“Bridging the Silos” is a game designed by Marleen de Ruiter, Anaïs Couasnon, and PhilipWard at the Institute for Environmental Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. It wasoriginally developed as a tabletop board game, and then further adapted to a web-basedversion by Justin Daneau, with input from Marleen de Ruiter and Nicole van Maanen. For anin-depth description of the tabletop version, see the original paper. Although the serious game(D7.4) released on the MYRIAD-EU dashboard differs in design and features from the originalgame, the core purpose remains the same: giving the opportunity to keen climate researchers, policymakers, and civil society to move past a “silo mentality” and reinforce cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration to inform a better hazard response. Designed for both expert and general audiences, it ultimately serves as a tool to educate abouta multi-hazard DRR perspective. By adopting a role play approach, the game encouragesplayers to familiarise with the concept of multi-hazard disaster risk reduction (DRR), implementso-called “measures” which help to either mitigate or prevent damage caused by naturalhazards, and witness firsthand the challenges of decision-making in a changing climate. Thegame focuses on three of these natural hazards: floods, tropical cyclones, and droughts.Players can choose among eight roles: president, finance minister, engineer, nationalflood coordinator, agricultural representative, citizen representative, national housingchief, international aid representative. These are then plunged into fictitious yet plausiblemulti-risk scenarios where they are encouraged to discuss in multiple rounds, discuss theirviews, and finally reach a consensus on how to deploy aid and money. All in all, the gameinvites users to take on different stakeholder roles and explore strategies and tools formanaging complex, interconnected risks. A storyboard was initially created to structurescenarios and choices, which was refined through input from stakeholders during a beta testingphase.The first usability testing session for the MYRIAD-EU serious game ‘Bridging the Silos’ washeld on Monday, 2 December 2024. Overall, this trial run revealed several gameplay-relatedchallenges. One major issue encountered was that switching to other browser tabs duringgameplay caused players to be disconnected, disrupting the session. One main remarkfocused on the ambiguity around the target audience and intended outcomes of the game, withquestions raised about whether it is meant as a university-level educational tool or a trainingresource for disaster risk management professionals. A summary screen at the end of thegame was found to be helpful in facilitating reflections and consolidating learning. Participantsalso expressed uncertainty about what actions to take and how to navigate the game. Inresponse, the developer implemented pop-up tutorial windows at the start of the game,designed to guide players through the initial stages and ease the onboarding process.Additionally, the varying levels of enthusiasm among players in assuming their roleshighlighted the need for a more consistent gameplay dynamic. As a potential solution, someparticipants suggested introducing a neutral moderator role, namely an external guide taskedwith subtly steering the session forward and ensuring balanced participation across the group.During the second usability testing session, conducted on Friday, 7 March 2025, a secondset of constructive feedback was gathered to inform future improvements. Participants notedthat it still took several rounds to understand the objectives and gameplay mechanics. Thistime, a supporting manual distributed ahead of the simulation, suggested the inclusion of atleast one test round among standard good practices, to allow players to familiarise with thedashboard. Visually, the game was perceived as cluttered and somewhat primitive.Participants suggested that adding topographical features could help create a clearer sense 3of movement across a national landscape, rather than appearing confined to a city. However,this idea was ultimately discounted out of fears that introducing additional visual elementsmight exacerbate the clutter and further complicate the user experience. Concerns aboutinclusivity were also raised, particularly regarding the male-dominated appearance of rolecharacter silhouettes. In terms of gameplay dynamics, participants questioned whether accessto all resources by all players might enhance engagement, and whether allowing edits tocharacter bios could introduce more diverse perspectives and decision-making tensions.Additionally, the timing of events within the game was found to be unclear: many actionsoccurred post-disaster, leading to confusion around anticipatory responses like evacuation.Clarifying the sequence of events, possibly through a chat box message at the beginning ofthe scenario, was suggested to help orient players more effectively. All these remarks wereaddressed in a timely fashion to bring the latest version of Bridging the Silos to fruition. The serious game is now available at: https://bridging-the-silos.myriadproject.eu/