ROLE
Project Lead
TIME
August 2024 - ongoing
FORMAT
Educational narrative game
STATUS
Chapter One complete · continuing development

OVERVIEW

A game-based learning experience that turns the hidden mechanics and risks of large language models into a world players can enter, question, and discuss.

PROJECT WEBSITE

How can the invisible logic of an LLM become something people can play with?

TokenVerse began with a simple frustration: most explanations of large language models are either technically inaccessible or so simplified that the social risks disappear. We wanted learning to feel less like reading a manual and more like discovering the rules of an unfamiliar world.

The game uses characters, tokens, workplace metaphors, and moments of uncertainty to make concepts such as prediction, training data, model behavior, and human-AI risk tangible. The goal is not to provide one correct answer, but to give players language for asking better questions.

Diagram comparing human and AI roles in reality with their reversed roles inside TokenVerseDitto robot character
01CORE CONCEPT · TOKENVERSE REVERSES THE FAMILIAR HUMAN-AI RELATIONSHIP: THE PLAYER PERFORMS THE SYSTEM’S WORK WHILE NPCS OCCUPY THE USER ROLE.

The first chapter turns abstract AI concepts into choices with consequences.

01

ENTER THE COMPANY

Players arrive in a strange AI organization and learn its rules through characters, tasks, and environmental clues.

02

WORK AS AN AI AGENT

Interactions let players embody AI agents as they review client information and provide clients with generated content.

03

NOTICE THE RISK

The system’s apparently helpful behavior begins to reveal ambiguity, unequal consequences, and the limits of automation.

04

REFLECT TOGETHER

Prompts and discussion moments connect events in the game to players’ own experiences with generative AI.

Building a learning world through rapid prototypes and public playtests.

01

FRAME

Translated AI literacy goals into concepts that could be encountered through action rather than exposition.

02

PROTOTYPE

Built a rapid web prototype around an AI-company front desk to test the core interaction and narrative metaphor.

03

PLAYTEST

Presented TokenVerse at the Games for Change Festival and collected feedback on comprehension, pacing, curiosity, and reflection.

04

EXPAND

Completed Chapter One and began planning later chapters that deepen the world, introduce new AI risks, and respond to playtest findings.

01GAMES FOR CHANGE 2026 · A SHORT VIEW OF THE LIVE PLAYTEST, WHERE VISITORS MOVED FROM INDIVIDUAL GAMEPLAY INTO SHARED REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION.
Visitors play TokenVerse across several computers at the Games for Change Festival
02GAMES FOR CHANGE 2026 · PLAYERS MOVED BETWEEN GAMEPLAY, SHORT SURVEYS, AND CONVERSATION WHILE WE OBSERVED COMPREHENSION, PACING, AND CURIOSITY.
Play gives people a safer space to notice, question, and talk about it.
01

Chapter One

A complete first chapter now establishes the world, learning rhythm, and reflective play model.

02

Playtest evidence

Festival feedback is informing clearer onboarding, stronger pacing, and more meaningful reflection.

03

What’s next

Future chapters will extend the story across additional LLM concepts and human-AI interaction risks.

TokenVerse website previewPROJECT WEBSITE
Keep exploring.