'Human powered' game
Game design
Level design
Pitch
Narrative design
Oktober - November 2019 schoolproject (3 weeks), concept
Client: IMPAKT festival
The goal of this project was to design an experience that would create awareness about the amount of CO2 the use of internet and digital products produces.
After doing some research we found out that the easiest way to save electricity (and thus CO2) while gaming is tuning down the graphics. A very simple thing that everyone can do.
To get this message across we designed an installation in which the player has to cycle to change the graphics of the game. The faster the wheel spins, the better the graphics. The bike is the controller of the game. While playing the player solves simple puzzles by making the graphics look better or worse.
For this project I did some research and made the game/installation design. I mostly worked on the total concept presentation, level design and narrative of the game.
one-page design
Illustrations by Inge Praat
Controls
Narrative and level designs
Illustrations by Inge PraatTop row: levels in high graphics
Bottom row: levels in low graphics
The story of this game is told using environmental storytelling. The player starts in a place with a lot of nature and later ends up in the city, here the pollution is not so visible yet. Then the player gets to the top of the roofs of the city and sees pollution everywhere, at the end of this level the player enters the most polluting building in sight. In the last level this turns out to be a data center, at the end of this level a message is displayed about the power use of data centers and pollution that their daily internet use produces.
Concept art
By Tim van Galen