FORTITUDE

Funding programme

Horizon 2020 – European Research Council (ERC)

Project reference

818457

Period

2019–2025

Coordinating organisation

University of Sheffield

Participating countries

United Kingdom

Official project website

Visit official website

FORTITUDE (Project Fortitude: Improving Children’s Legal Capability) aimed to strengthen children’s and young people’s ability to understand, recognise and respond effectively to legal and rights-related issues encountered in everyday life.

The project focused on developing legal capability, understood as a combination of knowledge, practical skills and confidence that enables children to recognise problematic situations, seek appropriate support and take action to protect their rights.

Its educational approach places children’s lived experiences at the centre of learning, introducing legal concepts through familiar situations before addressing abstract laws, legal institutions and international rights instruments.

Specific learning objectives

• Children’s rights awareness: Understand that children have rights recognised under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
• Legal knowledge: Develop an understanding of how laws and children’s rights apply to everyday situations.
• Problem recognition: Identify situations involving potential harm, unfair treatment or violations of children’s rights.
• Help-seeking: Recognise appropriate sources of support, including trusted adults and relevant organisations.
• Appropriate action: Identify effective responses when encountering legal or rights-related difficulties.
• Escalation: Understand when and how to seek additional assistance if an initial attempt to resolve a problem is unsuccessful.
• Decision-making: Consider alternative responses to realistic situations and evaluate their potential consequences.
• Personal safety: Develop awareness of rights and protective actions in situations involving bullying, neglect, abuse or other forms of harm.
• Digital rights and safety: Recognise problematic situations involving online communication, cyberbullying and digital interactions.
• Consumer awareness: Introduce basic rights and responsibilities associated with everyday purchases and consumer transactions.
• Freedom of expression and participation: Understand children’s right to express their views and have those views considered in matters affecting them.
• Communication and advocacy: Practise explaining concerns, asking questions and advocating for one’s own rights or those of others.
• Legal institutions: Gradually develop awareness of legal rules, their sources and the institutions responsible for their application.
• Self-efficacy: Strengthen children’s belief in their ability to respond effectively when facing difficult situations.
• Collective efficacy: Encourage confidence in working with others to address shared problems and defend rights.
• Autonomy: Support informed and age-appropriate decision-making.
• Transfer of learning: Encourage children to apply knowledge and skills acquired in game scenarios to new situations.
• Inclusive legal education: Develop accessible learning opportunities for children of different ages and abilities.

Children’s Legal Capability Framework

FORTITUDE developed a theoretical framework organised into three progressive levels:

1. Baseline legal capability: Recognising problems, understanding relevant rights, identifying appropriate support and seeking help.
2. Intermediate legal capability: Understanding how domestic law applies to particular situations, recognising possible consequences and identifying suitable remedies.
3. Advanced legal capability: Understanding legal institutions and sources of law, applying legal principles to unfamiliar situations and critically considering the relationship between law and children’s rights.

Knowledge, skills and confidence constitute the principal dimensions of the framework.

The project operationalised these objectives through the original educational game Law Yeah!, developed in physical board-game and digital formats.

FORTITUDE developed an original educational game called Law Yeah!, available in two distinct formats: a physical board game and a complementary digital game.

Both formats were developed through collaboration between the research team, children and young people, and the professional game developer Four Agency.

The games address children’s legal capability through realistic situations involving legal rights, personal safety, decision-making and help-seeking.

1. Law Yeah! – Physical Board Game

The physical version of Law Yeah! is an educational board and card game designed for children aged seven years and above.

Its central premise is that players develop legal knowledge and practical skills to become advocates capable of identifying problematic situations and responding appropriately.

The game uses a physical board, question cards, event cards and reward tokens to encourage active learning about children’s rights and everyday legal issues.

Documented game characteristics

• Game type: Custom-designed educational board game.
• Age range: Seven years and above.
• Difficulty levels: Trainee and Expert.
• Educational theme: Children’s rights, legal capability, help-seeking and advocacy.
• Main game materials: Physical board, Knowledge Cards, Skills Cards, Wild Cards and reward tokens.
• Primary objective: Develop the knowledge and skills required to act as an advocate in everyday rights-related situations.
• Victory condition: The first player to collect four reward tokens wins.
• Player count: Not independently established from the publicly available report.
• Playing time: Not independently established.
• Availability: Physical copies can be requested from the University of Sheffield; no direct public download of the complete board-game kit has been verified.

Main game mechanics

1. Board progression: Players move through a physical board containing spaces associated with different types of challenges.
2. Knowledge challenges: Players answer questions about children’s rights, legal concepts and the UNCRC.
3. Scenario-based decision-making: Skills Cards present practical situations requiring players to identify appropriate responses.
4. Differentiated difficulty: Trainee and Expert cards provide different levels of challenge.
5. Reward collection: Correctly answering Skills Card questions allows players to collect tokens.
6. Competitive objective: Players compete to become the first to obtain four tokens.
7. Random events: Wild Cards introduce consequences such as additional turns, missed turns, movement penalties or extra questions.
8. Collective challenges: Special All Play cards encourage participants to discuss situations and formulate responses together.
9. Advocacy practice: Participants practise expressing concerns, requesting information and presenting arguments in situations involving children’s rights.

Knowledge and Skills Cards

The game distinguishes between factual knowledge and the practical application of children’s rights.

Knowledge Cards introduce concepts such as the existence of the UNCRC and the legal protections available to children.

Skills Cards present situations encountered in everyday life and ask players to identify appropriate actions.

The research team designed two sets of cards, Trainee and Expert, allowing the educational content to accommodate different levels of prior knowledge and reading ability.

Wild Cards and collective interaction

Wild Cards introduce uncertainty and variety into gameplay.

Some cards provide immediate rewards or penalties, while others require players to complete an additional challenge.

The game also includes six special All Play cards designed to encourage discussion and advocacy.

These collaborative activities involve scenarios such as responding to a police officer’s request for information or discussing a community decision affecting children’s right to play.

Participants must formulate appropriate responses individually, in pairs or collectively before continuing the game.

Accessibility considerations

The physical game requires substantial reading, which may present difficulties for younger children or participants with additional learning needs.

During development sessions, players sometimes appointed a Question Master to read the cards aloud.

Teachers and researchers also occasionally assumed this role, reducing the reading demands placed on individual participants.

2. Law Yeah! – Digital Game

The complementary digital version is a browser-based educational game designed for children and young people aged approximately three to fifteen years.

It uses familiar situations involving children’s rights and legal problems to encourage recognition, decision-making and appropriate help-seeking.

Documented characteristics:

• Format: Browser-based interactive educational game.
• Game structure: Seven levels containing 21 scenarios.
• Educational approach: Scenario-based learning with decisions and feedback.
• Game character: Advocat, a cat who provides guidance about rights and legal issues.
• Learning progression: Increasing complexity across successive levels.
• Additional activities: A Legal Training Ground with additional questions and interactive challenges.
• Accessibility: Audio narration supports users who have difficulty reading.
• Availability: The project identifies a public web application at www.law-yeah.com.

The digital game was the primary intervention examined in the project’s controlled evaluation.

Distinction between game formats

Although both formats address the same overall educational objectives, they are not mechanically identical.

The physical board game combines competitive token collection, Knowledge and Skills Cards, Wild Cards and collective advocacy activities.

The digital game places greater emphasis on interactive scenario progression, choices and feedback.

Consequently, the learning outcomes demonstrated through the digital evaluation should not be automatically attributed to the physical board game.

Game approach

The appropriate classification is Custom-Designed Educational Games.

Both versions were developed specifically for FORTITUDE rather than adapted from existing commercial board games.

FORTITUDE adopted a participatory, research-informed Game-Based Learning methodology designed to develop children’s legal capability through realistic everyday scenarios.

The project combined action research, child-centred educational design, serious game development and the evaluation of legal knowledge, practical skills and confidence.

A distinctive feature of its methodology is the decision to introduce legal learning through children’s lived experiences before presenting general legal principles and institutions.

Pedagogical foundations

• Child-centred learning: Educational content is organised around the situations, concerns and experiences of children rather than exclusively around formal legal knowledge.
• Participatory action research: Children contribute actively to identifying educational needs, developing scenarios and evaluating game designs.
• Scenario-based learning: Legal concepts are introduced through concrete situations that participants may encounter in everyday life.
• Experiential learning: Participants consider possible responses to problems and explore their implications through game activities.
• Applied legal education: The methodology prioritises recognising rights-related problems and deciding what to do before learning abstract legal terminology.
• Decision-making: Players consider alternative responses to difficult situations and receive feedback or engage in discussion.
• Social learning: Physical gameplay creates opportunities for peer discussion, collective reasoning and advocacy activities.
• Inclusive education: Different game formats and difficulty levels are intended to accommodate a wide range of ages and abilities.

Participatory game development

The project followed a progressive development process:

1. Initial research with children: Children participated in mapping and storytelling activities to identify locations and situations relevant to their everyday lives.
2. Scenario identification: Researchers examined children’s accounts to identify rights-related and legal problems that could provide the basis for educational activities.
3. Scenario prioritisation: Diamond-ranking activities helped determine which situations children considered especially relevant.
4. Storyboarding: Children contributed ideas about how situations, characters and possible responses could be represented within the game.
5. Professional game development: Four Agency collaborated with the researchers to translate educational content into playable game formats.
6. Child advisory boards: Children and young people reviewed educational content, design decisions and game prototypes.
7. Board-game development: Additional advisory groups consisting of children’s rights ambassadors contributed to the physical game.
8. Prototype testing: Children and researchers tested successive versions and provided feedback.
9. Game refinement: Content, presentation and interaction were modified in response to testing and research findings.
10. School implementation: The resulting games were introduced in educational settings and public demonstration activities.

Board Game-Based Learning process

The physical game integrates several complementary educational processes:

1. Preparation: Players select or are assigned an appropriate difficulty level and become familiar with the game’s rules and components.
2. Knowledge development: Knowledge Cards introduce relevant legal concepts and children’s rights.
3. Applied problem-solving: Skills Cards require players to identify appropriate responses to realistic situations.
4. Reinforcement: Reward tokens recognise successful responses to practical challenges.
5. Uncertainty and variation: Wild Cards introduce random consequences that affect progression.
6. Collective advocacy: All Play cards create opportunities for discussion and the formulation of shared responses.
7. Continued progression: Players continue until the competitive victory condition is achieved.

Role of the facilitator

The physical game can be supported by teachers, youth workers or other adults, particularly when participants require help with reading or understanding instructions.

During development activities, a Question Master was sometimes appointed to read cards aloud and support gameplay.

The research team also developed both games to contain their own educational content, reducing the need for specialist legal knowledge among teachers.

However, the project’s assertion that the games require little teacher preparation should not be interpreted as evidence that facilitation has no educational value.

Adult support may be particularly important when participants discuss sensitive subjects such as bullying, abuse, neglect or unsafe situations.

Reflection and learning transfer

Law Yeah! connects practical scenarios with children’s rights and appropriate responses.

The physical game’s collective advocacy cards explicitly encourage discussion of what participants might say or do in particular situations.

Nevertheless, the publicly available materials do not establish a standardised post-game debriefing protocol for the physical game.

Structured reflection could strengthen the connection between game experiences and participants’ ability to identify and address similar situations outside the educational setting.

Transferability

The methodology provides a potentially transferable framework for developing educational games addressing rights, citizenship, safeguarding and social inclusion.

However, its legal examples were developed primarily for the legal context of England.

Adaptation to other countries would therefore require reviewing the applicable domestic laws, relevant support services and institutional procedures.

FORTITUDE was implemented between May 2019 and May 2025 as a research project funded by the European Research Council under Horizon 2020.

The project was led by Professor Dawn Watkins and involved interdisciplinary collaboration between legal scholars, psychologists, game developers and children.

Participating organisations

• University of Sheffield (United Kingdom): Project coordination during the final implementation period, legal capability research, educational game development and evaluation.
• University of Leicester (United Kingdom): Original institutional base during the first stage of the project.
• Nottingham Trent University (United Kingdom): Research collaboration in psychology, assessment design and evaluation.
• Four Agency (United Kingdom): Professional development of the physical and digital Law Yeah! games.

Implementation stages

1. Research launch, 2019: Initial research with children to identify everyday situations involving legal rights, personal safety and help-seeking.
2. Initial child participation, 2019–2020: More than 100 children contributed through mapping, storytelling and related research activities.
3. Research suspension, December 2020: The project was temporarily suspended following the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. Restart, January 2022: Research activities resumed, with the project relocating to the University of Sheffield.
5. Additional participatory research: More than 350 children participated in activities involving scenario ranking, character development and storyboarding.
6. Legal capability framework: The research team developed a framework defining knowledge, skills and confidence across progressive levels of legal capability.
7. Digital game development: The team worked with Four Agency to produce and test the digital version of Law Yeah!.
8. Educational evaluation, 2024–2025: Schools participated in a controlled evaluation of the digital game.
9. Physical board-game development: The consortium designed the physical version using feedback from child advisory boards and children’s rights ambassadors.
10. School gameplay and dissemination: The project reported large-scale gameplay activities involving approximately 250 primary school pupils and 300 secondary school pupils.
11. Public demonstration, May 2025: Children demonstrated both the digital and physical games at the University of Sheffield.
12. Final reporting, 2025: The research team documented the game’s development, implementation, evaluation findings and future research priorities.

Evaluation of the digital game

The project conducted a controlled pretest-posttest evaluation using a randomised design informed by realist evaluation principles.

The evaluation examined whether repeated gameplay improved children’s legal knowledge, practical skills and confidence.

Study design

• Educational setting: Primary and secondary schools in England.
• Evaluation period: December 2024 to February 2025.
• Participating schools: Six schools.
• Consented participants: 419 children across the participating schools.
• Intervention duration: Six weeks.
• Study design: Controlled pretest-posttest evaluation with randomised allocation.
• Control condition: Participants followed their usual school curriculum before subsequently gaining access to the game.

Digital gameplay conditions

The evaluation compared three implementation contexts:

1. Teacher-led school gameplay: The digital game was presented on an interactive whiteboard during group sessions directed by a teacher.
2. Independent school gameplay: Children played on tablets, laptops or computers without direct adult guidance.
3. Independent home gameplay: Children played the digital game on their own devices at home.

The intervention was compared against a business-as-usual control condition.

Assessment instruments

The research team developed three complementary measures:

• Legal knowledge: A multiple-choice test addressing rights and legal concepts, with different versions for primary and secondary pupils.
• Legal skills: A situational judgement test examining children’s ability to recognise problems and select appropriate responses.
• Confidence: The Children’s Rights Confidence Questionnaire (CRCQ), a psychometric measure addressing self-efficacy, collective efficacy and self-determination.

Results among primary school pupils aged 7–11 years

The final evaluation reported statistically significant improvements in legal knowledge and practical skills among children who played the digital game in school compared with control participants.

• Legal knowledge: Significant improvement in the intervention group (reported p < .001).
• Practical legal skills: Significant improvement in the intervention group (reported p = .0006).
• Confidence: A modest increase was observed, but the difference compared with the control group was not statistically significant.

Influence of implementation context

Teacher-led digital gameplay on an interactive whiteboard produced the strongest reported improvements in legal knowledge.

Independent digital gameplay on school devices produced the strongest reported improvements in practical legal skills.

Independent gameplay at home did not produce statistically significant improvements in the evaluated outcomes.

These findings suggest that educational context and implementation procedures can influence the outcomes of digital game-based learning.

Evaluation with younger children

A separate qualitative multiple-case study explored digital gameplay among children aged three to six years, including participants with additional learning needs.

Most participants showed some improvement in at least one assessed area, particularly recognising problematic situations or identifying appropriate help.

However, the evidence for improvements in practical skills and confidence was less consistent.

Secondary school evaluation

Recruitment and participation difficulties substantially reduced the number of complete pretest-posttest responses among secondary pupils.

Only approximately 26 participants completed both assessments, preventing a robust inferential evaluation for this age group.

Descriptive analyses suggested possible improvements in skills and confidence, but these findings were considered inconclusive.

Evaluation of the physical board game

The physical game was developed and tested with children, and the project documents its use in educational and public demonstration activities.

However, the controlled evaluation described above specifically examined the digital game.

No equivalent controlled study demonstrating improvements in legal knowledge, skills or confidence attributable to the physical board game has been identified.

Consequently, the digital results should not be presented as evidence of the physical board game’s effectiveness.

Methodological limitations

• Reduced evaluation sample: Recruitment difficulties prevented the research team from achieving its original target of 1,800 participants.
• Incomplete assessments: Technical and organisational problems reduced the number of children completing both pretests and posttests.
• Modified statistical analysis: The planned multilevel analysis was replaced by analysis of covariance because the required sample size was not achieved.
• Limited secondary school evidence: Too few complete responses were available for robust inferential analysis.
• Limited confidence effects: The evaluation did not establish statistically significant improvements in confidence.
• Context dependence: Outcomes differed between teacher-led school sessions, independent school gameplay and home gameplay.
• No controlled board-game evaluation: The physical version has not been evaluated through an equivalent controlled design.
• Long-term impact: Evidence of sustained improvements in actual help-seeking behaviour or protection from harm remains limited.

Overall evaluation status

FORTITUDE provides substantial evidence of participatory game development and school-based implementation.

Its digital game has been examined through a controlled evaluation reporting improvements in legal knowledge and practical skills among primary school pupils.

The physical board game is documented and has been used in educational contexts, but its specific educational effectiveness remains to be established.

FORTITUDE produced research and educational resources designed to strengthen children’s legal capability through practical learning experiences.

Its outputs include a physical educational board game, a complementary digital game, a theoretical legal capability framework, assessment instruments and research publications.

1. Law Yeah! – Physical Board Game

The main Board Game-Based Learning resource is a custom-designed educational board game for children aged seven years and above.

The game includes a physical board, Knowledge Cards, Skills Cards, Wild Cards and reward tokens, with Trainee and Expert difficulty levels.

The University of Sheffield confirms that a limited number of physical copies are available for educational use.

However, a complete downloadable print-and-play package and full public rulebook have not been identified.

Access: Interested educators and researchers should contact Professor Dawn Watkins at d.watkins@sheffield.ac.uk to enquire about obtaining the game or adapting its materials.

FORTITUDE – Official Project and Board Game Information

2. Law Yeah! – Digital Educational Game

The project’s complementary digital game provides scenario-based learning activities for children and young people.

It includes seven levels, 21 everyday legal scenarios, interactive decisions, feedback and a Legal Training Ground.

The game is presented as a free browser-based educational resource.

Law Yeah! – Digital Educational Game

3. Project Fortitude – Final Report

The research team published a comprehensive final report describing the project’s theoretical foundations, participatory methodology, game development and evaluation.

Of particular relevance to Board Game-Based Learning is Section 2.5, which describes the physical board game’s design, premise, card types, difficulty levels and accessibility considerations.

Section 4 presents the methodology and results of the digital game’s evaluation.

Project Fortitude: Final Report (2025, PDF)

4. Children’s Legal Capability Framework

The project developed a theoretical framework identifying baseline, intermediate and advanced levels of children’s legal capability.

The framework defines learning objectives related to knowledge, skills and confidence, with particular emphasis on recognising problems, seeking help and taking appropriate action.

The framework is described in the final project report and in a peer-reviewed article.

A Framework for Developing Children’s Legal Capability – Legal Studies (2025)

5. Gamified Assessment Instruments

The research team developed assessment tools to examine different dimensions of legal capability:

• Legal knowledge multiple-choice questionnaires.
• Scenario-based situational judgement tests.
• Children’s Rights Confidence Questionnaire (CRCQ).

The instruments were developed through participatory research involving children, psychologists and legal experts.

The final project report describes their development and evaluation use. The 2026 publication on participatory assessment design provides additional methodological information.

Children as Experts in Research and Assessment Design (2026)

6. Evaluation Protocol

The digital game evaluation was preregistered through the Open Science Framework.

The protocol describes the controlled study and its realist evaluation approach.

FORTITUDE – Evaluation Preregistration (Open Science Framework)

7. Scientific Publication on Early Childhood Learning

The project also produced a 2026 peer-reviewed article examining the digital game’s educational potential for children aged three to six years.

The study used a qualitative multiple-case design to investigate changes in children’s recognition of rights-related problems and appropriate support.

A Multiple Case-study Exploration of a Digital Game-Based Legal Capability Intervention (2026)

Resource accessibility and licensing

The University of Sheffield maintains an accessible institutional project page and a publicly available final research report.

The project also provides access information for the digital game and physical board game.

However, the complete physical board-game files are not currently available as a verified public download.

Although the research team intends to support adaptation through free licensing, the availability of a complete openly licensed board-game package has not been independently confirmed.

Educational reuse should therefore distinguish between resources that are directly accessible and physical materials that must be requested from the research team.

FORTITUDE is a valuable case for the European Board Game-Based Learning Observatory because it combines children’s rights education, participatory game design and an explicit framework connecting educational objectives with practical decision-making.

Its main methodological contribution lies in placing children’s lived experiences at the centre of educational game development, rather than beginning with abstract legal concepts.

The project also offers an opportunity to compare the educational possibilities and limitations of two formats developed from the same overarching educational objectives: a physical board game and a digital scenario-based game.

Methodological strengths

1. Original physical educational game: Law Yeah! was developed specifically for the project and includes a documented board, card system and competitive objective.
2. Participatory co-design: Children contributed directly to identifying relevant situations, designing scenarios and evaluating game content.
3. Experience-centred learning: The educational methodology begins with situations children may encounter in everyday life before introducing abstract legal concepts.
4. Competence-based framework: The project distinguishes legal knowledge, practical skills and confidence as separate dimensions of legal capability.
5. Applied decision-making: Skills Cards require participants to consider appropriate responses to situations involving rights, personal safety and access to support.
6. Progressive difficulty: Trainee and Expert cards provide different levels of challenge and allow the activity to accommodate variations in prior knowledge.
7. Collective advocacy: All Play cards encourage discussion, communication and the formulation of responses to shared problems.
8. Explicit game mechanics: Reward tokens, competitive progression and Wild Cards provide identifiable ludic structures beyond the mere presentation of educational questions.
9. Child safeguarding relevance: The game addresses situations where recognising a problem and seeking appropriate assistance may have practical consequences for children’s well-being.
10. Research-informed development: The game was designed through interdisciplinary collaboration involving legal scholars, psychologists and professional game developers.
11. Documented implementation: The project provides evidence of school-based gameplay, prototype testing and public demonstration of the physical game.
12. Experimental research: The controlled evaluation of the complementary digital game demonstrates a commitment to assessing learning outcomes beyond enjoyment or participant satisfaction.

Methodological limitations and considerations

1. Predominance of question-based gameplay: The physical game relies substantially on Knowledge and Skills Cards, with progression and rewards linked to answering questions correctly.
2. Partial integration of content and mechanics: Some Wild Cards introduce conventional movement bonuses or penalties whose relationship with legal capability may be primarily illustrative rather than mechanically necessary.
3. Competition versus advocacy: The game’s victory condition rewards collecting tokens, whereas its educational aims emphasise recognising problems, seeking support and advocating for rights. These objectives are related but not identical.
4. Reading demands: The physical version requires considerable reading, which can limit accessibility for younger children or participants with additional learning needs.
5. Facilitator dependence: Sensitive scenarios involving abuse, bullying or neglect may require appropriate adult support and safeguarding procedures.
6. Legal context specificity: Much of the content reflects the law and institutional arrangements of England and would require adaptation for other national contexts.
7. Limited access to physical materials: The complete physical game package is not currently available through a verified public download, reducing immediate replicability.
8. Limited physical-game evaluation: Evidence from the digital controlled evaluation cannot establish the physical game’s effectiveness.
9. Uncertain long-term effects: Improvements in knowledge or responses to hypothetical situations do not necessarily demonstrate changes in children’s real-world help-seeking behaviour.

Connection with modern Board Game-Based Learning

FORTITUDE belongs to the category of custom-designed educational games rather than the adaptation of existing commercial board games.

Its physical game combines familiar tabletop mechanisms, including question cards, random events, rewards, competition and occasional collaborative challenges.

From a game-design perspective, an important distinction can be made between mechanics that directly simulate the competence being developed and mechanics that primarily provide motivation or structure.

For example, the All Play advocacy cards require players to formulate responses to rights-related situations. In this case, the activity itself closely resembles the communication and advocacy competence being developed.

By contrast, receiving an extra turn or returning to the starting space following a Wild Card is a conventional board-game mechanism whose relationship with legal capability is less direct.

This distinction is relevant when evaluating how deeply educational objectives are integrated into a game’s mechanics.

Physical versus digital learning

The project also raises an important methodological question concerning the transferability of findings between different game formats.

The digital game was evaluated through controlled school-based research and demonstrated improvements in legal knowledge and practical skills among primary school pupils.

However, the physical game employs a different interaction structure, including tabletop competition, card-based challenges and collective advocacy activities.

Although both formats share educational objectives, their effects may differ because of variations in social interaction, pacing, feedback, facilitator involvement and participant autonomy.

Therefore, evidence supporting the effectiveness of the digital version should not be treated as equivalent evidence for the physical game.

Implications for future BGBL research

FORTITUDE suggests several methodological priorities for future educational board-game initiatives:

• Involve target learners in identifying authentic situations and educational needs before designing game mechanics.
• Establish explicit relationships between game activities and specific learning outcomes.
• Distinguish factual knowledge from the ability to make effective decisions in realistic situations.
• Use differentiated difficulty and accessible facilitation strategies for heterogeneous groups.
• Evaluate physical and digital versions separately rather than assuming equivalent educational effects.
• Investigate whether social discussion and collective problem-solving provide additional learning benefits.
• Develop structured debriefing and safeguarding procedures for sensitive educational topics.
• Assess knowledge, skills and confidence using instruments appropriate to each construct.
• Measure whether learning transfers from hypothetical game scenarios to real-world decisions and behaviours.
• Ensure long-term access to game materials, rules and licensing information to facilitate independent educational replication.

Overall assessment

FORTITUDE represents a substantial example of research-informed educational game development for children’s rights and legal capability.

Its strongest contributions are its participatory child-centred methodology, explicit legal capability framework, clearly documented physical game mechanics and controlled evaluation of the complementary digital game.

The physical board game is an established project output with documented educational use, but its complete public materials and specific effectiveness evidence remain limited.

For the European BGBL Observatory, FORTITUDE is particularly relevant as a case study of child participation in educational game design, the integration of practical decision-making into tabletop activities and the methodological distinction between physical and digital game-based learning.