Build the Campus

Who it is for

Ages 12 and up (grade 7 to adult); younger players with an adult. Best fit: grades 8–12 career-tech classes, introductory construction management, and adult civic sessions such as library panels on data centers.

Learning goals

After one run, players can:

1. Put the nine phases of a construction project in order and explain why some work, like long-lead equipment, sets the pace (the critical path).
2. Weigh a choice against schedule, budget, safety and neighbor effects, and say what each option gives up.
3. Describe what a data center campus asks of a community (power, water, noise, traffic) and gives back (jobs, tax revenue), using facts rather than sides.

Running it

• Library mode. On the first screen, tick Library mode · no voice. Narration is off, all text stays on screen, and the computer remembers it for the next player.
• Class mode. Add ?mode=class to the game's web address. The game no longer starts over while players talk, and a reload keeps the game in progress. The end screen is the debrief: results against the plan, the three costliest choices and three questions, with a Print button. (Without class mode, an idle game starts over after about three minutes.)
• Full screen. Press F11 (Windows, ChromeOS) or Ctrl+Cmd+F (Mac). On a projector, the four-corner map button (presenter view) enlarges the map and text.
• Offline. Open the game once while online and a later reload works without a network. For a kiosk with no network, use the offline kiosk file (link in About).
• Siting. The basins, construction exit, substation, data hall and equipment pads are dragged or tapped onto the map. They snap to a grid and have to stay on the site, behind the setback by the homes, and (for the substation) on the utility corridor. Set it here confirms.
• Setbacks. Some phases draw an issue card for weather, a safety near-miss (nobody is hurt), a late delivery or an inspection. Each answer trades time and money.

Controls

On-screen camera buttons do the same without dragging: zoom in and out, turn left and right, and Reset view; when zoomed in, four arrow buttons move the view. Elsewhere: Tab moves between buttons, Enter or Space presses, N next step, M map effects on/off, V voice on/off.

Words to know

Critical path

the chain of tasks that sets the finish date; a delay on it delays the whole project.

Long-lead item

equipment, like a large transformer, that takes months or years to arrive, so it must be ordered early.

Silt fence and sediment basin

barriers and ponds that keep muddy rainwater on the site during earthwork.

MEP

mechanical, electrical and plumbing: the systems that power, cool and protect the building.

Switchgear

large electrical equipment that controls and protects the power feeding the building.

Commissioning

testing every system, in levels from factory checks to a planned power cut, before the owner takes over.

Megawatt (MW)

a unit of electric power; 100 MW is roughly the electricity of 84,000 homes.

Buffer and berm

the space (at least the setback) and earth mounds that screen a site from its neighbors.