GRID – Escape the Labyrinth Game

Escape the Labyrinth is a boardgame created by the ‘Games for Research and Interdisciplinary Dialogue’ (GRID) project. It is a boardgame for forming interdisciplinary teams, it helps them examine and pre-empt the problems they are likely to face working together. The game is set in a fantastical space labyrinth where players take the roles of anthropomorphic animals and collaborate towards a successful escape mission. This collaborative game asks players to overcome challenges by learning to communicate effectively, make decisions under time pressure, and discuss typical encounters teams face all the time, such as an Overstretched Expert, Divided Approaches, or even the dreaded One-Sided Professor!

Purpose

Escape the Labyrinth explores the challenges, techniques, and skills relevant to interdisciplinary research (IDR) and aims to bring these to research teams through a collaborative gameplay. The game elements are based on the experiences of researchers, students, technicians, and research support staff and events extrapolated from the real-world projects, trying to equip players with knowledge about these before they encounter them in real life.

The game is for teams, perhaps at the beginning of their new collaboration as an early team-building or getting-to-know-you exercise. Alternatively, it can be used as a tool to reflect and overcome mid-point challenges; or to prevent potential issues when a project comes to an end.

Play

Escape the Labyrinth is an in-person, collaborative, print-and-play boardgame, for 4 to 8 players. A game takes about 60 minutes, and involves logic, discussion, negotiation, and decision-making.

Players choose a character with unique abilities. They work together as a team moving through the labyrinth and facing challenges, discussing strategies and solutions, reaching decisions about how to proceed, and moving onto the next chamber. If the Deadline marker reaches Fail on the Deadline Track before the team can find the Exit, they are left to wander the Labyrinth, lost in gloom. If they do find it in time, they escape!

You will need the printed game elements (see Print and Play below) and a standard deck of playing cards.

A playable digital version of the game is under development and will be made available later in 2026 at the HDR UK’s Futures Learning platform for teams who work remotely.

Print-and-Play

To play the game, download and print the two documents below: GRID PRINT-PLAY, and GRID Rulebook.

Print out GRID PRINT-PLAY on A4, double-sided along the long edge, in colour (recommended), giving 8 sheets. Then cut out the game components (trim lines are provided to help with this).

This Rulebook can be printed A4 single or double sided along the long edge.

Once these are prepared, start playing!

Print-and-Play Game Documents

About the Project

Games for Research and Interdisciplinary Dialogue (GRID) is an interdisciplinary research project that tackles challenges in collaborative research.

The project is funded through the Research Culture Catalyst Fund, which was launched by InFrame to support small but impactful initiatives focused on inclusivity, leadership, and collegial values. The Culture Catalyst Fund is a £1M initiative aimed at improving research leadership and culture through innovative, collaborative projects that explore how research is led and the contributions of those involved in leadership.

InFrame itself is a major research culture initiative, bringing together the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and St Andrews through a £3M award from Wellcome. The aim is to build a new framework for inclusive research leadership, expand how leadership is defined, and strengthen research culture across the institutions.

GRID explores the challenges, techniques, and skills relevant to interdisciplinary research (IDR) and aims to bring these to research teams through a collaborative board game. Working with interdisciplinary researchers, students, technicians, and research support staff across the three universities, we will co-design a game that translates IDR challenges and solutions into practical, actionable game elements.

To gather diverse perspectives on the matter of IDR and to widen our reach and impact, GRID has partnered with Health Data Science UK (HDR UK) and UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI). The project is also part of the University of Edinburgh ‘Gamification and Systems Thinking Lab‘ and the University of Glasgow ‘Games and Gaming Lab‘, and is done in collaboration with the ‘Healthier Science through Collaboration’ (HxC) project.

About the Project Structure

The GRID project was developed in three phases:

Phase 1 – Co-Design

Two workshops were carried out with ‘interdisciplinarians’ from across the three universities. Workshop 1: Mapping Interdisciplinary Research Issues and Game Design kickstarted the project on 27th June 2025. This was hosted by the University of Edinburgh and participants engaged in a variety of activities exploring interdisciplinary research challenges and the types of skills and good practices that can help navigate them. These were mapped on various game elements and through ideation activities participants designed potential game settings, characters, objectives, and mechanics for the game. Findings and material collected from the workshop was then used by the GRID team to develop a game prototype.

In Workshop 2: Game Refinement, which took place on 29th August 2025 at the University of Glasgow, participants tested and refined the game. Everything from game mechanics, to discussion topics, and learning outcomes was explored and incorporated into the final test version of the game.

The game was tested with real-life working teams from HDR UK, UK DRI, and the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Surveys and interviews were carried out to assess its effectiveness and potential to improve collegiality, communication, and knowledge-sharing. Game testing was done in collaboration with:

Healthier Science through Collaboration (HxC) – Funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council and led by Chris Ponting (University of Edinburgh), this project explores barriers and enablers in interdisciplinary collaboration in biomedical data science.

Failure Modes of Engineering (FeME) – Funded by the EPSRC Tomorrow’s Engineering Challenges Network Plus and led by Encarni Medina-Lopez (University of Edinburgh), this network addresses the unequal impact of climate change on women, children, and underrepresented communities, through improved engineering approaches.

DiveIn – The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Diversity-Led, Mission-Driven Research – Centre for doctoral training at the University of Glasgow, focused on bringing together diverse teams to tackle interdisciplinary, mission-driven challenges at the forefront of research.

TransiT Research Hub – Focused on decarbonising UK transport using digital twinning technologies, TransiT is led by Prof. Philip Greening (Heriot-Watt University) and David Flynn (University of Glasgow).

Phase 3 – Evaluation and Launch

After playtesting the project team analysed finding and evaluated the GRID game’s potential to create a research culture change. The project’s final Workshop 3: Game Launch Event took place on 1st May at the University of St Andrews. Participants had the opportunity to play the game and learn about the project findings. We also explored ways to promote the game throughout different project networks and platforms. The GRID game materials will also be made available on the websites of our partners HDR UK and UK DRI.

Project Information and Participation Documents

This project has obtained ethical approval (EA19078) through the ethics committee board established for the InFrame Project, adhering to the research ethics principles set by the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews. Documentation about what is involved in project participation and the participant consent form are available below.

©GRID-project

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