Cozy River Valley: An Educational Game About Agricultural Water

The Learning Games Lab’s newest game, Cozy River Valley, immerses learners in the challenge of keeping aquifer levels healthy while managing a farm. Play the game at https://cozyrivervalley.nmsu.edu

Game description

Agricultural strategy game Cozy River Valley lets players experience the impacts of their water use decisions. Playing as a farm manager, users manage agricultural production on a farm while also meeting the water needs of the community and the environment. They make decisions about using surface water and groundwater, work with neighbors to maintain and replenish the aquifer, and plan ahead to provide water to wetlands and downstream users.

Through 60 years of game time, users witness both short- and long-term effects of their choices and confront challenges faced daily by farmers. The game includes extreme weather, market fluctuations, regional shifts in land use, water quality changes, and environmental concerns. Players see how individual and community decision-making during dry years affect water availability. Different crops have different flexibility in drought years. Some must be watered every year to survive. Others can survive with reduced water (but reduced yield), or can be left fallow if water availability for the year is low. Players can invest in technology like agrivoltaics (solar panels over crop land), soil sensors, and drip irrigation. Throughout these experiences, the player gets support by talking with neighbors and their Cooperative Extension Service agent.

The player plays as Axel (left), a young farmer. Rodrigo (right), the local Cooperative Extension Service agent, helps to guide you throughout the game.

Learning outcomes

When they play Cozy River Valley, players build conceptual understanding of water use in agriculture, and the interconnectedness of surface water, groundwater, and precipitation, and how these vary over time. Players learn that groundwater is rechargeable, but it is very difficult to keep aquifers charged, and this must be done intentionally for short and long-term success. They experience the joys and frustrations of making decisions in a community setting, where individual choices matter, but are not the only factor.

Every level of the game will challenge your ability to manage the resources of your farm and respond to changes in weather and water availability.

Using the game with students

Cozy River Valley was designed for use in undergraduate courses related to hydrology, environmental science, plant science or other water-related agricultural sciences. It has also been tested successfully with wider audiences including researchers, agricultural professionals, and high school and middle school students. Gameplay typically lasts 30 minutes, with potential for replayability. Some audiences (in our experience, hydrology students!) may take longer, if they are considering their decisions carefully. The game will save state and remain available to continue play as long as the player uses the same computer/device and browser.

Axel gets the news that he'll need to release more water downstream.

Teachers may find it helpful to assign pairs of students to play the game together, followed by reflection, discussion with the larger group, and social learning. Each playthrough of the game yields different water availability, community and climatic events, and farm outcomes. Students playing in groups often enjoy comparing experiences and discussing how their farm was impacted by specific wildcards.

Questions to spark discussion:

• What was the most challenging part of the game?

• Which crops helped the farm financially?

• Which crops helped you manage the aquifer?

• Did you install extra technology? Why or why not? 

• Which neighbor was helpful to you?

• Were you frustrated by any of the neighbors’ actions?

• Which wildcard event was funniest or most surprising?

• Which parts of the game felt true to life?

• Did anything in the game feel unrealistic?

• How did your use of surface water change as the years went by?

• How did your use of groundwater change as the years went by?

• What strategy helped you “win” the game?

• Did any of you try a strategy that you feel made the game harder? 

• What strategy would you use if you played the game again?

Winning the game requires protecting and replenishing the aquifer, in community with neighbors, to preserve it for future generations.

Cozy River Valley was created as part of the Secure Water Future project, led by the University of California, Merced, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Written by Amy Smith Muise, Instructional Designer, Department of Innovative Media Research and Extension