Professor Duke always emphasized that simulation gaming and game development are a means to communicate. Already in the 70s, Prof. Duke called simulation games (SGs) the future’s language (Duke, Simul Games 11(3):364–377, 1980b, Simul Gaming 31(1):79–85, 2000; Geurts et al., Long Range Plan 40:535–558, 2007). Today still this future’s language has an even more contemporary meaning in this increased complex and faster changing world. His sharing of experiences and theory building together with the great contributions Prof. Greenblat made especially in SG design sketched a process that would take along stakeholders to understand the whole picture around a complex issue. Their method consisted of several steps that would involve multiple long meetings involving stakeholders and elaborate design and testing before the real gameplay. Due to a mix of time pressure, increased complexity, and fast paced changes within and outside organizations, there is a need to design quicker sometimes with even more stakeholders. A participatory modelling approach allows both for organizing participatory processes and for keeping overview and systems understanding under conditions of time pressure. Stakeholders can be involved at different times depending on their availability. Game development time used to be at least half a year, now SGs are often required to deliver within a few weeks. Faster development could be at risk of losing quality, therefore we need a renewed robust SG approach aimed at both quality and support from stakeholders. In communication, it is crucial to generate a shared understanding of the challenges at hand as well as to reduce complexity while at the same time investing in surfacing underlying assumptions, norms, and ideas. From the start Duke and Greenblat understood that using visualizations and models constructed from different perspectives generates a leverage point for learning and support for change. We advanced their work by using a series of three consecutive models. We borrow from the insights from advanced modelling methods such as scenario development and group model building combined with didactical approaches. Since we build upon the work of Duke and Greenblat, we first describe the facilitation process of modelling when designing SGs with clients and stakeholders, then we show which three different models have functions in generating an accepted and multi-perspective model on which the simulation game is developed. We describe three models: (1) the General Systems Analysis Model, (2) the Actor Resources/Responsibilities and Decisions Model, and (3) the Game Model with Scenario and Process Flow. The advantage of this approach is that during the design process already so much is being learned, and simultaneously support can be gained for the implementation of the result of the simulation game. This doesn’t necessarily mean all involved have exactly the same view on the challenges, but all have an understanding of what relevant factors and issues are involved.