the queen outside of the nest to birth larva directly at the sources of food. Rather than outlaw
such exploratory play, Leafcutters serves as a virtual laboratory for player experimentation within
an abstracted ecosystem. In this way, Leafcutters harnesses a strength of games as learning tools:
games allow for the exploration of the limits of systems, allowing the player to challenge the
provided model and determine its breaking points and outer limits.
Expansion and Further Research
As described earlier, Leafcutters has been designed with the specific intention of evoking
real-world engagement. Further research could formally assess whether the project achieves this
goal and, if so, how such success could translate into design considerations for future projects.
Such knowledge could benefit the design of educational games which seek to evoke learner
engagement in educational content. More generally, these principles could point the way to a
genre of game which achieves unique richness and resonance by adapting evocative systemic
elements of the real world.
Conclusion
Leafcutters emerges from the fields of A-life, life simulation games, virtual pets, and
swarm games, leveraging the specialties of each in order to present an experience of play
designed to evoke engagement with a natural system. The game was designed through a process
of adapting the natural systems of leafcutting ants in order to allow a previously impossible form
of play with this real-world subject. By representing the virtual ants in a lifelike manner, the
game seeks to establish player empathy with the creatures. The game requires the player to solve
problems using the decentralized logic of an ant colony. While the game is built on scientific
knowledge, it presents this knowledge in an implicit, rather than explicit, way, seeking to raise the
player’s curiosity about the subject matter. By facilitating this mental and emotional engagement
with a natural system, Leafcutters is designed to evoke engagement with the real world. Further
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