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Climate Go's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Aesthetic / Art / Sound - How cohesive is the aesthetic? Is there a clear theme? | #15 | 4.167 | 4.167 |
| Use of Themes - how effectively or uniquely does it engage in the jam's themes? | #23 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Overall | #28 | 3.900 | 3.900 |
| Promising Idea - How interesting is the concept? Would you want to play it? | #29 | 4.083 | 4.083 |
| Well Planned Production - Is there a clear production plan? | #34 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Reasonable Scope - How reasonable is the scope for the timeline of the jam? | #43 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your concept engage in the jam's themes?
The player’s real-life actions (driving, taking public transportation, garbage classification, AC usage, etc.) will have impacts on the in-game island. The environmental damages the player causes (or prevents) will all be proportionally reflected in the climate change that happens in the game, so that the player is actually “changing the story.” And also, after the players see how their actions can impact the environment, hopefully, they will pay more attention to climate change and environment protection in the future, which means that our game has also changed the stories of our players by raising their awareness and getting them into a more eco-friendly lifestyle.
Use of Theme / Inspiration
We really like the idea of “change the story,” and that’s why we wanted to create a game where the player can actually change the story. With that idea, we were inspired to make some kind of connections between the real world and the game world. The player’s real-life actions change the story and environment of the in-game world. The in-game island experiences climate change as a result of the player’s actions.
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Comments
Intriguing idea! I'm very curious to see how you'll connect the "micro" and "macro" (how small daily actions can have larger consequences). I'm not entirely sure I fully understood the concept to be honest though -- I'm having a hard time understanding how the players' real life actions will be tracked or recorded within the game (for example, if they drink a water bottle, will they have to register it themselves in the game? Which might be hard to incentivize especially if they know it'll impact their island.) Maybe you cannot "degrade" the island but only restore it slowly over time, which might enforce a positive loop instead.
Nice idea for the jam. Well defined production timeline, though the scope seems a bit too big. I like how there is an idea for visibility of the island wrt the amount of PM.
I like the idea of the island which is simplifying the real problem of climate change, and making it managable and understandable. However, in your document you write that electric cars have zero carbon dioxide emissions which seems weird. Somehow the electricity for the car has to be generated which would generate emissions, not to mention to production of the car and its batteries. I understand that this might seem like nitpicking but after all this is a climate jam.
Your concept art looks gorgeous! I'm interested to see how players will interact with the game. I think it's a really interesting take to directly address your audience by having their real-world actions affect gameplay. Best of luck to you all!!
I personally really like the idea of how a player would be able to see how their action can impact the environment, but I do think that at this stage of climate change, a lot of people actually do know and recognize the harm in their actions, they just do not know how/why they should change their behaviors, maybe it could be good to look into how to implement that a little more?
One line from your ideation document: "Educational dialogues on fossil fuel usage with critters".
This is something my team also considered but we recognized that players probably do not want to be reading a long block of texts throughout the game so I would suggest to be mindful of that!
Overall I am excited to see how this game turns out!
I like the concept of exaggerating the impacts of an individual's actions. Today, you can drive as much as you want, throw away tons of garbage without caring of the short term consequences, because these actions have heavy long term consequences. By making them (artificially) happen sooner, the player immediately gets feedback based on their behavior. The player can then reflect on that, and understand that every action counts.
However, I would like to bring some nuance here: your game is still based on ideologies that led us to this state of the world. The goal is still to build, expand your city, add decorations (as if the world had to be shaped by us, which is truly an anthropocentric view of the world). You solve everything with money, you even buy critters, like they are in a sort of zoo, only there to serve as a decoration or object of collection. And a lot of details are omitted, like the actual cost of an electric car, which still involves some heavy industries and mining (for steel, batteries...) which highly depend on fossil fuels. And finally, it seems the game makes a focus on transportation, but it's actually not the first cause of carbon emission (which is by far energy production). Maybe all of this is made on purpose to lead the player to empty the fossil fuels reserves, which makes the gameplay change drastically ?
Maybe building a city on a desert island IS the problem, not the solution.
Thanks for the reply! I think there might be some misunderstanding about the game mechanics. The game is not about building a city, actually. It's about preserving and expanding nature on your sky island. (And you can't buy critters; they will show up once enough trees/fauna have been established) We want to reward players for positively impacting real life by not relying on fossil fuels and not engaging in any other environmentally damaging acts.
This ideation document touches on all parts of the assignment brief, and provides readers with many specific details on the project. The concept art section is of particular note in that it provides multiple examples of the game's aesthetic direction.
One note here is that the document's game mechanic core ideas section feels a little misaligned with the description listed on the brainstorming form, making it difficult for readers to track the full direction of the project. That being said, the concept art section does help clarify this.
It will also be important for this team to keep scope in mind. The document lists many great ideas and mechanics, but it is critical to hone in on a smaller subset to ensure there is enough time to complete the game.
Wishing you the best as we move forward!
Your idea looks really interesting and pretty fresh!
Interesting concept for a real-world influenced game!