The Covid 19 pandemic crisis has restarted the debate on how can we use the urban space as citizens in a safe and caring way. This research presents our explorations in human-scale board-games developed during the second part of 2020. Not only we had to rethink the rules of the games to cope with the current pandemic situation and create a safe environment for the players, but also the concepts played in the games started to have a deeper understanding of processes that create or are created by the urban environment. The two games are `far to close` developed within LIFE LONG BURNING 2020, at WASP Working Art Space and Production Bucharest and `The System in the Room` created during Simultan Festival 15, Timi?oara. The first game explores urban situations and how the players deal and react to some trivial city-happenings. To win the game, they have to use the physical distancing rules to `move` in the board-game city and tell the story of their trip. The second game centres more on dialogue than on winning. This time the players move in a board-game that represents the system behind housing developments. They have to explain the concepts presented in this system and create together a narrative on how housing developments should work. While, at first glance, the games can appear different in concept, the hypothesis behind them was the same: how can we use games as a tool of understanding the relationship between the citizens and the urban environment. This paper will present our observations derived from playing and observing the two games.

serious games, urban play, play design