Right to Roam

70% of women overall and 97% of women in the 18-24 bracket have experienced sexual harassment in public (UN Women UK, 2021). One in two women feel unsafe walking alone after dark in a quiet street near their home as well as in a busy public place, and four out of five women feel unsafe walking alone after dark in a park or other open space (ONS, 2022). It is these frightening statistics, alongside the seemingly daily senseless acts of violence against women walking, that led us to develop Right 2 Roam, a game for 2-4 players about the many inequalities of movement in public spaces.  

Right 2 Roam is an intentionally imbalanced game of chance which aims to mirror systemic injustices and imbalances of power. Players are randomly assigned a D6 or a D10, which affects their chances at safe and fast progression. Each player starts in a corner of the board with the aim of making their way home to the centre of the board. They can choose one of three routes home. Longer routes are safer with lit spaces and chances to take shortcuts or hop on the bus. Darker routes are shorter but with more chances to encounter danger. Players take turns rolling the dice and progressing across the board with the aid of Guardian cards, which offer protection. Meanwhile, if they draw Threat cards, they may find themselves forced to run backwards to safety. 

You only win if all players get home safely.

A game by Mona Bozdog and Robin Sloan

Formed in 2014, Abertay Game Lab is a practice-based research group comprised of staff from the School of Design and Informatics at Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland. Our aim is to develop experimental games, applied games, and games-related cultural and public engagement events.

Dr Mona Bozdog is a Lecturer in Immersive Experience Design.  Her research is practice-based and focuses on the convergence of contemporary performance practices and videogames. She is interested in designing hybrid forms of storytelling, games which draw from lived experience and social herstory, performative games, mixed-reality and immersive experiences, and games for public spaces and heritage sites.

Prof Robin Sloan is a Professor of Game Design and Culture. He is an artist and game maker with interests in research using game engines, digital art packages, tabletop game design methods, and traditional media. His research tends to explore the aesthetics of games through the critical lenses of media archaeology, technological nostalgia, and the history of gaming cultures.