In the beginning of December 2018 the fourth partner meeting took place in Berlin, Germany. Despite the cold and rainy winter weather, the team members came from their home countries in order to attend the meeting.
The first day, all partners had a workshop on privileges and critical whiteness, which was very relevant and useful to give an overview about the group composition, their position in the society and also to reflect about how these elements have repercussion in the development of the project and on the game itself. At the end of the working day there were some points deliberated about financial and administrative issues. Those topics are important for every partner, and since every partner works in their countries, this was the only moment where they could manage to clarify some aspects.
The next day was the presentation of the project’s current status. It included the results of the development phases and the conclusions over the three working phases which took place in Berlin between September and November 2018. The aim of the presentation was to present the progress made by the development team, it showed the open questions and gave inputs about possible improvements, suggestions and comments about to what extent the game responds to the pedagogical goals established during the Ferrara´s meeting in June. Points of relevance exposed were the number of characters and their main characteristics, the institutions and their procedures as well as the difference between real time, playing time and waiting time.
On the next day, the morning session was dedicated to discuss and make a brainstorming about the upcoming Try Out event in March 2019. Some important facts were about who will be the participants, which characteristics they should have and how will they be selected. As well the location where the game will be simulated and also the space that is needed & available to play the game was discussed. Also, some points about logistics, arrival and departure times and options and some tasks were assigned in order to fulfill and reach the aim of the Try Out. The afternoon time was delegated to review a fundamental game part, the debriefing. Until the partner meeting there was no proposal and no brainstorming about this component. Some ideas and suggestions were made and it was designed as a task for the coming weeks.
On the last day the partners reunited to talk about the coming work and tasks ahead. According to every task, groups were created for components like the preparation modules, debriefing modules, the logistics for the Try out and design tasks. For every task we established a deadline in concordance with the general schedule. Later on topics about the website, video concept and social media were presented. One of the most interesting moment was when Raafat, the most recent member of the team, presented his work and ideas for the portraits of the migrant characters and stations characters. Raafat is a Syrian artist and illustrator who recently joined the Dutch team and will support the team in the design and on the development of the game.
At the end, all the team said goodbye to each other and said goodbye to Berlin, closing in this way the intense days of work and return to their home countries with more ideas to continue working on the project.