Parties, platforms, campaigns, elections — a working government built from the ground up on a brand-new planet.
Drop it into a political science course as a hands-on unit, not a hypothetical — Galactivote was built at Mizzou and funded by an internal Student Success Grant to make government concepts actually stick.
A New Planet. A Real Government.
Students become the first settlers of a new planet with no government yet — and the job of bringing order to the planet falls on their shoulders alone. They form parties, write platforms, run campaigns against their own classmates, and hold real elections, watching the system they built actually decide who has a voice and who doesn’t. The abstract parts of a government that are hard to understand from lectures and textbooks turn into choices and consequences, because the planet only runs if they actually work.
Government stops being a collection of ideas and becomes the only thing keeping the planet running.
Platform
Audience
Undergraduate Political Science Students
Genre
Simulation
Content
Government
It’s already working — bring it to your class.
Galactivote isn’t something you pick up on your own — we build it alongside the departments and instructors who run it. It’s already been used in political science courses at Mizzou, with students forming parties and holding elections of their own. Interested in bringing it to your course? Reach out and we’ll talk about what that looks like.
Partner with UsStatus: In Active Use & Optimizing
Galactivote is in active use, with classes returning to it to build a new government from scratch each time. We’re constantly taking real feedback from student experiences and releasing improvements to optimize for better student outcomes.
View Developer RoadmapSupported by
Galactivote is funded by Mizzou’s Internal Student Success Grant
Meet the Devs
Somebody on this team can talk electoral systems and party platforms as comfortably as they can talk game balance. Here’s the crew who’s bringing Galactivote into the future.
Victoria Mondelli
Class
Title
Director of the MU Teaching for Learning Center & Assistant Teaching Professor
Past Missions
Snake Oil
Power-Up
Peanut M&Ms
Sidekick
Gandolf the Gray (aka Gigi), robotic cat
Dr. Victoria (Tori) Mondelli is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, and affiliated faculty in the History Department at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She serves as the Director of the University’s Teaching for Learning Center to further empower educators to grow their effective and inclusive teaching practices. She promotes innovative active-learning through the scholarly application of serious games and playful exercises. Her latest co-authored book, The Educator’s Guide to Designing Games and Creative Active Learning Exercises: The Allure of Play, is published by Teachers College Press, 2023.
Hillary Gould
Class
Title
Designer
Past Missions
Legend of Zelda, God of War, The Last of Us, Skyrim, Celeste
Power-Ups
Reese’s and Diet Coke
Sidekick
Libby & Dora (Cats)
Hillary Gould is pursuing her PhD in Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. Hillary’s research interests include game-based learning, attitudes and perceptions about video games in the classroom, serious games & simulation design, and cultivating stealth learning opportunities using existing digital games. Hillary’s area of focus is digital game-based learning, specifically designing serious games. She is currently working on projects applying game-based learning to an introductory American Government course and designing a digital game to teach middle school students the importance of investigating information (teaching media literacy and digital citizenship). Hillary received her Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering with an Emphasis in Logistics from the University of Arkansas in 2012. She is a former small business owner and engineering consultant. Hillary also obtained her Master of Science in Learning Technologies and Design: Online Education and Graduate Certificate in College Teaching from the University of Missouri in 2021 as well as her Graduate Certificate in Serious Games & Simulation Design in 2022.
Chris Westfall
Class
Projects
- Mission HydroSci 1.0
Title
Unity Developer
Past Missions
Tales of Symphonia, Metroid Prime Series, and Zelda Minish Cap
Power-Ups
Nutty Bars
Sidekick
Renekton (Bearded Dragon) & Ali (Alligator)
Just someone with a passion to make games while learning as many random things as possible. Was inspired to become a game developer after playing games like Metroid, Zelda, Tales RPG series, and several indie titles. Favorite subject is math and my brain is full of random formulas that are used in weird ways when making games.