We met Dr Alexander Philips, an English Professor at Ashoka University after discovering he teaches a course called Climate Fiction. He had suggestions on our game’s narrative and useful resources to share.
On the Narrative#
General Feedback#
- Make the narrative less didactic. Use the theme climate less to make it less preachy
- Capture reality of politics - immediate issues and maybe not long term (?)
- Think about how to tackle the problem of representing something as vast as the atmosphere
How do you balance between info dumping and fun?#
- You have to infodump at times
- Maybe have the player be a politician or activist?
- A smart politician would use the Factsheet (the infodump)
How do we end the game?#
- Leave with ambiguity. You become president, but at what cost?
- End with a cliffhanger. You become the president and suddenly new environmental crisis emerges.
Resources#
- Ministry For the Future
- Climate Changed – Reforms to capitalism; regulating and managing carbon; away from fossil capitalism
- Animal’s People, Indra Sinha (Based on Bhopal Gas Tragedy and Environmental Justice)
- The Unhabitable Earth (Check the Chapter on storytelling)
- State of Fear - novel
- Chasing Ice - documentary
- Age of Stupid
- Civilisation game