Over the past months, the NEED project team has worked intensively to design, test, and refine a powerful new educational tool. This innovative board game is developed to improve news literacy and critical thinking skills among youth and adults through engaging, interactive play.
The creation of the board game was a collaborative, multi-stage process. Drawing on insights from the project’s previous work and developed assessment tool, partners first defined key learning objectives, aligned with three core news literacy competence areas. Upon completion, the game was then piloted in several educational contexts, with both internal teams and external participants. Feedback gathered during testing led to refinements in the game mechanics, components, and question formulation, ensuring a balanced and dynamic learning experience.
The final version of the NEED board game includes:
- A visually engaging game board divided into blue and white zones, allowing individual or team play
- A set of 30 question cards, selected from a broader pool of 120 questions
- Personal answer cards (A, B, C, D) for each player
- Point cards valued at 1, 3, or 5
- A deck of Horseshoe cards with game-changing effects
- Dice, player figures, and special field indicators
- QR codes on question cards that link to additional educational content
The game is designed for 2 to 4 players or two teams (Blue vs. White). Players begin on the starting field and move across the board by correctly answering questions and rolling the dice. Each round follows a structured flow:
- A question is drawn and read.
- Players use their colored A, B, C, or D cards to select and secretly submit their answer.
- Once all answers are revealed, players who answered correctly roll the dice and move forward.
- Depending on the field they land on, players earn point cards (1, 3, or 5) or encounter special fields that impact gameplay.
Strategic Gameplay Elements
To enhance both engagement and educational value, the game incorporates special gameplay features:
- Special Fields such as:
- Double Points: Double your reward for the current round
- Stop Field: Miss your next turn
- Horseshoe Field: Draw a Horseshoe card for bonus effects
- Horseshoe Cards offer powerful strategic options, such as:
- Doubling your points in the next round
- Blocking another player from participating in a round
These features add unpredictability and strategy, mirroring the complex and often misleading nature of today’s information landscape.
Learning Enhanced by Technology
Each question card includes a QR code that players can scan to access additional resources. This feature connects gameplay with a broader digital platform and encourages players to engage more deeply with the topic, offering background explanations and reliable references that support better decision-making.
Customizable Learning Experience
One of the unique strengths of the NEED board game is its adaptability. The 30-question set used in each game session is drawn from a pool of 120 questions. These are categorized by competence area and can be selected based on prior assessment results from the NEED Assessment Game. This ensures the game content is tailored to the needs of the learners and offers a personalized and targeted educational experience.
Winning the Game
The game ends when all question cards have been used. Players or teams then calculate the total value of their collected point cards. The winner is the one with the highest total score, but all participants walk away with improved skills in recognizing misinformation, evaluating news sources, and thinking critically about the media they consume.
By blending strategy, knowledge, and interactivity, the second NEED board game represents a compelling and scalable approach to news literacy education in the digital age. The game is available in five languages — English, Turkish, Bulgarian, Serbian and Slovenian. Each language version can be accessed through the corresponding language page on our website.