project Pty Ltd, ABN 72 663 643 641. We give a fixed quote you can put through your usual process, invoice on your terms and sign your confidentiality deed before you share details. General terms are enough in the form.
Book about four weeks ahead. Your report date is set when we scope the game.
Proof
Role-playing and interacting with other roles was very useful for developing empathy. It also made bad outcomes feel more concrete.
Player, AI governance wargame, Washington DC 2023Having so many relationships to consider and information to integrate felt like a good simulation of the kind of decisions and pressure that governments would be under in a crisis.
Player, Before the Rising Sun 2023- Scenario games for ALLFED, a food-security research nonprofit, since 2023. Before the Rising Sun ended with players drafting a letter of findings to government.
- An AI governance wargame in Washington DC, 2023, played by policy researchers.
- Honest note: we have not yet run a game for an Australian government agency. The Washington DC game is the closest.
- Our director co-authored a 2025 Safety Science study on designing crisis exercises, fourth of 12 authors: Expert-derived recommendations for designing and facilitating tabletop crisis exercises (doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2025.106898).
Read a published study: The Quiet Spec Change
A study from our AI wargame engine: one scenario played 45 times by AI players, with the method, the evidence and the changes nobody caught. Each report comes in a short, a standard and a full version.
Read itHow we work
Your data, your protocol
We follow your approved ethics protocol, sign your confidentiality terms, and hand over or delete all data at the end.
Yours to publish
Publish the findings and the data. We co-author only if you want us to.
Paying
40% at the start, 30% at the game, 30% on the report, or on your institute's or department's terms. Prices plus GST.
If plans change
Move the date once, free, with 14 days' notice. Cancel more than 21 days out and the deposit comes back, less design work done.
Full terms: How we work and terms. We carry A$1M professional indemnity and A$10M public liability cover, and more on request.
Four quick questions
Two minutes. We reply within two working days with a format and a price. If it fits, you pick a time to talk.
Keep it general here. We sign your NDA before you share anything sensitive.
Prefer to write? email@longgameproject.org